EDUCATION-MOZAMBIQUE: Orphans’ Choice: School or Survival?

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ruth Ansah Ayisi

MAPUTO, Feb 9 2007 (IPS) - The school year kicks off in Mozambique with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past. But educational prospects remain bleak for orphans like Regina Massango.

Regina was only 12 years old and had barely completed grade two of primary school when her sick mother asked her to drop out. ”My mother needed me to go work at my aunt’s house,” says Regina.

She had to pack her bags and leave her frail mother and three siblings in their home in the small railway town of Moamba to offer her services as a domestic worker in the capital, Maputo, some 45 kilometres away. Regina’s father had died almost 10 years ago.

”At my aunt’s home, I would start work at five in the morning until five in the afternoon, washing the family’s clothes, cooking, cleaning and looking after her three children. My aunt would beat me, just using her hand, if I did not finish everything.” Regina tells her story in a sad rather than bitter voice. She stares into space, talking only when prompted.

It was the lack of compensation that finally made her leave. ”Aunty had agreed to pay me 200,000 meticais a month (about seven US dollars) but she never did so I decided to escape. She was not treating me well.” Regina managed to return home.

At home she looked after her mother who was still very sick. Her mother has since died. Regina has not been back to school.

It is true that remarkable progress has been made in increasing children’s access to primary education in Mozambique. Between 1992 and 2005 the number of pupils in primary schools has tripled.

However, the government and its partners are concerned that the educational system is failing to meet the special needs of the very poor, many of whom are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.

Moreover, when orphaned children drop out of school they are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation which increase their risk of HIV infection. The majority of those leaving school prematurely are girls.

Statistics show that many children are dropping out after attending school for a few years. The completion rate at primary school level in 2005 was only 34 percent. This figure hides the gender dimension of dropping out. Broken down, the figure represents 28 percent of girls compared to 40 percent of boys.

It is likely that a significant number of those are orphaned children.

And as the HIV/AIDS pandemic takes its hold on this southern African countryû16 percent of the population aged 15-59 years are living with the virusùthe number of orphans is likely to increase. There were already about 1.6 million orphaned children under 18 years in 2006, with some 380,000 orphaned due to AIDS.

By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to reach 630,000 according to predictions from the National Institute of Statistics.

The ministry of education is aware that teachers cannot be the only ones who take responsibility for identifying orphans and giving them the special attention that they need to keep them in school or bring them back into school.

Teachers are already overwhelmed in conditions where they lack the most basic teaching aids. In 2005, only 58 percent of teachers in primary school were trained and, on average, each teacher had a class of 74 pupils.

To try to address the problem by drawing in other agencies, the ministry of education is collaborating with the ministries for women and social welfare and justice as well as partners such as the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Together they have been running a pilot study since 2005 in which selected schools are supported financially to carry out various initiatives that will assist orphans and other very poor children go to school. The support includes providing school materials, psychosocial support for orphans, and assistance with birth registration.

UNICEF has also supported the ministry of education to create what is known as child-friendly schools which provide a minimum package.

This included training in basic interactive teaching methods for teachers, supervisory and basic school management for school directors, and training in communityûschool relationships and governance for school council members.

The councils consist of teachers, community leaders and pupils, including orphans. In addition the schools are provided with desks, pens and books, and with basic healthcare, and water and separate toilet facilities for girls and boys.

The idea is to ensure that orphans and other vulnerable children, who may be heading households and lack psychosocial support at home, get this service from schools.

The child-friendly schools pilot study was implemented in Maganja de Costa district in the central province of Zambezia, which is one of the country’s most populous province but with some of the worst social indicators. Over one third of children between 7-18 years of age in Zambezia have never been to school.

The project will now be expanded to six more model districts in six provinces by 2009. The programme aims to reach at least 300,000 pupils in over 750 primary schools.

There are also HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in all the targeted schools. ”This is a key element, making sure that orphans and poor children are supported and not discriminated against,” Meritxell Relano, UNICEF project officer for education, points out.

”When I visit these child-friendly schools I notice a special solidarity and understanding among the children,” Relano contends.

”The main challenge now is to bring all these activities to scale,” adds Anya Manghezi, a technical advisor to the ministry of education. ”There is a lack of human resources, especially trained teachers.”

The ministry wants to look at training people in the communities and other members of civil society to take on the special needs of orphaned and vulnerable children.

For now, Regina’s needs are just growing bigger. Her mother died last July and she is now cooking and caring for her brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom, Lydia, is only eight years. ”I hope I can return to school soon,” Regina says while arranging the few possessions they have in their tiny mud and stick two-roomed home. (END/IPS/AF/SA/AB/HD/HE/DV/ED/PD/SD/CS/WO/MD/C2/RA/CW/07)