Learning and Skills for the future
Every child, including adolescents, learns and acquires skills for the future
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The Government of Mozambique has taken important positive steps to promote access to education. In 2018, it passed a revised education law that extended the duration of mandatory, free education from seven to nine years. The Government has also adopted ambitious national strategies to promote inclusive education, so that children with special educational needs or disabilities can attend regular schools. Thanks to this combination of efforts, the number of children in school in Mozambique has tripled since 2000.
Despite this progress in the enabling environment, there is more work to be done to make sure that children in Mozambique receive the education and skills they need for the future they deserve. UNICEF is working with the Government at programme and at policy level, to promote equitable and inclusive quality education that leaves no one behind.
Improving school infrastructure and ensuring that children with disabilities can access education are key priorities for UNICEF’s work in Mozambique. By expanding investment in provision of water and sanitation facilities, it will likely be possible to substantially cut the risk of school drop-out, particularly among girls. Expanding access to pre-primary school and addressing low levels of foundational numeracy and literary will also be key.
UNICEF works in close cooperation with the Government to promote equitable access to learning opportunities by expanding provision of education services, especially for girls, IDPs, and children with disabilities. Importantly, UNICEF trains teachers and other staff in incorporating play and improved pedagogical methods to improve learning and leverage its power as a form of psychosocial support. UNICEF constructs temporary learning spaces and classrooms to ensure continuity of learning for children who have been displaced or who have experienced crisis.
UNICEF has supported the development of an equitable, multisectoral early childhood education strategy, including at least one year of compulsory pre-school, and the expansion of accelerated school readiness programmes. UNICEF is currently working to promote the strategy’s roll-out. In addition to ensuring access to education for children with disabilities and girls, the strategy seeks to identify alternative pathways to education for vulnerable adolescents, introducing digital innovations to strengthen learning at the primary level and creating an enabling and resilient learning environment.
THE CHALLENGES
- Lack of access to early education: Less than 4 per cent of children under 5 years of age access early learning services in Mozambique. There is a significant urban-rural disparity, with children aged 3-5 years living in urban areas twice as likely to have attended preschool as those living in rural areas.
- Low rates of net school enrolment and access: Almost 2.4 million primary school-age children are out of school. Drop-out may be related to a range of factors, including child marriage and gender inequality, violence against children in schools, and inaccessibility for children with disabilities.
- Inadequate education quality: Only 4.9 per cent and 7.7 per cent of Grade 3 students possess age-appropriate reading and numeracy skills, respectively. Testing reveals stark regional disparities, with children in northern provinces scoring much lower than the country average.
- Infrastructure and enabling environment: Lack of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities in schools is a key factor causing high rates of school dropout.
- Impact of emergencies: Cyclones Idai, Kenneth and Eloise destroyed more than 4000 classrooms across Mozambique, affecting almost 400,000 students, with recovery costs for education alone estimated at US $122 million. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic required reductions in class size, resulting in an increase in the number of teachers needed.
We have an excellent relationship between the community and school. The community trusts us with the children. My hope for the children of Mozambique is that they will be able to study in safe schools, and I wish for them to have more knowledge to help develop our country.
Only 3.5 per cent of children attend pre-primary school in Mozambique. This is due both to a lack of preschools in the country and limited financial and human resources. Under the leadership of the Government of Mozambique, UNICEF focuses on readying pre-primary school students through an eight-week Accelerated School Readiness (ASR) programme, which is being rolled out in existing community primary schools. UNICEF also supports learning for children for pre-primary students in child-friendly spaces set up in the community. Evidence shows that children aged 5 to 6 years who attend this programme perform better when they enter primary school and have a higher chance of staying in school.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?
For every child to learn and acquire skills for the future…
- Access to education services, including preschool and school readiness services, needs to be expanded, while equitability of service provision and funding needs to be strengthened. Access to service for girls, IDPs, and children with disabilities, should be promoted.
- Emphasis on foundational literacy and numeracy needs to be strengthened, particularly in early grades, ensuring students acquire foundational skills early in life.
- Inclusivity of education needs to be improved, including through provision of custom-made assistive devices and teacher training focusing on inclusive education.
- Community engagement should be enhanced by strengthening the capacity of school councils and building the role of communities as active contributors in children’s development. Meaningful child and adolescent participation must be encouraged to encourage children and adolescents to express their views and contribute to identification of solutions.
- Emergency preparedness in the education sector needs to be strengthened through improving school infrastructure, pre-positioning learning materials and building emergency response capacity, and strengthening collaboration between schools and education authorities for resilient disaster risk reduction planning.
Insecurity in the north left many children without access to school in northern Mozambique. Humanitarian organizations need around US $23 million to meet education-related humanitarian needs in the country.
In Cabo Delgado province alone, 114 classrooms were destroyed, and less than half of 386 schools affected opened for the 2022 school year due to destroyed infrastructure as well as persistent access and security problems in several districts.
Story: Building back better at Sambazo primary school
The primary school at Sambazo in Dondo district was destroyed three times – by Cyclone Idai in 2019, tropical storm Chalane in 2020, and tropical cyclone Eloise in 2021. Now, says school director Henrique Tomo, it has been rebuilt to withstand the forces of nature and ensure children will be able to continue learning in a safe environment even when the next storm hits.
As part of UNICEF’s global strategy to build back better after cyclones, UNICEF partnered with the European Union and the AVSI Foundation to rebuild the Sambazo primary school with a mix of local materials and roof sheeting to keep the roof in place during heavy rains and powerful winds.
Previously, the children were studying under trees or in open spaces, making it difficult to achieve learning objectives. Children were easily distracted and could not follow the teacher. It is also dangerous for the children outside, exposed to the elements and extreme weather that made them sick. “One time, a cobra bit a 12-year-old student and he had to be taken to the hospital. He survived, but this is no way for children to study,” director Tomo says.
Tomo expects the new infrastructure to last at least 10 years given the improved resilient construction quality. “We are very happy to have this new school,” he says.
Thanks to UNICEF’s support, more than 55,000 children are learning in safer schools reconstructed after cyclone damage. Since 2019, 1,025 classrooms across 192 schools have been reconstructed, including administrative rooms and inclusive sanitation blocks and ramps to accommodate children living with disability. None of these classrooms suffered damage during Cyclone Freddy, which made landfall in Mozambique on two occasions in 2023.
UNICEF’S RESPONSE
With support from partners, UNICEF works closely with the Government of Mozambique to strengthen education service provision. UNICEF prioritizes:
- Supporting implementation of the Education Strategic Plan and the Inclusive Education and Development of Children with Disabilities Strategy for 2020-2029 through a systems-strengthening approach.
- Support for the roll-out of an equitable multisectoral early childhood education strategy, including at least one year of compulsory preschool and the expansion of accelerated school readiness.
- Promoting equity in education by supporting access to education for children with disabilities and girls and by finding alternative pathways to education for vulnerable adolescents.
- Improving primary education quality using innovations such as digital learning and other solutions to accelerate learning for children.
- Promoting access to early learning and alternative learning opportunities for adolescents, with the objective of strengthening school readiness and reaching out-of-school adolescents with education and skills.
- Supporting delivery of education services in emergency contexts, with the objective of always ensuring learning continuity and a supportive environment for children.
Without school and without an education, all opportunities for our development are closed. We can't socialize, we can't get a job, it's difficult to form a family.
Between 2019 and 2021, the infrastructure of the Sambazo primary school was destroyed by three separate cyclones and tropical storms. Now the school has been rebuilt with new infrastructure and materials to make it resistant to cyclones. The school was not damaged during Cyclone Freddy in 2023.
Story: A second chance at education
When conflict began in 2017, the Nahavara primary school took in 524 displaced children. “At the beginning, it was not too difficult to integrate the students,” says school director Lopes Abibo.
But now, the school has grown far beyond its capacity – last year, it went from 2,000 students to 3,880 students due to continued displacement. The school has 35 teachers who are themselves displaced, and 43 teachers from the area.
“Because we have more students than classrooms, we teach in three shifts,” says director Abibo. The first shift starts at 6:40am, the last ends at 5pm, each one teaching 12 classes of 50 students. Some students study under trees, some under makeshift plastic sheeting, and some in hard structures. The school has eight main classrooms and another eight temporary learning spaces, or TLS. The TLS were installed by UNICEF after part of the school infrastructure was destroyed during Cyclone Kenneth in 2019.
The existing infrastructure is inadequate to meet student’s needs, and UNICEF is currently building a new inclusive toilet facility for the school, adding to the school’s three 5,000 litre water tanks. In addition to supporting the physical rehabilitation of the school, UNICEF is working to accelerate learning for both displaced and host-community students at the school through implementing partner Terre des Hommes, which supports extra classes to ensure students don’t fall behind and drop out.
Terre des Hommes also works within the community to enrol or re-enrol children in school. “Many people live in poverty, this is why many people don’t come to school,” explains social worker Cesar de Santos. Terre des Hommes supports the families and children with learning materials and training tutors to provide after-hours help in school. UNICEF finances Terre des Hommes’ work to train teachers, provide teaching materials, work with the school council on gender-based violence awareness, and work within the community.
“I am very proud of our beautiful school and of our students who can read and speak Portuguese,” says director Abibo. “My hope for the future of the children of this area is that they continue to secondary school to continue their education.”
