Mozambique: “Great expectations and hopes deposited in new ministers”, says Chapo - AIM report
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: O País]
The Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH ) has failed to meet its target of printing and distributing over 22 million books in the first half of the year. MINEDH was only able to provide four million textbooks.
The Ministry of Education and Human Development has definitely not yet managed to provide the basic material for the teaching-learning process in the country: the school textbook, which is distributed free of charge and is prohibited from being sold.
During the first three months of this year, first-grade teachers copied everything into the notebooks of students as young as six years old and new entrants to school, while second-grade teachers struggled to adapt to the so-called activity books.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. According to the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget 2024, MINEDH should have printed over 22 million books and distributed them to primary school students in the first half of this year – the annual target.
However, to date, MINEDH has not printed or distributed half of what was planned. Only 4,517,048 textbooks have been made available. In other words, the target has not been met by a long shot.
The report on the first half of the implementation of the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget for 2024 also provides details on how many schoolbooks each province received up until at least June.
Cabo Delgado province received 36,750 books, the lowest number; Nampula province received 185,940, the province with the highest number of textbooks received; Tete province received 168,140; Manica province received 149,950; Sofala province received 182,245; Inhambane province received 160,650; Gaza province received 140,805; Maputo Province had 150,980 and Maputo City (province) got 79,280 schoolbooks.
The printing and distribution of these schoolbooks corresponds to an achievement of only 20% of what the Ministry of Education and Human Development proposed to achieve as a half-yearly and annual target.
Regarding the lack of schoolbooks, the Ministry of Education has already given many justifications and made promises. However, none of this has worked. The children ended the first quarter without the textbooks and only at the end of the second did they start receiving them. In this report, we recall some of these episodes.
In its first appearance to talk about schoolbooks, the Ministry of Education came out publicly to make unfulfilled promises. “More than 60% of these books are already being distributed,” Manuel Simbine, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education and Human Development, said on May 19, 2024.
But this was not happening. In fact, the five million books mentioned by the MINEDH spokesperson do not match the number given in the half-yearly balance of the sector in the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget, which is just 4,517,048 manuals.
Later, it was discovered that, after all, the books had not even been produced in the country, much less had they reached schools, for reasons supposedly beyond the control of MINEDH.
“The books will be in schools soon. There was a setback in navigation. The books are on their way to the ports of Nacala, Maputo and Beira,” Deputy Minister of Education and Human Development Manuel Bazo said on 30 May, 2024.
Even before that, the Minister of Science and Technology said in the Assembly of the Republic that the books were already in the country.
“The Ministry of Education and Human Development is in the process of receiving and distributing the learning materials obtained for the year 2024. In fact, some learning materials have already been received in the three main ports of Mozambique, namely Maputo, Nacala and Beira. Transporters have been hired and have begun distributing them to the district services of Education, Youth and Technology, and these to the schools,” Minister of Science and Technology Daniel Nivagara reported in April of this year.
Until now, the minister of the sector had never deigned to show her face and explain what was happening with the schoolbooks. Near the end of the second quarter, Carmelita Namashulua was questioned by the press and asked about the delay in the arrival of the schoolbooks but refused to answer, limiting herself to directing the press to the Ministry of Education for answers to their questions.
And at the Ministry of Education, it was not the minister who answered the questions from the press, but her spokesperson, who, once again, made promises.
“The process of unloading books at the port has now begun and they will be distributed to schools and students in the coming days. We already have the second grade books in the country. In the coming days, we will have better information to share, because we need to collect data on the ground,” she said.
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