Belgian educational policy in Zaire concentrated mainly on literacy and rudimentary vocational training. Very little opportunity was provided for secondary education. The first university was begun in 1954 (six years before independence). The creation of higher institutes of pedagogy and the rapid increase of their number were a response to the high demand for qualified teachers created by the rapid expansion of secondary education.
Whereas the implementation of universities (except for the Free University of the Congo) took place during the colonial period, that of higher institutes took place during the postindependence period with either UNESCO's assistantship or directly under its supervision. This brought to higher education in Zaire a set of institutions that did not exist in the Belgian educational system exported to Zaire.
In this study it was found that through their development higher institutes of pedagogy have departed from the original Belgian model of "Ecole Normale Moyenne" and from the French model of "Ecole Normale Superieure" introduced by UNESCO. Organized more likely on the British model of teachers colleges, higher institutes of pedagogy have become a unique model in Africa. From the stage of low status and no contact with universities, higher institutes of pedagogy have moved to the stage of equal partnership with universities under the statutes of the National University of Zaire created in 1971.
The data on the cooperation between the two types of institutions were collected through a survey conducted at the University Campus of Kinshasa, the Higher Institute of Pedagogy of Gombe, and the National Institute of Pedagogy. Cooperative programs revealed by the study are mostly casual and unstructured. No cooperation related to the training of secondary school teachers was found. A linkage was found between the cooperative programs and individual benefits to be drawn from them. This linkage and the fact that the reduction of expenditures is not viewed by respondents as a reason for implementing cooperation explain why the limitation of financial resources is viewed by them as the most important barrier to cooperation between university campuses and higher institutes of pedagogy.
