Mozambique: USAID pledges 5.8 million dollars for education – AIM report

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Mozambique: USAID pledges 5.8 million dollars for education – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 26 Feb 2021

File photo: Noticias

The United States embassy in Maputo has announced two new bilingual education projects, in celebration of International Mother Tongue Day.

According to a press release from the embassy, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in close collaboration with the provincial governments of Zambézia and Nampula, in central and northern Mozambique, will invest 5.8 million dollars over three years to help improve the quality of primary education.

The two projects, the embassy said, will support more than 1,500 primary schools and reach more than 17,000 community leaders, parents, guardians, and community volunteers.

Activities will include “providing parents and guardians with practical tools and techniques to help their children at home in reading and math, establishing community reading centres led by community volunteers, and creating community discussions about gender and girls’ rights to education”. The embassy estimates that 450,000 pupils will benefit from these projects.

The embassy release noted that, although Mozambique has made progress in increasing children’s access to primary school, “the provision of quality education remains a long-term challenge”.

It cited a 2016 Ministry of Education National Assessment which found that only five per cent of children in Mozambique achieved the required reading and writing skills. “Teacher absenteeism, poor oversight from school administrators, and a lack of educational materials are additional challenges to improving educational outcomes in Mozambique”, the embassy added.

The US Government, the release added “supports the Government of Mozambique’s bilingual education policy – where young children are taught to read in the local language and then transition to Portuguese – which aims to address one of the major underlying causes for poor academic performance”.

USAID has selected two NGOS, the Civil Society Centre for Learning and Capacity Building (CESC) and Development Aid from People to People (ADPP), to implement these two bilingual education projects, which will “bring communities together for a more holistic approach to improving education in Mozambique”.

The release added that “USAID’s education programming also focuses on improving girls’ access to and completion of secondary education by providing mentoring programs for girls, gender-sensitive training and materials for teachers and administrators, and community engagement programs stressing the importance of girls’ education. Such programming represents a critical component of broader U.S. Government assistance in Mozambique, as better education is associated with higher wages, higher political participation, and leads to healthier life choices”.

Source: AIM