Mozambique: More than 42,000 Boane students without classes

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Mozambique: More than 42,000 Boane students without classes

4:12 CAT | 15 Feb 2023

Photo: O País

More than 42,000 students in Boane district, Maputo province, have been without classes since last week, due to the floods. To make up for lost time, the District Directorate of Education says that there will be tutoring classes.

‘O País’ visited one of the accommodation centres in Mabanja neighbourhood, Boane district. It shelters more than 500 people, 300 of whom are school-age children.

The restless children, playing in multiple ways, some obscure, triy to forget the drama experienced in the early hours of February 10th.

The rain, allied to the pressure of the waters coming from South Africa and eSwatini, caused flooding in schools and residences in the Boane district; driving children and their parents from their homes and disrupted classes.

Edite da Cruz, one of the 1,800 flood victims, says that “we lost everything, the children’s uniforms, notebooks, text books, even documentation. I have three children, one who Attended Grade 8, another Grade 6 and the youngest Grade 4, but I don’t know if they will go back to school this year”.

Families have lost everything, but children have not lost their dreams. Student Carlos Mulimo says his school supplies were destroyed, but his dream of being a firefighter will not go away.

In Boane district, the authorities indicate that more than 40,000 children are out of school indefinitely.

“We have 39 primary schools and seven secondary schools closed due to the floods, making a total of 42,000 students affected in Boane district,” explained Armando Matsinhe, head of the General Education Department, in the District Education Directorate.

According to Matsinhe, some schools are still flooded and others partially destroyed, while others have been transformed into accommodation centres.

The source also said that the situation will compromise compliance with the school calendar, but measures will be taken.

“As soon as we resume classes, we will create conditions for students to have access to content that was not possible to be taught at this time, based on the adoption of a set of measures, from assigning school tasks for students to perform at home, to resolve with the support of parents and teachers, to the production of exercise sheets, which will be used in schools, as well as support texts, for students to use as a way of filling this deficit in compliance with the calendar and our plans analytics,” he explains.

Until the situation improves, the children spend their time playing.

Rain closes school in Mavalane, Maputo city

In Maputo City, there are schools that have closed classrooms due to floods. Still others have water that threatens the health of students. The Ministry of Education says it is mapping the damage caused by the rain.

The Complete Primary School of Mavalane “A” was completely flooded with the rain of the last few days, forcing the closure of the school.

The rooms and the courtyard are muddy.

Deputy Director Fulgêncio Tivane says that the situation forced the interruption of classes. “The water flooded the whole school, so we had to stop teaching on the recommendation of the District and we allocated students to three schools that are in our pedagogical influence zone. Therefore, the 1,015 students continue to take classes. Our 17 rooms are currently being cleaned.”

Meanwhile, the students of Chiango Primary School continue to face the water that flooded the courtyard, which at this moment poses a danger to the health of the students and others. “The water has been here for a long time. It is already starting to stink and, in this time of cholera, there is a fear of illness here at school,” says Yolando Bila, head of the school.

The Ministry of Education and Human Development is mapping the damage caused by rain in different parts of the country and will soon share the information.

Source: O País