Baseline Report

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), in partnership with Research Triangle Institute (RTI), the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) and the Institute of Human Development and Social Change (IHDSC) at New York University (NYU), has undertaken an initiative entitled Opportunities for Equitable Access to Quality Basic Education (OPEQ) with the purpose of enhancing learning opportunities, academic attainment and socio-emotional wellbeing for more than 480,000 girls and boys in three eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This report uses baseline data from the province of Katanga to describe children's socio-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes, and present preliminary regression analyses examining how children's characteristics relate to their socio-emotional wellbeing.Overall, our results indicate substantial variability between children, between schools and subdivisions in children's socio-emotional outcomes.

Descriptive findings from Katanga suggest that on average children perceive their schools and teachers as supportive, but that compared to other African countries improvement is needed in creating intellectually stimulating and student-centered learning environments. As suggested by our findings, children's perceptions of supportive schools and teachers are associated with lower levels of victimization and mental health problems. Also, children perceived their schools and classrooms as moderately predictable and cooperative, and there is considerable room for improvement in this dimension. Regression analyses indicated that with the exception of grade differences in conduct problems, children's personal characteristics (i.e., gender, grade, language) were not related to their socio-emotional outcomes. In terms of household characteristics, children's living conditions, and kindergarten experiences, results were mixed.