Mozambique

__**The Teaching of Civics in Mozambique **__ By Anthony Bernardo

**Country Overview**(e.g. geographical setting, population, history, form of government)

Mozambique is a former Portuguese coastal colony in the southern African region that gained it’s independence in 1975. It is located above South Africa and bordered to the east by Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. Tanzania is located to the north. Following Independence, the ruling party (and former revolutionary opposition to the Europeans), Frelimo, engaged in a brutal 30 year civil war with another opposition party named Renamo that killed an estimated one million people and made refugees out of about 1.7 million. During this time, the president of the Frelimo government, Samora Machel perished in a plane accident and was replaced by Joaquim Chissano. The war ended in 1994 with a peace agreement.

The population is about 23 million people with about 50% under the age of 14, with the total average age being about 17 years. 70% of the population lives below the poverty line with the annual GDP being about $1,000(which ranks it 211th in the world). Currently, Mozambique ranks 165 out of 169 countries worldwide on the Human Development Index, which measures a combination of economic, equality, and social factors. According to the UNDP, the HDI is “... a summary measure of human development. It measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.”( [] )

Government type: Republic Legislative:Unicameral Assembly Supreme Court **Context** (e.g. the educational system, grade levels, hours per week**)**  Mozambican children begin compulsory education in Primary school. Students stay in the lower level until grade five, then move to an “upper level” for grades six and seven. Secondary education is also compulsory, but only until the 10th grade, where students can then choose to complete 11th and 12th. Because there are so many young people in Mozambique, they have had to stagger the school day with morning groups and afternoon groups of students.   The government provides all materials to students. While there are matriculation fees in secondary school, all books are provided by the government. Civic education is not a mandatory class nor is it offered in most schools. When it is provided it is done so through secondary history classes, with the main knowledge transferred being an analysis of historical governments and systems. President Armando Guebuza has stated that while the governments job is to keep citizens informed, he is relying on outside influences such as organizations and community groups to educate the population on citizenry:"I would like to urge civil society organizations, community and religious leaders and other influential figures, as well as the mass media, to remain committed to this task, and to make a valuable contribution to civic education”

 The government has created the National Elections Committee(CNE, http://www.stae.org.mz) which organizes events and produces materials to inform citizens of their voting rights. It also works towards increasing voter turnout and registration. The CNE has also been charged with corruption on the local and state-wide levels due to the pressure it put on voters to vote for Frelimo. The CNE was created in 2007 for the 2nd presidential election in Mozambique's history. It operated by driving from town to town to put on seminars in the town square. //**Subject Content Standards **//

The main form of literal "Civic Education" in Mozambique takes place in Primary school, where they have "Civics" textbooks that cover topics including reading, writing,government, and culture. Since there is no class period assigned to civic education, this information is grouped into history courses. While all textbooks are provided, teachers have freedom to implement subject matter as they see fit. Testing has standardized expected knowledge to an extent, but schools still have freedom in how they present it.

//**Materials** (e.g. textbooks, websites) // Mozambique uses a variety of small textbooks for each grade.Each textbook focuses on a different topic. Longman Publishing secured the contract to the textbooks in Mozambique. Their webpage can be viewed here: []

//**Nature of Curriculum** (based on the models of civic education) // Due to the severe lack of infrastructure Mozambique faces, as well as it’s determination to lift itself out of poverty, the national education curriculum is based heavily on common core competencies such as reading, writing, and math. This links closely with the republican form of civic education, as there is pressure for all students to gain the most basic levels of literacy. While there are aspects of the diversity model, such as later history textbooks acknowledging the diverse and numerous cultures and languages in the nation, the main civic focus is getting the population (especially the rural poor) up to desired standards of achievement. The emphasis on the republican form of government also ties into donor support from wealthier nations. Mozambique has standardized it's educational system not just to promote higher levels of education, but to produce numbers for wealthier donor nations that require results to continue funding. Half of Mozambique's annual budget is comprised of donor money.

The government's main goal of curriculum implementation is for the reduction of poverty. A good explanation of this can be found at: [](Pages 47-51)

//**Main Issues and Challenges **//

Mozambique’s primary focus within the past ten years has been to ensure all children receive a compulsory education. The system lacks a basic infrastructure of success, with many teachers poorly trained and low attendance rates of students. There are also high rates of corruption in the school system, with many teachers giving passing grades to paying students. This analysis has brought to light that the education as a whole must be repaired structurally before implementation of new curriculum can be addressed. Without adequate electricity, water, school supplies, and classrooms, the atmosphere for learning will never improve. Currently, the average mean years of schooling is only 8.2 years per child. Over 94% of young women attend primary school with only 11% continuing through completion of secondary school. The student to teacher ratio is 61-1. Out of every 100 people, there are less than 2 internet users. Another challenge for Mozambique is how it faces its identity. The nation decided to stick with Portuguese language education in order to unify the country due to the high variances in local language. The local language divisions were seen as road block to national progress and unity after independence. While Portuguese is the language of the schools, the textbooks do discuss the multiple cultures and identities in Mozambican society:

// “The new curriculum nevertheless introduces important changes as it redefines Mozambican // // national identity in terms of a multilingual and multicultural society. The continuing effort // // to “preserve national unity,” in other words, is not in doubt. It is the definition of what // // constitutes national unity that is undergoing a transformation. // // (Balegamire Bazilashe et al)” //

Mozambique faces a litany of other issues that affect it's educational system. I believe that for now the republican model works but without some sort of in-school civic education it's value to the student decreases. When this sort of curriculum could be implemented is unknown, but it would have to come after Mozambique begins to retain more students in secondary education. It must also be said that high levels of political corruption in an essentially one-party nation discourage many people from engaging in community activities that diverge from popular opinion. It would behoove the educational system to integrate critical pedagogy in it's teacher training. This is easier said than done, as the main party in power(FRELIMO) would be wary of any training that questions systems in place.

//**Resources **(e.g. research articles, books, web sites) //

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AllAfrica.com(2010)//Mozambique: Civic Education not the Exclusive Task of the State//.Retrieved from: [|http://allafrica.com/stories/201011080094.htm] =====

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SACME: Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Equality(2011) //Country Profile: Mozambique//:Retrieved from: [] =====

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Rambe, P & Munyaradzi,M. //Gibbons Straddles the Mozambican Public Education System: Critical Literacy Challenges and Moral Dilemmas in Mozambican New Curriculum.//International Journal for Educational Integrity (2004). pp. 43-56 Vol.1,Number 7=====

UNESCO: Institute for Statistics(2011).//General profile, Mozambique//. Retrieved from::http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/document.aspx?ReportId=124&IF_Language=en&BR_Country=5080
**Miscellaneous**