Mozambique: School year to start early because of 2017 Census

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Mozambique: School year to start early because of 2017 Census

8:47 CAT | 31 Aug 2016

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The 2017 school year in Mozambique will not begin in February, as usual, but on 20 January, in order to accommodate the population census to be held in the first half of August.

Explaining this decision to reporters on Tuesday, after a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the government spokesperson, Deputy Health Minister Mouzinho Saide, said the school calendar had to be changed because about 80,000 teachers and students will be working on the census.

In addition, space in the schools must be made available to train census workers, and to store census materials.

Saide said that, by beginning the school year on 20 January, it will be possible to maintain 38 weeks of teaching.

“This situation implies an interruption in the school year from 17 June to 20 August, but the schools should guarantee that the children are kept busy with educational activities”, he added. The census will take place from 1 to 15 August.

Saide said that teachers’ holidays will not take place in January 2017, but have been pushed back to the period 21 July to 17 August.

A complete population census has been held three times in Mozambique since independence – in 1980, 1997 and 2007. Based on the projections from the 2007 census, the current population of Mozambique is estimated at 26.4 million.

The Council of Ministers also heard a report on the distribution of aid to people affected by natural disasters, mainly the drought that has hit the southern and central provinces. Saide said that, between March and August, slightly more than a million people had been assisted, in Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane, in the south, and in Sofala, Manica, Tete and Zambezia in the centre of the country. This is about two thirds of the total number of 1.5 million people affected by the drought.

Source: AIM