Objective: to inquire into the progress of the work and the preliminary report of these meetings, which consist of identifying the resources allocated to the subsector of EPST (Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education), defining priority actions with a view to jointly monitoring in order to address any claims during the school year.

Taking the floor first, Mrs. Christine NEPA NEPA, the Secretary General of the EPST, outlined for the Minister the progress of the work in the subcommittees before giving the floor to the President of the meeting, Director VIMINDE, to define the purpose of these meetings.

In turn, he gave the floor to the Reporter of these works, the Trade Unionist Bruno Jibikilayi, who revisited the 7 priority actions already selected by the subcommittee. These include: Salary increase; Adjustment of the primary public school teachers' free education bonus; Payment of transposed grades; Payment of NP teachers for secondary schools and managing offices; Scheduled retirement of teachers; Mechanization of the pay supervision premium; Payment of the special function premium in favor of inspectors and premium for specific functions in favor of adjunct staff.

Finally taking the floor, the Primat of EPST recalled the bounded context of this meeting: "We are doing an internal job to know what has been granted to our ministry, such as budget allocations, for the fiscal year 2024. And with these allocations, what can we do? What actions can we decide upon together to execute and meet the various issues we have in our subsector, in a truly partnership framework. This is how all the trade unionists, I mean, the Trade Union Bench has been truly included in transparency. You know that in our sector strategy, beyond partnership, we have in the Governance axis transparent governance as well. This is a requirement for us," he pointed out before being applauded by the audience.

The Minister invited the trade unionists to a sincere dialogue, without blackmail and political manipulation.

The trade unionists applaud the Tony Mwaba approach

The trade unionists, participating in these meetings, unanimously praised the Mwaba approach, which consists of involving them upstream in the management of the credits allocated to the EPST subsector.

Summarizing the day, the Vice-President of the Bureau of these meetings, Mr. Franck Babo Bolima, indicated that these meetings are not a new framework for negotiations for new commitments with the Government, but rather a meeting between the Government and the trade union bench to identify the resources allocated to the EPST subsector, in order to decide together on their allocation according to the priority axes privileging the teacher. An initiative welcomed by all the trade unionists, he pointed out, insofar as it is a first that the supervisory body, which could do this work alone, has sought to involve the teachers through their trade unionists to reflect together on the allocation in terms of priority actions of these resources.

In clear terms, he declared:

"We have opened the meetings. We started first by validating the mandates. After that, there was the installation of the meetings bureau which has a president and a vice-president. After this work, the president of the plenary bureau directed the debate and we divided the debate into two subcommittees, the first one to identify the resources, and then to list the flagship actions in response to the trade union bench's claims. And now, to prioritize the priorities. Because, everything that is an action is a priority. But the mission was given to this subcommittee to see within the sixteen priorities, and retrieve two or three, four that will be implemented and that's what was done," he stated before specifying: "We have the credits allocated to the EPST, ‘remuneration’ component, now there is both the trade union bench and the governmental bench that will work to identify the resources, then the priority actions, and make the appreciation framework for these resources. This will mean this, as soon as we have the framework of these resources in relation to the claims, there will be no more disturbances at this stage of the debate, because we are already associated upstream," observed Babo, before expressing the trade union bench's wish to see the Government’s commitments turned into liquidation acts: "We want to ensure that from now on everything we will identify as resources can be integrated into the liquidation statements. In clear terms, we say this, instead of it still coming out of MAD and OPI. No! We want it to be integrated into the liquidation statements, within the remuneration. You will have as a consequence, every month, these actions will be paid. Because here, with the 20,000 FC of the free education bonus, we have only paid two months. There was this difficulty, because it was not integrated into the remuneration," he stated before praising the Government’s initiative: "I believe this action is praiseworthy. We thank the Government through the Minister of Primary, Secondary, and Technical Education although we are still preparing for July to come with a set of demands. At least for the fiscal year 2024, we first want to detect what we have obtained, what teachers have obtained. And this is what we will transmit in provinces and everywhere for teachers," he stated.

Commenting on what his colleague declared, the President of the EPST Trade Union Delegation, Mr. Mwange Kafay, acknowledged the progress made by the Tshisekedi regime, while asking him to once only enhance his presence at the teachers' meetings as he does for other sectors: "We have made steps. I'm 73 years old, eligible for retirement! But the message I launched to the President of the Republic, I take the opportunity here and it's our Head of State. The teacher has problems, it's true. He is resolving them. And here, he has promulgated, there is a bit of money, and let us do it. If the Ministry of Budget would not want our recommendations, our emergencies, our concerns to be taken care of, the Ministry of Budget will be solely responsible. Please, teachers are crying and we see it everywhere, but not once in our meetings has he arrived. But we would wish, and there I can kneel before the Head of State if he takes a little time, a minute, to come where the teachers who succeeded in free education, because free education is him, and in the free education, we, we are artisans, we have done it, it is there and perpetuated under the leadership of Tony Mwaba. And I'm not advertising Tony Mwaba because whoever does not accept Tony Mwaba is more than a sorcerer," he exclaimed.

Seizing the opportunity, the President of the Trade Union Delegation, Mr. Médard Mwenge Katay criticized the ignorance, the lies and the manipulation of the former Secretary General to the EPST, Mr. Jean-Marie Mangombe concerning the embezzlement of $ USD 800 Million given to the Congolese Government as budgetary support to sustain free education: "I hear people talking. Me, I know that we were there, the 800 Million should come to the account of the EPST. But the 800 Million, we do not send it to the Ministry. There are structures. It is paid into the public treasury, managed by the Ministry of Finance. To my knowledge, it's not the EPST that manages. I don't know if the Minister even has a signature in this 800 Million story. And the Minister, Oh! Well! I'm not the Minister's lawyer, but to my knowledge, I know that the World Bank story, there was a procedure. The Minister doesn't have to sign a check, to be able to take the money out of the World Bank. No. And then, the disbursement, we won't ask the question to the Minister of EPST. But there is the PERSE. It cannot be disbursed if the Government has not validated, has not authorized... And the Government goes through the Ministry of Finance," regretted Mwenge.

Gisèle Tshijuka