This case study accompanies the report The quantitative impact of armed conflict on education:
counting the human and financial costs commissioned by Protecting Education in Insecurity
and Conflict (PEIC), part of the Education Above All Foundation. It is one of three country case
studies conducted for this research. The other case study countries are Nigeria and Pakistan.
That report outlines how conflict affects education, noting ten main channels through which conflict
can impact on access to education and learning:
• School closure due to targeted attacks, collateral damage and military use of school buildings
• Death and injury to teachers and students
• Fear of sending children to school, and teachers’ fear of attending due to targeted attacks,
threats of attacks or general insecurity reducing freedom of movement
• Recruitment of teachers and students by armed forces (state and non-state)
• Forced population displacement leading to interrupted education
• Public health impacts of conflict which reduce access and learning
• Increased demand for household labour
• Reduction in returns to education
• Reduced educational expenditure (public and private) due to overall reduction in resources
and shifting priorities
• Reduced public capacity to deliver education
This case study investigates the extent to which conflict has impacted on education in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Using a variety of data sources, it considers the evidence
of the impact of conflict on education via the various channels listed above, and attempts to quantify
the impact in terms of numbers of out-of-school children (OOSC) and the financial implications of
the damage done to the education system. It should be noted that the conflict situation in DRC is
highly dynamic and that any statistic relating to the number of OOSC can only give a snapshot at one
particular point in time. Similarly the financial costs of the impact depend on the timing and length of
the period of conflict being considered. A further challenge in DRC is that data quality is often limited
and there are considerable gaps between data collection points. For these reasons the figures given
in this paper are very rough estimates, exploring the approximate range in which the ‘actual’ number,
often a highly transitory statistic, might lie.
The report firstly sets the context by outlining the conflict history. Section 3 explores the effect of
conflict on numbers of OOSC. The fourth section explores the direct costs to the education sector,
broader impacts to the sector and costs borne in the longer term as a result of schooling missed
due to conflict. The conclusion considers the relative scale of the different channels of impact,
both in terms of cost and enrolment.