Author: Arsene Mbala

CNFSDP adopts a CFA 2bn 2026 budget in Brazzaville The National Centre for Training in Statistics, Demography and Planning (CNFSDP) convened its second steering committee meeting on 5 January in Brazzaville, closing the session with the approval of its 2026 budget. The financial plan is balanced in both revenue and expenditure at CFA 2 billion, a level presented as commensurate with the institution’s ambition to consolidate its role within the National Statistical System and to modernise its training offer. The meeting was held under the aegis of the chair of the steering committee, Gabriel Batsanga. According to the information shared…

Regulatory Green Light for 87 Percent of Applications The closing days of 2023 were marked by a significant turning point for Congo-Brazzaville’s knowledge economy. Meeting in Brazzaville on 23 December, the ninth ordinary session of the Commission d’agrément des établissements privés de l’enseignement supérieur (Caepres) delivered a favourable opinion on 29 of the 33 files before it, an approval rate of 87.87 percent. The dossiers concerned a spectrum of requests, ranging from the creation of entirely new institutions to the extension of campuses and the launch of fresh academic programmes. Observers of the capital’s educational landscape noted that the high…

A Stellar Academic Achievement On 20 December in Brazzaville, the amphitheatre of the Institut de Gestion de Développement et d’Entreprise fell silent as Emerson Massa Ekeabéka defended his master’s dissertation in Human Resources and Coaching, a programme delivered by the Université Supérieure du Commerce du Sénégal. The young Congolese scholar, who is visually impaired, obtained the remarkable mark of 18 out of 20 with the distinction “excellent”, winning unanimous praise from the examining board chaired by Dr Cyrille Ngouloubi and Dr Arsène Akouelé. Ekeabéka’s oral presentation lasted a disciplined fifteen minutes, yet it was long enough to reveal a command…

A doctoral defense that resonated beyond the lecture hall On a sun-bathed Saturday in Brazzaville, 13 December 2025, the Aula Magna of Université Marien Ngouabi turned into a forum of high intellectual voltage. Before an international panel chaired by Professor Charles Zacharie Bowao, the Reverend Father Benjamin Samanou of the Archdiocese of Pointe-Noire unveiled a 450-page dissertation that probes the very grammar of education. By unanimously conferring the coveted doctorate in philosophy of education with the highest distinction, the jury signalled that the debate on rationality in schooling has found a vigorous new Congolese voice. Habermas’s communicative reason under Congolese…

Brazzaville campuses embrace literary advocacy Last week, in one of the lecture halls of the University Libre du Congo that still retains the discreet charm of 1980s brickwork, words replaced whistles as the sharpest weapons of student mobilisation. One hundred and two undergraduates from the University Libre du Congo (ULC) and the neighbouring University Henri Lopez (UHL) converged on the capital for the maiden Inter-University Literary Competition on Gender-Based Violence, convened by the association Zéro violences en milieu scolaire et universitaire, steered by its founder, the lawyer-poet Joseline Mansounga Moumossi. The contest invited participants to sift through a recent monograph…

A Farewell Ceremony Marked by Pride and Expectation The auditorium of the Ministry of Higher Education in Brazzaville was filled with applause, embraces and flashes of cameras on 9 December, as families and officials accompanied the latest cohort of Congolese students selected for full federal scholarships in the Russian Federation. Presiding over the event, Minister Delphine Edith Emmanuel and Russian Ambassador Ilias Iskandarov mingled with parents and rectors, underscoring the human dimension of an academic journey that many described as life-changing. Enthusiasm, however, was tempered by the solemn reminder that the nation is entrusting its brightest minds with a mission…

October 2025, a month devoted to learning While most of the Republic of Congo turned its attention to the annual back-to-school season, the SNPC Foundation orchestrated an educational deployment of rare intensity. The philanthropic arm of the national oil company chose the month of October to launch the first phase of its 2025 programme, pledging to place equal opportunity at the centre of its agenda. Over a six-day period, its teams fanned out across the Kouilou department, one of the country’s most culturally diverse yet geographically dispersed regions, to deliver comprehensive school-supply kits to nine thousand pupils. A logistical marathon…

A campus stripped to bricks, a community on the move Morning light filters through the half-demolished walls of the Collège d’Enseignement Général Angola Libre, giving the once bustling courtyard an air of suspended time. In the vacant space, hundreds of adolescents linger, clutching notebooks and fragments of information. For some, the relocation notices displayed last Thursday provided a roadmap to new classrooms; for others, silence has reigned, breeding uncertainty and whispers of missed lessons. The wrecking hammers that signalled future renewal have, for now, torn a gap in the pedagogical continuum of the capital’s fifth arrondissement. The arithmetic of a…

Salary Arrears Stir Academic Standstill In the shimmering midday heat of Brazzaville, the lecture theatres of Marien-Ngouabi University—normally abuzz with more than 45 000 students—echo only the hum of ceiling fans left idling. The National Union of Higher-Education Lecturers confirmed that its members initiated a work stoppage in mid-November to press for payment of at least five months of overdue salaries (Union communiqué, 18 Nov.). Entering a third consecutive week on 1 December, the strike has crystallised a debate on how best to cushion the public university system against cyclical budget pressures. Officials at the Ministry of Public Service recognise…

A Strategic Facelift for Scientific Training The cavernous amphitheatre of the Faculty of Science and Technology, once dimly lit and battered by the passage of time, now gleams with fresh paint, modern lighting and a revitalised sound system. After several months of work financed and overseen by the Burotop Iris Foundation, the 600-seat hall was officially handed back to university authorities in Brazzaville this week. Professor Basile Bossoto, representing the dean’s office, hailed the project as “a decisive contribution to the intellectual future of our nation”, stressing that a conducive academic setting is indispensable for nurturing the next generation of…