Mozambique : education sector assessment = Avaliacao da educacao

The schools suffer from poor physical infrastructure, low instructional quality, low quality of textbooks and instructional materials, and administrators with no specialized training. Limited access to education is also a problem, with only a third of primary school-aged children enrolled in school and only 3,000 students enrolled at the University, out of a population of about 15 million. Sixty percent of Mozambique"s GDP already comes from foreign donor support, and it appears that donors are the only means of repairing the educational system. This sector assessment includes nine chapters, covering in turn: primary education, academic secondary education, formal vocational/technical education, higher education, planning and administration, economic and financial aspects, foreign assistance, and recommendations. The authors conclude that aid should be provided as efficiently and directly as possible. While this might be achieved by trying to avoid the normal administrative channels, heavily centralized at the Ministry of Education, it is probably preferable to work through the Ministry and increase its administrative capacity. Nonproject assistance, accompanied by appropriate policy conditionality and targeted technical assistance, is recommended, along with a complementary program of matching grants to fund local and private initiatives in basic education. Another clear need is for in-service teacher training, as virtually none is now provided.