Irish aid for education in Mozambique

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Irish aid for education in Mozambique

5:57 CAT | 11 Nov 2016

Noticias

The Irish government has announced that it will disburse over six million euros (about 6.6 million US dollars) to finance programmes of the Mozambican Education Sector Support Fund (FASE).

The announcement was made in Maputo on Wednesday by Irish ambassador William Carlos, accompanied by Education Minister Jorge Ferrao, during an interval in a meeting of the Consultative Council of the Education Ministry.

The money will be disbursed via he Mozambican government’s electronic State Financial Management System (e-SISTAFE). The ambassador said the Irish government will disburse a separate sum to support programmes in health care.

Carlos said that Ireland wants to provide continuity in the programmes it is implementing in partnership with the Mozambican government, due to the real importance they have for the country.

He added that, in a recent visit to the southern province of Inhambane “I could note the challenges that the education sector is facing”, said Carlos. He promised that Ireland will continue to concentrate its aid on Inhambane and on the northern province of Niassa.

He cited a well-known phrase of Mozambique’s first President, Samora Machel – “Make the school a base for the people to take power” – as justification for Ireland’s interest in education. “Children are the future”, he declared.

For his part, Ferrao promised to manage the Irish funds in a transparent and accountable manner. FASE, he said, would support such priorities as acquiring a further 16 million school text books for distribution free of charge to primary school pupils. He hoped that next year the free distribution of books can be extended to some disciplines of secondary education.

FASE was also the source of money for the “direct support to schools programme”. Through this programme, Ferrao said, “each of our pupils receives the equivalent of 2.5 US dollars which is managed by the schools for the purchase of chalk and erasers, and solving water and electricity problems in urban schools”.

In rural schools, children whose parents cannot afford basic supplies are provided with exercise books, pens, rubbers and anything else that may be necessary, Ferrao added.

Other countries that have disbursed funds for FASE are Italy and Portugal, and Germany has promised to do so in the near future.

But FASE is among the programmes that has suffered from the suspension of aid in the wake of the discovery in April of over a billion dollars worth of concealed debts, hidden both from the Mozambican public and from the country’s international partners. About 32 million dollars – 40 per cent of the total – of aid pledged for FASE this year has been suspended, and no commitments for 2017 have been announced.

Source: AIM