Mozambique: Over 100 Schools far from meeting conditions in Manica

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Mozambique: Over 100 Schools far from meeting conditions in Manica

8:21 CAT | 25 Mar 2021

Although the 2021 school year should have started on Monday, almost 150 primary schools are not yet open in the central Mozambican province of Manica, the spokesperson of the Provincial Directorate of Education, Joao Tricano, said on Monday.

The schools had been closed for a year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this was certainly time enough for school managements to have prepared properly for the reopening. Yet 147 schools out of the 952 schools in Manica, are yet to open to the pupils, despite the efforts to ensure their return to face-to-face classes, after the green light recently given by President Filipe Nyusi.

Most of these schools are in a deplorable state. Some are overgrown with grass, with desks in the classrooms completely ruined. Much worse, they lack running water, and their toilets are filthy and broken.

At the “25 de Setembro” primary school in Chimoio, the provincial capital, activities are at a complete standstill. The school has a deficit of 13 classrooms, a situation that may lead some pupils to have classes under the trees.

Furthermore, there is not yet any running water for students to wash their hands, a basic requirement to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Two school service providers walk nearly a kilometre to fetch water in 20 litre jerry-cans. This is grossly inadequate for the school’s almost 1,000 students.

“It is a very difficult situation for us. As the school lacks running water we do not even have taps. We will fill buckets for the whole school. Besides the hygiene of the pupils, we also need water to clean the classrooms. We have no toilets either for teachers or for students,” said one of the service providers, pointing out that the situation poses a great hazard to public health.

From his point of view, face-to-face classes should never resume before the right conditions have been put in place.

“When it rains, there are no classes as the rain pours in from every side. The pupils are sent back home. If it rains the whole week there are no classes here. We have seen this in the past,” said the school service provider.

At the “1 de Maio” primary school, the situation is even worse. The classrooms are completely filthy with a wide range of building material stored in some of the classrooms.

Some teachers are not even wearing face masks, which greatly annoyed the Provincial Governor, Francisca Tomas, as she made surprise visits on Monday to some of the schools.

“Out of all the schools I visited, this is the worst”, she said. “You have done pretty well nothing. See for yourself the dirty classrooms and desks. You do not have even a bucket of water for the pupils to wash their hands.”

The “1 de Maio” school, Tomas said, offered no conditions for classes to resume safely, and she demanded immediate action to correct the situation.

The leadership of this school, Tomas said, is totally unfit and is damaging the government. “We have come to see how you are working. Your reports are very beautiful, but the reality leaves a lot to be desired. It is very sad what we have seen in these two schools. You must solve these problems very urgently,” she demanded.

Source: AIM