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Angola needs an "explosion" in education.

Angola boasts the highest fertility rate in the world, but it has an education system that hasn't kept speed with the reproductive powers of its people. War stripped the primary school system of thousands of teachers, and much of the quality of learning. UNICEF is looking for a radical solution to arrest the decline – "an explosion of education."

Children outside a derelict school, Kuito.

UNICEF's Education Officer in Angola describes the concept, and the reasons behind it. "We have a population that is increasing by three per cent each year. We currently have one million primary school aged children excluded from the system for a variety of reasons, most of which you can imagine – war, lack of planning and funding, isolation. And we have a prognosis that in 2015 we will have a primary school aged population of five million children. Obviously this demands a radical solution."

Francisco Basili is the Education Officer for UNICEF in Angola. He motions a generous arc in the air with his hands as he outlines the UNICEF vision of what Angola needs in the wake of the new peace. "The system cannot continue at this rate, simply if we are to keep pace with the numbers. We need an explosion of education." UNICEF wants to create the critical mass that is needed to re-direct the educational culture in Angola.

The war has ended with surprising speed and enormous swathes of the country have been opened for the first time in decades, unlocking unprecedented opportunities and challenges for planners. UNICEF believes that one of those opportunities is the newly appointed governor of Bié province, Amaro Tati.

Speaking with the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, who paid a visit to the province, Governor Tati listed the problems his new administration faces. "We have at least 8,000 orphans. There are thousands of people with disabilities, and thousands of widows. This city of Kuito was besieged for almost two years, and thousands died of starvation. There is no accurate health assessment, and no control and follow-up of HIV/AIDS. And 140,000 children have never been to school." Nevertheless, in a move that has signaled to partners like UNICEF the robust attitude his administration intends to take to social programmes, the governor has made an extraordinary commitment.

A Kuito classroom, Bié province.

Within a few weeks of taking office, Amaro announced a target of 600 new teachers, the rehabilitation of 600 schools, and challenged the 'sobas', or traditional leaders, to provide informal structures ('jangos' or traditional meeting houses) for which he would provide a trained teacher. "We are talking about 30,000 new primary school students. This is clearly a man who means business," says the UNICEF Representative Mario Ferrari, "and clearly he is a man with whom we can do business. He's the type of leader we hope will continue to emerge in these new times of peace, and we intend to try to support his commitment to education."

The province was one of the hardest hit during the war. "It is symbolically important, because our work in this province, our efforts to leave no child excluded from education in this province, will create a precedent," explains Basili. "If we can do this in Bié, where the war was so bad, and where we know we have a committed partner then we hope that this will encourage other provinces to do the same. The explosion of education in Bié is the key."