Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support adolescent girls into secondary education in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); which programmes her Department supports that address access to secondary education in DRC; and how many girls have been assisted to engage in and to complete secondary schooling as a result of such work in the last five years.

DFID has supported education in DRC since 2013 through scholarships and accelerated learning programmes which focus on primary education and the transition to secondary schooling. We do this through two programmes, Vas-y Fille (‘Go girl’), and Accelere. Vas-y Fille have provided scholarships to over 63,000 girls and enrolled 9,400 out of school girls in accelerated learning programmes. Accelere has enrolled 20,730 new primary school learners, including 10,386 girls. This contributes to the government’s manifesto commitment to provide a decent education to 11 million children.