All you need is love.

I thought I’d try to share more of what I’ve seen and learned about Moz. As I’ll be teaching, it’s quite fitting that tech sessions have centered around the education system in Moz. After Moçambique gained independence, the country was engaged in a civil war until very recently. During this time, not only did Moçambique experience a “brain drain” (fleeing of educated people), but a lot of educational (but also in general) infrastructure were destroyed.

“Keep in mind the parents of the students you will be teaching lived through the civil war and probably didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. They’re new to this too.” 

The education system is comprised of 5 different levels/groups. Zeferino Martins, the new Minister of Education, is trying to start a pre-school system for children under 5, which was really exciting when I first heard about it. I’m a huge proponent of preschool and TK programs, but I’m not sure if this is what the Minister should be focusing on right now given the conditions of current schools (I’ll elaborate more later).

The 5 Groups:

Preschool

Primary

Secondary

Higher education

Nonformal

I’m going to preface a lot of information as official, and it’s the only way for me to emphasize that sometimes the official policy or story doesn’t reflect what really is going on. The official school ages for students range from 5-24 for K-12, but there are volunteers with 30 year olds in their 9^th grade classes.

Only primary school is compulsory here in Moçambique. Primary schools are separated into lower (EPI) which is grades 1-5 and higher (EP2) which is grades 6-7. Secondary school is also separated into two levels, but they’re referred to as ciclos (cycles). So, primero ciclo (first cycle) is grades 8-10 and segundo ciclo (second cycle) is grades 11-12.

Classroom Organization: Little.

Students are arranged into turmas or classes. They all take the same subjects (called disciplinas here) because they all stay in one room while the teachers move around.  (I’m glad that my parents often told me about their classes in China, because it’s really similar here in Moz.)  So for example: say there are 3 classes/groups of students in 8^th grade and they’re referred to as 8a, 8b, and 8c. All of 8a will take the same classes at the same time in the same room. However, unlike the Chinese system, the classes aren’t separated by skill levels (like advance, honors etc). You have students of varying abilities in your classes. Peter (a visiting current PCV) told us that not only are you trying to teach chemistry to people (which is difficult enough, but some of them can’t even read. It really causes you to question what you’re doing and why.

School Scheduling, so complicated.

The school calendar operates on a trimester system starting late January and ending late October.  It seems like most schools start late summer/fall. Don’t forget January is summer here! The grading scale used in Moz is 0-20, with 10 being a passing grade. Students have a national exam after 7^th, 10^th, and 12^thgrade.  November is the first round for national exams and second rounds (for those who don’t pass) are in December. In June, those who self studied are given an exam so they can also advance through the grades. You can self study? Why yes.

There is also a system of non-formal education to give 15+ year olds the opportunity to go to school. The classes are primarily held at night because a lot of them work during the day, but the classes are structure similarly to the previous mentioned way.

Actually, due to limited resources (ie, classrooms, teachers, chairs, tables) often times schools are separated into blocks. You either take classes in the morning or in the afternoon. Some schools have night blocks, which might be considered a part of the “non-formal” education.  My host brother has classes in the afternoon, which don’t start until 12. I could be teaching any of the three depending on my site, but I’m going to ask not to teach at night. 

Higher education is well, limited. There are only three universities in Moçambique: Universidade Eduardo Mondiane (UEM), Universidade Pedagógica (UP), and Universidade Católica de Moçambique. There are also a lot of teacher training universities, but they only serve as primary school teachers.  How many are there? I’m not sure.

Student school supply list: Bring chair to class every day.

We have tech sessions in the secondary school of Namaacha and if you asked me to describe it… Well, it could do with repairs. The chalkboard is falling apart at the bottom, the wood on the floors is coming up, and it’s crowded for the 40 of us just in chairs. When we talked about challenges we’d face when teaching, it really was a wakeup call. Apparently, we’d be lucky to get such a classroom. Supposedly, you can fit 70 people in that room with desks.  When I thought about overcrowding, I thought it would be students very close together, not that some students wouldn’t have seats. The primary school in the village Peter teaches has their students bring their own “chairs” (buckets) every day.

A huge problem with the Mozambican education system actually originates from what is supposed to be helpful. In order to meet development goals and to appease international pressure, Mozambican students are asked to take a large number of disciplines with outrageously ambitious curriculums. Students here are taking 10+ classes at a time. Why does a Mozambican need to learn Portuguese, French and English at the same time? I’m not sure. Hey guys, students here take Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at the same time every year.  Just looking through the curriculum requirements for chemistry for grades 8-12, makes me scared. I’ve been told that it’s not possible to teach it all, and I definitely argree.  It is extremely ambitious. It is extremely challenging. It is impossible. And that’s just for teaching. Think of how challenging it would be to learn and times that by 10.

Why do I say this? There are so many difficulties and hardships students face just in terms of going to school.  The main barriers are money and time. Payment is required not just for notebooks and pens, but uniforms, tuition, room and board. Higher levels of schools are located in cities, which can be very far from a student’s home in the nearby village. However, there are students that walk 2 hours to and from school. So of course this brings up the problem of time. It takes a lot more time to live life here. It takes time to get water, time to cook, time to sweep, time to work in the manchamba (household garden) and time is more limited because it’s dependent on the sun.  In places that don’t have electricity, forget about doing homework.  It gets dark before 7 here. Everything students learn must be written/copied down in their notebooks because we don’t have textbooks for students. Try learning chemistry without a periodic table.

Often times in order to try to get through the curriculum, teachers rush through lessons. A lot of information is just thrown at the students, if teachers manage to come to class. Classes meet only 2 times a week for 45 minutes  (excluding 2^nd cycle). So, in reality how many classes are students actually attending even if they were able to go to all of them?