School hasn’t started for everyone in Mozambique

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School hasn’t started for everyone in Mozambique

12:22 CAT | 27 Jan 2017

DW / Ceramica Primary School in the city of Nampula

The school year started this week across the country – but not for all children. Many do not have school supplies, and some school notebooks and folders now cost twice as much as they did a few months ago.

“I’m not going to school because Papa did not buy me a notebook or a ballpoint pen or colored pencils,” says 12-year-old Mohamed Carlos.

Sónia Adelino looks after three children – a daughter and two nieces – but only one went to school this week with all the necessary material.

default — Current prices for school supplies are beyond some pockets

“Probably, this week is just for the students to meet the teachers and the classes are not very serious”, she says.

Rising prices

Although she has enough money to buy school supplies for the remaining children, Sónia is concerned about rising school equipment prices, particularly this year.

“Right now, there are long queues [in bookshops] and it’s not easy to buy things. Prices are also too high,” she says. “Half a dozen notebooks are 150 meticais [about 2 euros], but they used to be 120 meticais. Now, it’s complicated.”

Prices for school supplies tend to increase every year when children go back to school. But this year, given the economic situation in the country, Sónia Adelino appeals to shopkeepers. “They could sell normally and not take advantage the moment people are stressed. They could even reduce prices.”

But vendors are also suffering from the crisis. Amisse Issufo sells mostly imported school bags, and says that the rise in prices is a results of the depreciation of the metical against the dollar.

“This year, school bags prices are very high,” he explains. “Last year we bought [a school bag] at 250 or 480 meticais and this year we are paying 750 meticais. The situation is bad.”

The Mozambican province of Nampula will have more than two million students this school year, and more than 26,000 teachers.

Big photograph caption – Primary and secondary school classes started this week in Mozambique. But in the northern city of Nampula, many children have been absent from school for lack of school materials.

Source: Deutsche Welle