Why I did not study in Congo

First of all after finishing my high school I chose to study international relation studies at the university of Lubumbashi ( the city where I grew up), sadly I only study for a year because I had to make another choice which was me going to study out of the country (democratic republic of Congo) .The year I spent at the university of Lubumbashi I faced a lot of challenges while studying, such as the first course did not interest me which was international relation studies due to my interests in art. I am passionate about art and design .I had to find a university where I could study art or design, which I did not find in the country. While staying international relations, conditions of studying were inadequate. Due to the poor facilities such as no internet on campus, sometimes the entire country was disconnected to the internet because of politics problems which was affected all the students. Students had to do all their work at home, few books provide by the by the university, few libraries around the city with old version books. Electricity problems on campus and home basically in the all city. There was not enough time to read at home because the all of our time as a student use to be spent in class had to be in class around six in the morning to gate a good place to seat because of the big numbers per class about 800 per class and class finishes night .The biggest problem was high level of corruption it was a obligation to give something to pass.

COMING TO SA….MY choice of the place in the country where I had to go study was not easy. I had about three countries where I could go study. India was the first, I didn’t want to go there because of the bad experiences that my family members and friends faced such as racial divide, language, culture, and working environment. Indian permit was not also easy to get then after all that struggle I cancelled my first option of studying computer science and IT

The second choice was going study in China I realised that the place was very far from my country and traveling back home was going to be my biggest problem finance due to the traveling back home and to China. Also my friends that are studying there never came home because of the distance and the biggest reason for me was after studying in china it’s impossible to work as a foreigner in china unless working in a foreign company which there are few. And the 3rd choice was coming to South Africa was made by my parents and me according to the research we made about the education and had a suggestion from friends and family that were already here.

Facts about education in South Africa there are three types of universities together they offer a full range of courses leading to internationally recognised qualifications. All public universities conduct research, which supports teaching and frequently aimed at tackling the challenges that face south Africa and the developing world. There is world class research generated in many fields, concentrated in the country’s to research universities, the good thing with universities in South Africa they are opening doors to student of all origins, race, and culture. Transform curricula to become more locally relevant but also geared to a knowledge driven world, train growing number of different types of graduates essential to economic growth and development, and produce scholars able to tackle south Africa’s and the all Africa’s problems through research responsive to all of society’s needs. The good thing with south African system is the offer bachelor degrees and have a strong research capacity and high proportions of postgraduate students. ( www.wathi.org ) (Wathi, 2)

The main reason of me coming to south Africa is because of the quality of education is high and the distance between It is not that long from my country of origin the democratic republic of Congo, it will be always easy for me to travel back home and visit the family, and it’s possible to establish my life here in south Africa as a foreigner after finishing my study, my option of coming to south Africa was to develop my art skills. Moving from the DR Congo to south Africa was a very big challenge for me in term of leaving far away from home not being with the biological family (sisters parents) and embracing a new life, culture, language, area people … the first concern of my family was me to be safe because of what happens around in the country of south Africa, killing, stubbing people. Then my uncle suggested me if I could try the city of cape town, because the level of criminality was not as high as in Johannesburg, cape town place was more safe and the condition of life was good ,it was going to be easy to leave and study in the safe environment. As a foreigner coming from a country where we could only speak French, English was a very big issue for me. The fact that I could not communicate not knowing even single word of English. The first thing to start my journey with was going to an English school. I went to a school called Afriza College for about one year learning the basics of English, learning a new language was not really easy for me, had to spend most of my time on reading English books, and teaching myself through internet. While studying English I had an opportunity to meet different people from different places different cultures like Angolan, Gabon, Belgium, and Somalian… After some month I was able to communicate I started thinking about my higher education. My wish was to find a school. In the family where I was staying they suggested me to study IT, which I applied for and I was rejected. Then I decided to go back to my first choice which was design. I didn’t have any idea about design. So a friend of mine helped by taking me to cape college. They gave me a chance to study.