In Northern Mozambique there are students who are not going to school until RENAMO is in power

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In Northern Mozambique there are students who are not going to school until RENAMO is in power

8:02 CAT | 06 Dec 2016

A Niassa children’s rights organisation says parents are stopping their children going to school in some villages because they are waiting for the largest opposition party to take over governance of their province.

It is either Renamo starts ruling or children are not attending classes . Parents and guardians are not giving many alternatives to students in the district of Majune, Niassa province.

The complaint is laid down by Laurentino Roupene of the Good Hope Friends of the Children Association (ACABE), an organisation that defends the rights of children in the northern province.

“In those villages where Renamo predominates, the children do not study,” he says. “They say ‘We are waiting for our president, Afonso Dhlakama, for when he comes to power – that is when we will have classes.” And, in those villages, the classrooms are ‘left to the flies’.

Mosambik Schule in Majune (DW/M. David) — Students in the classroom of a Majune school

The district of Majune is considered a Renamo stronghold. Support for the largest opposition party in Mozambique is greater in the small villages and localities of administrative posts.

Frelimo schools?

Elídio Lule Sacassa, who lives in a Majune district village, says, for example, that many parents forbid their children from attending school because they are “Frelimo schools”.

“The dropout situation in the district of Majune is alarming. Also at the administrative post of Nairobi, in the locality of Nambilagem, where most of the residents support the opposition,” Sacassa explains.

“When the school board goes to the houses to get the children, the parents forbid it. They claim that the school is a

‘Frelimo school’ and say that, as they belong to Renamo, they do not want their children going there.”
DW Africa contacted the Education, Youth and Technology services in the district of Majune, but they declined to comment on the matter.

Sensitize communities

ACABE’s Laurentino Roupene promises to step up community awareness campaigns “next year.”

Previously, he explained, the association operated “in some areas where these policies were practiced, but with ACABE, students began to return to schools”. Worst affected, according to Roupene, were schools in Nairobi, Namilagem, Luambala and Chimpupu.

“The situation now is worst in Insilo, Megualo and Matucuta, where there is this political party competition,” he concludes.

Source: Deutsche Welle