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Mozambique: NGO calls for independent audit on production of school books
4:06 CAT | 03 Jun 2022
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]
The Civil Society Forum for Children’s Rights (ROSC) on Friday demanded accountability of those responsible for the errors detected in textbooks in Mozambique, advocating an independent audit of the production of books in the country. “The government should use the report produced by the independent audit committee to hold those who, directly or indirectly, did not prevent that the books were published with the errors identified throughout the production chain of schoolbooks, collectively and individually responsible” said a statement from the ROSC sent to Lusa.
The authorities must also make a public communication to share the results of the schoolbook audit and the measures taken to hold those responsible accountable “for these serious flaws with a national dimension and that harm several generations of pupils”.
“How many children have been in contact with these books and unlearned from these mistakes? How many minds have been entangled instead of being educated?” asked the forum.
The ministry of education and human development should immediately ban the use of the Grade 6 Social Science textbook and remove all existing copies from schools, the ROSC further demands.
The ministry is urged to direct teachers to teach based on analytical syllabus plans in place of the invalidated textbooks.
“In preparing their lessons, [teachers] may also use other existing means of consultation of the contents they teach”, the ROSC recommended.
The Mozambican civil society organisations considered the errors incomprehensible, bearing in mind that producing school books in Mozambique involves several entities, including government and independent bodies.
“The production of books goes through various individuals and institutions, namely authors, reviewers and specialists in the areas of knowledge contracted by the Commission for Evaluation of School Books (CALE), and finally by the ministry itself, which approves the books and has them as its property. Now, we wonder, if such a circuit is implemented, how it can be that they are printed with such gross errors,” notes the ROSC.
The forum admitted that some errors result from “distraction or inattention” but finds cases of “flagrant and gross misrepresentation of events or historical interpretations” disturbing.
On Thursday, Mozambique’s minister for education said that the 6th grade Social Sciences textbook would be withdrawn from schools due to “unacceptable and inadmissible” errors detected in the manuals.
Namashulua also announced the suspension of the director of the National Institute for Education Development (INDE), the state body responsible for directing the process of book production, and the dissolution of the Commission for Evaluation of School Books (CALE) and its replacement by another structure.
Among the most glaring errors detected in the 6th-grade book is the geographical location of Mozambique, which in the book is located in East Africa and is not listed as a country of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an entity in whose foundation it participated.
Another anomaly considered serious is the location of the former borders of Zimbabwe, a country that borders Mozambique but which the book states is bathed by the Red Sea.
The mistakes also include illustrating a photo of the Angolan parliament as being from Mozambique.
Following the errors, an enquiry by the ministry is underway.
Source: Lusa
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