Textbook delay: Aires Ali points to disorganisation at MINEDH – O País

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Textbook delay: Aires Ali points to disorganisation at MINEDH – O País

1:29 CAT | 11 Apr 2022

Photo: O País

Former Minister of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) Aires Ali says that planning problems in the sector are the reason why only two million of the 16 million textbooks planned have so far arrived in the country.

The Ministry of Education and Human Development expected to receive at least 16 million new textbooks for free distribution across the country for the 2022 academic year. However, by the beginning of April – the end, almost, of the first school term – only two million had been received.

The justification for this was the change in the routes of the ships that bring the textbooks to the country, compromising the schedule otherwise used.

However, Aires Ali, who served as minister of education and also held the post of prime minister for a few years, believes that better preparation would have avoided this situation.

Aires Ali advocates thinking about everything, every year. “Before reaching the schools, the material must be prepared, and there are technicians for this. It is therefore necessary to determine the period of this elaboration.” After that, the former minister explains, “how it is ordered so that the publishers can produce the material” must also be laid down.

He suggests a more profound solution than merely improving planning: thinking about creating capacity to produce books locally. There are in fact publishing houses in the country, but MINEDH rightfully says that having textbooks printed in Mozambique is expensive.

ALSO READ: Mozambique is short of 14 million free textbooks – RM report

Aires Ali explains that it is also necessary to understand that planning deficiencies can compromise much more than the arrival of school books in the country.

“Mozambique is a beautiful country, but its configuration makes various points difficult to reach. So, when they [the textbooks] arrive late, we again run into logistical problems getting them to those points,” Ali said.

For now, MINEDH said when it last spoke to ‘O País’, information from suppliers indicated that the material would arrive in Mozambique by the end of April.

By Afonso Chavo

ALSO READ: Mozambique: NGO criticises delay in distribution of Primary Education textbooks

Source: O País