INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SERVICE AND RESEARCH CURRENT TRENDS IN PRIVATE FINANCING OF PUBLIC PRIMARY EDUCATION IN CONGO BRAZZAVILLE

The study carried out on current trends in private financing of primary education in Congo Brazzaville has the main objective of verifying the financing capacity of the State and parents in the education of children in public primary school. To answer questions relating to free education and the difficulties that the Congolese experience in financing the education of children, we have retained as data collection instruments, the documentary study and the interview. We have selected a sample of five (05) schools per constituency chosen out of twenty five (25) and questioned two hundred (200) parents distributed by category according to their income. The results obtained confirm our initial hypotheses that the Congolese State is experiencing enormous difficulties in resuming the educational situation hand and free appears as a concept which does not evoke any reality with the parents, (80.5%) deny free, (19.5%) grant him a credit. The hypotheses formulated and validated allowed us to propose suggestions for solution approaches to the main education partners.


INTRODUCTION
Education is the means par excellence to train the mind of man in order to move him away from ignorance, the cause of all the evils that are rampant in the world (J. Davidson et al., 2012). It is also the means by which we contribute to strengthening the union between young people to develop them and prepare them to form a unified nation, founded on strong principles that resist passions wherever they come from (Glerum et al., 2020). Finally, it is the only means of peacefully effecting technical and political changes in society (Ali et al., 2015).
Since independence, Africa has made remarkable progress in developing human resources; but there is a worrying slowdown due mainly to economic and financial difficulties and population growth (Mamman et al., 2018). In the perspective of socioeconomic development of African States, all efforts tend to imagine the role and characteristics of an education system and a school for the present and the future (Cunningham et al., 2006). In the search for a new, more efficient and effective school, capable of meeting the challenges of our time, nothing is more fundamental and essential than its funding (Johnson & Thomas, 2012). However, the governments of developing countries, hit by an economic recession, tend to rigorously limit expenditure on education.
In our country the Congo, one of the reasons for the weakness of education in general and of primary school in particular, is unfortunately the very insufficient funding allocated to it (Titeca & De Herdt, 2011). Many observers are disappointed with the academic performance of our education system. When it comes to researching the causes of this academic deterioration, Current Trends in Private Financing of Public Primary Education in Congo Brazzaville financing, the need for which is well known, often does not hold the attention of managers and decision-makers in the system (Autesserre, 2012). Everyone agrees to recognize that for several years, the primary school no longer benefits from appropriate funding capable of ensuring its proper functioning (Ihebuzor, 2014).
The object of this research work is the study of the financing of education in general and primary school in particular, of the role played by the two major partners, the State and families. education began to grow much faster than income, when it was believed that a link had been discovered between education and economic growth, certain economists began to study the economic aspects of education and tried to demonstrate the legitimacy of such a company.
Everyone knows that, even when education is free, families must contribute in part to its financing. In 1965, when the nationalization of education occurred in our country, the Congolese themselves took the educational system (Kohli et al., 2018). This system was strongly shaken and great problems that the country had to face emerged. Despite the reaffirmation of free public education through article 1 of law 25-95 of November 17, 1995, what is the current situation? School supplies, once free, are now the responsibility of parents; The internment of children, the granting of pensions and scholarships, previously provided by the State, are phenomena on the way to extinction.
That's not all, because several facts experienced in our professional life challenge more than one parent in the face of charges deemed as restrictive, asphyxiating and exasperating. Non-payment of school fees within the time limits set by the school administration, exposes to sanctions such as the expulsion of the student from the course (Angèle et al., 2021). The child will only be able to join his class when his situation has been regularized by the parent. Only in the meantime will the child have lost time and fallen behind in class. We therefore undertake this study with the objective on the one hand, to elucidate from a comparative work of expenditure, which of the State or the private (relative), supports the most weight of the financing of the education; on the other hand, to demonstrate that, whatever their income, the Congolese today have difficulty meeting the educational needs of their children.
It is in this perspective that we ask ourselves the following questions: (1) is the Congolese public school still this institution whose education is free?, (2) what does the concept of gratuity mean in today's reality?, (3) what are the main areas of intervention by the State and parents?, (4) does the Congolese income today meet the cost of raising children?
From this questioning we drew the following working hypotheses: (1) The Congolese State is experiencing enormous difficulties in taking control of the educational situation, (2) free appears today as a concept that evokes no reality, (3) the parents of pupils finance primary education, become the principal providers of the school, and (4) parents' income no longer meets their responsibility.
The objectives of this research are: (1) check the financing capacity of the State and parents in the education of children in public primary school; (2) make decision-makers aware of the weight that weighs on the parents of pupils in the financing of education; (3) to propose alternative solutions in the sense of the alleviation of certain expenses to which the parents are compelled and with a view to an equitable sharing of the educational burden or a better distribution of the financial burden of the investment between the potential partners of the educational system.

METHOD A. Field of investigation
The school department of Brazzaville constitutes our field of study, but, for practical, economic reasons and availability of information, we have limited ourselves to the school districts of Bacongo and Makélékélé I. Indeed, that is where we were able to carry out our study. The schools and inspectorates of these two constituencies therefore constitute the target population. Source: Our survey 2020

B. Population and Sample
To carry out this study, we selected the following sample. Five schools per constituency chosen, ie ten schools out of a total of twenty five.

C. Data Collection Methods
In order to carry out our investigation, we have retained as research techniques: the documentary study and the interview (Creswell & Poth, 2016).

The documentary study
The choice of this technique is justified by the fact that our main source of data collection is constituted by the financial reports of the schools, the Inspectorates selected and the Departmental Directorate of Education of Brazzaville. a) accurately identify the main providers of the Congolese public primary school; b) compare financing according to their origin; c) determine the efforts of parents and those of the State.

The Interview
We also used interviews (Semistructured) to collect certain data and information that we could not find in the documents consulted (Moleong, 2021). Indeed, the interview was for us the means par excellence which enabled us to obtain the opinions of Current Trends in Private Financing of Public Primary Education in Congo Brazzaville the various people consulted. They therefore gave their points of view on free education, on the reasons which would have led the State to gradually disengage from certain school obligations.
Thus we spoke with some officials of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The Departmental Director of the city of Brazzaville also gave his opinion. Similarly, the Inspectors, Head of School Districts Makélékélé 1 and Bacongo, the Directors of the selected schools, spoke on the subject. Authorities from Parents' Associations, a few teachers and around twenty parents per school, or 200 parents in total, also answered our questions.
The questions to which they answered focused on free public education and on the sources of funding for the activities of school structures, their interviews, on the payment of labor related to the various works undertaken at the school and parents' ability to finance education in relation to their income. The questions were: a) do you think public education is always free? b) Is the cost of raising the child today high? not high? or is it affordable? c) does your income allow you to meet all the school requirements of your children? d) what is the state really doing for the current school? what do parents do for the school?

Data Processing
The data collected allowed us to analyze the situation. We have therefore calculated the percentages in order to make the results more understandable with regard to free education. As for the determination of the weight of the education of each partner, we proceeded to the comparison of the collected figures.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. Interview results
To answer the main question and the secondary questions relating to free public education, the current reality of the concept of free education and the difficulties experienced by the Congolese in financing the education of children, we conducted interviews with parents of students. We interviewed a sample of two hundred (200) parents, divided by category, according to their income.
Incomes were estimated from the declarations of parents with one or more incomes. We insisted on knowing the number of secure individual incomes available in a household if possible. The method is based on the declaration of the respondents. It was easier to estimate the income of a State employee by using his rank, than for people with a liberal profession. The risk of error is therefore great in this case. Thus this distribution is made as follows: The reserved attitude sometimes displayed by individuals constituted a difficulty which did not ensure the reliability of the information received. These parents were randomly interviewed Béatrice Perpétue Okua in the neighborhoods where the schools in our sample are located. Source: our survey 2020 The largest share of income comes from wages (59%); comes next that of commercial activities (24.500/0). The other sources of income taken together hardly exceed 20%. In view of these results, it can be said that the majority of parents live off wages. Wage income therefore has influence over liberal activities. It is possible that this is the result of too general training and the policy of systematic recruitment in the civil service which have long prevailed in the country. Free public education. Source: our survey 2020 From the results obtained on this question, it appears that 80,500/0 of the parents questioned no longer accept free public education. Most of them still believe in it: 19,500/0. Thus, an overwhelming majority of parents are nostalgic for the "good old days" when free education was effective.
The very high rate of questioning of free education in public schools should challenge the legislator, either to redefine the concept of free education in order to make it still operational, or to declare it obsolete. category, there is a fairly significant difference: the rate of subjects who think that free access is no longer real decreases from the lower category to the upper category (86.21%; 81.71% and 73.330/0). This phenomenon is certainly due to the difference in income: the higher the income, the less the parent feels the burden Current Trends in Private Financing of Public Primary Education in Congo Brazzaville of the cost of education. It should also be recognized that the ability to apprehend phenomena may vary according to the level of culture. Current reality of the concept of free public education according to the parents of pupils. Source: our survey 2020 This table highlights the following trends: the rate of opinion of those who think that free education today boils down to the simple payment of salaries by the State -because almost everything else is done by the parents of students -is higher (44,500/0). By category, the proportion of respondents in the middle category is higher. It is 43.31%; then comes that of the opinions of those in the lower category with 41.83%. The opinions of those who maintain that free education is no more than a fact of legal text, that is to say that it no longer has more than a theoretical reality, are also quite numerous (36.37%); the rest represents the tendency of those who still believe in free public education. Overall this rate is low (19.13%). It is important to note that the sum of opinions converging on the negation of free education is very high (80.87%). By category, it is those in the lower category who are more numerous (86.93%); followed by those in the middle category with 81.11%.
These trends are similar to those of the previous table where they decrease from the lower category to the upper category. This concept appears today as a concept that evokes no reality among Brazzaville residents.
In view of these results, we can conclude that public education is no longer free in the Congo. However, every parent must realize that the welfare state no longer exists. What we must look for in our opinion is certainly to obtain a substantial reduction in the charges to relieve, even a little, the parents of pupils.

B. Results of the desk study
In order to identify the fields of intervention of the parents of pupils and the State and to evaluate the efforts of the parents of pupils and the State in the financing of the primary school, we had recourse to the Documentary study based on the schools' financial reports, supported by a few interviews. The following tables represent the financial contribution of parents and the State by section in five schools in Bacongo and five in Makélékélé I by chapter, during the years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.
The contribution of parents takes concrete form through school rights. It should be noted that each year, a memorandum from the departmental Béatrice Perpétue Okua education directorate sets the amount of contributions per student. The funds collected are divided into three chapters, each comprising the following headings: Investment -Transfer -Operation.
1. By Investment, we mean the part of the school contributions which goes to the parents' associations and which is used to carry out various activities such as construction, equipment, various repairs according to the programming of the boards of directors. In order to minimize the risk of misappropriation, this fund, formerly managed exclusively by the heads of establishments, is now entrusted to a joint management committee which brings together representatives of the various associations of parents whose pupils are enrolled in the establishment. They are joined by the Director and his Manager. 2. The Transfer designates here the part of the school contributions which is transmitted to other Inspection, school insurance, Direction structures for use. We can mention: Regional Education, rights to CEPE and Competition. 3. Operation is the chapter that represents the share necessary to operate the administration of the school. It is the administration of the school which ensures the exclusive management. In order to help the public school, the parents of Bacongo and Makélékélé I have definitively collected for the trifle of 36,475,185F. In view of these figures, it emerges, whether it is Bacongo or Makélékélél, the transfer chapter swallows up more than half of the funds collected in the respective schools. The other two chapters combined only take less than half of those funds. This means that the large part of the funds, fruits of the efforts of the parents, are not used at the level of the schools where they are collected, but elsewhere. One understands then why, in spite of the contributions of each year, whole problems which arise at the level of the schools, remained insoluble to date. A reversal of trends at this level is therefore desirable.   Source: our survey 2020 The following trends emerge from this table.
Most families have 1 to 2 children who go to school. In this situation, families in the middle category come first with 82.92, followed by those in the upper category (75,000/0). In the lower category, they are just half 50,000/0). Among the families who have 3 to 4 children at school, we see that they are also numerous in the lower category with 37.93%, while they represent only 9.750/0 in the middle category which is the last . Those of 5 or more school children are very few. The lower category, which has more than the others, only has a rate of 12.07%.

Béatrice Perpétue Okua
From these last two tables there is a small contradiction. On the one hand we note that the majority of families are large families (66,500/0), and on the other hand, the majority of them have only 1 to 2 children who go to school. This contradiction can be a consequence: 1. several dropouts due, among other things, to school requirements, repeated repetitions; 2. the aging of families with many children beyond school age. The Congolese still attach paramount importance to the education of their children, either because they think that school is the surest way to achieve social advancement, or because they believe that a minimum education for their children.
Expenditure estimates were made from the declarations of the parents interviewed. We believe that the people interviewed have perfect knowledge of the expenses mentioned and present the provisions to discuss them as faithfully as possible. The method used entails a risk of "over-declaration" or "underdeclaration". According to the indications included in this table, the most modest family in the upper category would have to spend 196,800 F per month to live fairly decently; that of the middle category would spend 136,800 F and in the lower category, she would need 100,300 F. The one with the highest lifestyle would have to spend respectively by category 274,900 F, 214,900 F and 145,900 F.
Compared to the estimate of income that we have set at less than 100,000F for the lower category, at less than 150,000F. For the middle category and more than 150,000F for the upper category and in relation to the blocking of advancements and reclassifications to which State employees are subject, the irregularity of salaries, the devaluation of the CFA franc and the inflation, it is clear that the income of the Congolese is very low and does not adequately finance the education of his offspring. The making of this painting followed the following process a) interview with class teachers and parents from whom we collected the needs of schoolchildren relating to their respective classes; b) descent into the markets of the place where we noted the current average prices of school supplies. c) therefore, the average cost of a pupil per year and per class is: (1) 75.900F at the CPI. This represents 13.50% of the overall training cost for the entire cycle, which is 559,450F. These average training costs vary according to the classes and this variation increases from the smallest class to the largest due, on the one hand, to the needs which increase as the pupil climbs these different stages and, on the other hand, on the other hand, prices that change from one market to another and from one year to another.
This situation becomes dramatic when the parent has two or more children in primary school and a certain number in other education cycles. Price controllers should be particularly vigilant so as not to give free rein to crooked traders, and I The Congolese State should for its part grant an exemption in the importation of school supplies in order to hope for a reduction in the related prices. Through these deprivations, the parents try to ensure the essentials of the needs in order to make ends meet for the month".

Béatrice Perpétue Okua
The expenditure situations that have enabled us to demonstrate that the income of the Congolese no longer meets the cost of educating children are simple theoretical elaborations that may have a certain gap with reality. This is the real limit of our work.

D. Discussion
Thus, with more than 80% schooling, the crisis and the mismanagement of public affairs, the Congo could no longer really cope with this free education. We then gradually witnessed the disengagement of the State.
Today, the Congolese are wondering whether or not the gratuity which is still in question in the law 25/95 of November 17, 95 in its article 1 is still appropriate. After having been little known for a long time, the expenses of families for the education of their children are beginning to be assessed in most countries.
Among the authors who have written on the need to finance the primary cycle as a priority, we note the World Bank. The resources available per student are minimal and have further declined in low-income countries. However, the school-age population is much higher, as a percentage of the total population, at 75% in low-income countries. "Since 1965, education expenditure expressed as a percentage of gross national product (GNP) has been lower in low-income countries than in middle-income or highincome countries". (World Bank, 1992, p.46). To improve this situation, the World Bank proposes two avenues likely to generate additional resources for primary education: 1. governments can reallocate funds from other sectors to education; 2. diversify sources of funding for primary education by introducing new taxes and strengthening local finances. This would help address the three interrelated weak points of education financing, which are: poor costeffectiveness, dependence of education financing on general central government revenues, and inequality between high-income and low-income families.
This approach of the World Bank is an interesting opening for our country which no longer succeeds in properly financing primary education and whose parents of pupils do not stop complaining of the heavy educational burden which has been imposed on them almost entirely for several years. already. It is therefore in this perspective that this analysis by the World Bank becomes very attractive to us, because not only does it highlight the importance of primary education and the need to finance it, but even more, it suggests alternative solutions to the education funding.
On the other hand, on the same question of the financing of education, Keith (Keith, 1986) says that, in times of austerity, education budgets run the risk of bearing a good part of the cuts.
The author also notes that since 1980, the share of public funding in education has stopped increasing and that it is, in this case, the private share that will increase. This is why: "Many systems collect official or unofficial tuition fees in order to support the operation of school services, which increases the direct costs for parents, even in systems where education is free in principle" (Keith, 1986).
This reflection by (Keith, 1986) is an important light for our work. Indeed, the situation described corroborates the case of the Congolese education system. As a result, it opens up horizons for us that allow us to better understand the plausible causes of the renunciation by the State of financing primary education if this is the case today.
Current Trends in Private Financing of Public Primary Education in Congo Brazzaville However, he thinks, it is It's about balancing the advantages and disadvantages of this formula as well as possible.
Peter concludes by saying: "It is clear that governments, whatever their political leanings, will strive to find other means of financing education and will look to the independent sector for this purpose, including households..." (1986, P.263).
This article is also edifying for our study insofar as it clearly identifies certain aspects of the cost of education that interest us, especially when it establishes that even in establishments where education is free, parents and students bear always a certain cost which translates into a shortfall or miscellaneous costs. But it becomes more attractive to us when it offers us a solution applicable in our educational system and which could relieve the parents of pupils: the joint financing of schools by the State and the private sector, preferably the religious denominations which are agreed schools. The first would be responsible for granting scholarships and paying teachers, the second could be responsible for the operation and equipment of schools. If it is no longer realistic to return to totally free education, the families would then be responsible for supporting the student exclusively or in part. The area of construction and equipment could be a sector of joint State/religious denominations intervention, depending on the agreements they could sign.
The methodological guide for education sector analysis (2014 p.127) which focuses on primary and secondary education states that "despite the availability of official documents (finance laws, budgets). It is important to know as precisely as possible what has actually been spent. The finance law or the budget mark an intention to spend and not an actual expenditure" (2014, p.127). The guide provides methods for our work for a detailed analysis of the costs and financing of our education system. The experience of Burundi on the financing of education presented by the finance and education working group of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) gives the etiology of the financing problems in Burundi which are the same as in the Republic of Congo (Adea & Codesria, 2006).

CONCLUSION
In embarking on this study, we were concerned with verifying what Brazzaville residents currently understand by free education, while questioning the distribution of duties between the State and parents with regard to the financing of education. We also sought to understand whether parents still have the necessary resources to educate their offspring. We therefore structured our work around a main question which concerns free education and three secondary questions centered respectively on the current reality of the concept of free education, on the fields of intervention of the state and parents in the financing of education and on the parents' ability to finance it. teaching supervisors.
The results obtained led us to conclusions, the most important of which deserve to be retained: The parents surveyed are marked by a fairly clear imbalance between those who deny free public education in the Congo (80.50 percent) and those who grant it credit (19.50 percent). This is how this majority declares it simply theoretical or reduces it to the sole area of payment of the salaries of teaching staff.
Furthermore, at the end of this study, we find that the parents of pupils support the education of children in two directions, each as important as the other. The first, through school contributions, they support the school institution at 100% and the second is that by which they support their children in the sense of their satisfaction in school needs at 100% as well. The State, for its part, has reserved the areas of teacher training, their salaries Béatrice Perpétue Okua and major works when it can. There again, it is more and more in the process of unburdening itself of it and finally retaining only the first domain (training and salary of teachers).
Parents, so to speak, are therefore overburdened for resources which, at the limit, are survival income. In fact, the obligatory expenses of families swallow up almost all the income of each household, without it covering all the needs, including the education of the children.
Ultimately, let's say that there are not several educational funding policies in force in primary school. Whatever the geographical environment, what is happening in Brazzaville is also true everywhere across our national territory.