New School Curriculum Takes Effect 19-01-2004   Education is a key instrument in the fight against absolute poverty, declared Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Maputo on Monday, at the start of the new school year, and the start of implementing a new curriculum for basic education.

Education is a key instrument in the fight against absolute poverty, declared Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Maputo on Monday, at the start of the new school year, and the start of implementing a new curriculum for basic education.

Mocumbi recalled that ever since independence in 1975, one of the main principles of the government had been to make the country's schools an instrument for development. An immediate priority had been to tackle an illiteracy rate which stood at over 90 per cent in 1975. Today, 29 years later, out of every 100 Mozambicans aged 15 or over, at least 47 know how to read and write, said Mocumbi.

One of the major innovations in the new curriculum is that Mozambican languages will be used as the medium of teaching in the first years of primary school.

Educational experts have long argued that teaching six year olds in Portuguese, a language many of them have never encountered before, is a recipe for failure. Mocumbi seemed to agree, when he declared that the right to be educated in one's mother tongue would stimulate higher academic success rates.

He added that bilingual (mother tongue plus Portuguese) education was a challenge requiring constant research on the part of the teachers, as well as guaranteed supplies of the requisite pedagogic material, and improved teacher training.

Mozambique is a mosaic of many ethnic and linguistic groups. In the first stage, Mocumbi said, it would only be possible to introduce the ten Mozambican languages whose written form has been standardised.

The new curriculum also introduces moral and ethical education, and attempts to make schooling more relevant to the needs of local communities. Mocumbi said the curriculum would demand a change of attitudes from teachers and pupils alike, so that pupils would eventually leave school with a new ability to tackle the challenges of life.

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