Mozambique to work on illiteracy rate

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique to work on illiteracy rate

10:33 CAT | 18 Jun 2018

File photo: Folha de Maputo

The Minister for Education and Human Development, Conceição Sortane, said last week in Nampula that her ministry was committed to lowering Mozambique’s current 44.9 percent illiteracy rate to 42 percent by 2019.

The minister was speaking at the end of the second national meeting of the Movement for Advocacy, Awareness and Resource Mobilisation for Literacy (MASMA) in the city of Nampula.

The initiative is led by First Lady Isaura Nyusi with the support of the Ministry of Education and Human Development.

Minister Sortane said that the current illiteracy rate posed challenges and recommended that a country-specific matrix of plans on the ground be prepared so that, by the end of the current government mandate in 2019, it would be possible to present credible data to the public.

“Mindful of the resource constraints that the ministry faces in meeting all the challenges which remain in the period leading to the end of the government’s five-year programme, I would like to launch the challenge every province, under the leadership of MASMA, to look for ways to achieve the goal of reducing the current illiteracy rate from 44.9 to 42 percent by [the end of] 2019, ” Sortane said.

She also called for the intensification of awareness campaigns urging men, women and young people to visit literacy centres to fill the gap in their formal education.

Figures for the 2015-2017 period released during the second national MASMA meeting indicate that 44.9 percent of the population aged 15 or over, 57.8 percent of whom are female, is literate.

The figures also show a downward trend in recruitment of literacy teachers, and that illiteracy has grown in the 15-19 years age segment.

The study, compiled by the Ministry of Education and Human Development, notes that more men are attending literacy adult education centres, contrary to expectations.

Next year’s MASMA meeting will take place in Zambézia province.

Source: Notícias