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TASOK CONTEXT – PAST, PRESENT, & LOOKING AHEAD
Set in a charming campus environment in the heart of the DRC, TASOK is a warm, caring and learning-focused community on a beautiful forested 42-acre space. TASOK was founded in 1961 by the missionary and US Embassy communities to provide an American education to expatriate families living in Kinshasa. TASOK is accredited by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, is a member of the Council of International Schools and is sponsored by the US State Department Office of Overseas Schools. TASOK became a fully authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in April 2021, authorized to offer all three IB Programs; Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP), and Diploma Program (DP). IB World Schools share a common philosophy- a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education- that we believe is important for our students.
The context of TASOK allows us to carefully consider how we connect with our community and engage with service learning – both aspects of our curriculum that have the potential to provide our students with a unique learning experience developing skills that they can transfer to their lives beyond TASOK in the global community. Creating an inclusive learning environment where students think critically, apply their learning in different contexts and where feedback is provided as a means of constructive growth and development are the ultimate goal of our program.
Kinshasa, the second-largest Francophone city in the world, is a bustling environment with a rich art and music scene. While poverty is widespread in the DRC, including Kinshasa, and pockets of insecurity persist and tend to dominate news headlines, the vast majority of the DRC is stable and experiencing slow but steady economic growth since 2004. Despite troubled times in the DRC since the early 1990s, TASOK has remained open continuously, with only temporary closures. A current period of stability in the DRC has produced an influx of new students and a steady growth in the school’s population. At its peak, the school operated close to the campus capacity of 575 students in the 1980s. Today’s enrollment of 334 students represents slow, sustained growth since 2004.
Thank you for your interest in teaching at The American School of Kinshasa.
