They say nothing in life is free and that is certainly the case for education in the Democratic Republic of Congo where already largely impoverished parents are expected to pay enrolment fees and the teachers' salaries. As such, upwards of half of all children receive no education in the DRC.

Overall, around 83% of the population has received either none or just primary school education. This is partly down to decades of conflict that has largely damaged the country's infrastructure and decimated the education budget to fund the military. Despite this 67.2% of the population is literate, although this figure falls to just 54.1% for females.

The situation in the east of the country was by far the worst with around 1.6 million people displaced due to the ongoing activities of the Lord's Resistance Army and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, however the situation is stabilizing somewhat and today around 90% of six to eleven years olds are receiving basic education in the camps there.

With the election of a new government in 2007, pressure is being brought to bear to improve educational opportunities for all children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recently, in one school, the children were asked to pose with books for a political photo-opportunity and chaos broke out afterwards with the children refusing to return the books as, for many, it was the first time they had ever held one!

This video shows how exam papers are being distributed for the first time in many years as exams have been reintroduced into schools.