This paper aims to assess the readiness of public secondary schools across different provinces in the DRC to adopt technology that supports the development of digital skills. To this end, nine key factors that influence schools' ability to effectively develop students' digital skills were identified and assessed to determine digital readiness. These include accessibility of schools, access to basic infrastructure, access to digital infrastructure and devices, quality and reliability of classrooms, availability of school equipment, school management, teacher capacity, digital literacy, and the availability of digital learning materials. These nine key factors have been organized into three categories: enabling environment, school capacity, and teachers and digital competences
the main takeaways from each key factor are summarized in Table 1. Most of the analytical work is focused on 10 provinces of the DRC Country Partnership Framework (Ituri, Kasai, Kasai-Central, Kasai- Oriental, Kinshasa, Kongo-Central, Kwilu, Lomami, North-Kivu, and South-Kivu) (World Bank Group, 2022).Results from this analytical work showed that most schools across provinces lack thenecessary conditions and need support in creating an enabling environment for the development of digital skills namely through increasing schools' accessibility, along with access to basic digital infrastructure like connectivity and electricity. Additionally, many schools do not have enough basic equipment like chairs, tables, classrooms or teacher, to accommodate the growing population of secondary school students. Equipment deficiencies are exacerbated by the general lack of ICT resources and school management competencies, qualified teachers and digital learning materials. Addressing these constraints will be critical to equip students with skills necessary to further advance their educational career, to facilitate the transition to the labor market and to join the global digital economy. Assessing these constraints is crucial for understanding the readiness of each province to adopt technology in schools for the development of digital skills. Out of the 10 CPF provinces, the 5 provinces with the lowest lower secondary school net enrollment rates (Kasai, Kasai-Central, Kasai-Oriental, South-Kivu, and Ituri, which are also the focus of the DRC Girls Learning and Empowerment Project (French: projet d'apprentissage et d'autonomisation des filles [PAAF])) were scored across 18 key factors subcategories identified as crucial to the development of an enabling environment for the acquisition of digital skills
section 5 presents the results. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to strengthen preparedness of secondary schools in DRC for imparting digital skills.