A five year old speaks at her pre school (“Ecole Maternelle”) graduation at Nouvelle Cite Disciples parish in Mbandaka. The new preschool education centers, begun in 2006, are seen as a way to increase the primary school graduation rate in Equateur Province. The UNICEF staff person here notes the rate is as low as two children in ten completing primary school in some areas of the province, the most under-developed in the country. This makes the Disciple emphasis on education services, begun during the mission era, even more critical in the region’s progress.
Lokoleyacongo 