Mozambique: U.S.$161 Million for Strategic Education Plan

25 March 2011

Maputo — The Mozambican Government’s cooperation partners, including the World Bank, have promised to disburse 161 million dollars to fund the Education Strategic Plan for the period 2012-2016.

According to Education Minister Zeferino Martins, these funds have been mobilized under the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (FTI), as requested by Mozambique in 2010.

Currently, the Strategic Plan is being drawn up, and on Thursday the Education Ministry and its local and foreign cooperating partners began to analyse it at the 12th Annual Review Meeting in Maputo.

The plan should be completed shortly, after adding contributions resulting from this two day meeting.

During the meeting, the Government and its partners recognized that quality education is a concern for the country since pupils, especially those in primary school, are failing to develop basic skills in reading, writing and arithmetic.

Zeferino Martins stated that improving the quality of education is one of the central aspects of his work. Thus he believes that the Ministry’s operations should continually focus on curriculum reform, provision of school books and other teaching materials, development of an integrated teacher training system as well as the increased recruitment of trained teachers.

Meanwhile, the international partners, represented by Patrick Empey, Head of Cooperation at the Irish Embassy, said the new Strategic Plan is an excellent opportunity to define measures to improve pupils’ results, so that Mozambique can achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All.

“This is an opportune time to identify the results to be achieved in the coming years to ensure that Mozambican citizens are empowered professionally and contribute to the development of the country”, said Empey

Civil society, represented by the Education or All Movement (MEPT), argues that the plan must be inclusive, creating strategies needed to meet the challenges imposed on education in Mozambique.

The Education for All Movement was established in 1999. It has more than 70 members, including non-government organizations, religious institutions and trade unions. MEPT’s main goal is to afford civil society opportunities to take an active part in education in the country.

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