Governance with Empty Pockets

The Education Sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Bibliographic Data

ID3884870
AuthorsTom De Herdt (0000-0002-5288-7446), Kristof Titeca (0000-0003-2003-2053)
Year2016
Volume47
Issue3
Pages472-494
Publication date2016-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dech.12235
OpenAlexW2340150028
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited32

The education sector has virtually disappeared from the Congolese state budget since the mid-1980s. Yet schools have both managed to survive on school fees and to reproduce the public education sector, even though complete privatization would have been a realistic option. In this article, the authors understand this engagement with the state whilst simultaneously bending its rules as a negotiation strategy for better terms of inclusion in the state system. Different state actors cultivate their 'own' practical versions of official rules. In this way, they create space to respond to parents' demand for education, to increase the number of teachers and their salaries far beyond what would otherwise have been possible, and to reproduce the system over time. One may wonder, however, whether the resilience of the sector in the face of the implosion of the state budget does not come at the price of building a more inclusive and higher quality education system

Corporate governance · Democracy · Economic growth · Economics · Face (sociological concept) · Management · Miracle · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Public sector · Quality (philosophy) · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Wonder · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · International Development and Aid · Law · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Public Administration