This book reviews Mozambique's education policy reforms undertaken in 2004. It analyzes the impact of the reforms, who benefitted most, and why. It links these reforms to the skills requirement of the labor market now and in the near future.

Coming out of civil war, Mozambique had an enormous education deficit. In 1997, five years after the peace treaty, 80 percent of the labor force reported to have no education at all, and school enrollment outside the large cities was miserable. Since then, Mozambique has come a long way in improving access to lower and upper primary through sustained investments in education infrastructure and introduction of important reforms. The primary education reform programs implemented in 2004, combined with a continuing program of school construction and teacher training, resulted in a 70% increase in enrollment in EP1 over 4 years with the highest gains for the poorest and most vulnerable children. Yet there was only a slight increase in student/teacher ratios. How did Mozambique do this, and what are the lessons going foward? The most important part of the reform appears to be the removal of the national school fee for primary level and the provision of free textbooks. These reforms provided the boost that poorer households needed to get their children in school. Continued investments in school construction helped as well. However, despite these efforts, there is still an education deficit. In 2008, over 1 million children who should be attending primary school were not. Over half of the children who began grade 1 in 2000 did not complete grade 7 by 2008. One reason is that school costs remain high, especially for grades 6 and above (EP2+). And quality is still not adequate in many schools. As a result, the transformation of the labor force is slow, as over half of the females who entered the labor force in the decade since 1997 did not even complete EP1. Analysis of employment and livelihood opportunities indicates that the transition out of subsistence agriculture requires primary education. This means that to achieve inclusive growth, the key strategic objective of the education system needs to be ensuring that as many children as possible start and finish primary school with competency in the basic subjects, as well as the skills to allow them to find productive economic activities and make these activities pay This book is aimed at policy makers in the education field.--publisher description.

This study brings to light the complexities and intricacies of transforming schools in the context of two conflicting and contradictory processes of transition: the transition from the colonial system of government to a totalitarian and centralised system rooted in a Socialist discourse; and the departure from a failed Socialist project en route to an unknown future dictated by a neo-liberal discourse, liberal democracy and free-market economy. It will be of interest to those concerned with the question of education reform in developing countries, particularly students, teachers and researchers. The study covers an important gap in Southern African studies in addressing the question of school reform under conditions of conflict and emergency.

Mozambique embarked on major curriculum reforms of basic education at the start of the 21st century. This study focuses on the implementation of these education policies at Marrere Teachers' Training College. It is guided by the following questions: How has Marrere Teachers' Training College as an institution responded to the new government initiatives? What has changed and what has remained the same at Marrere? Why? What are the perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of lecturers and administrators regarding the new policies? What teaching strategies and practices are used in classrooms? How do lecturers teach? How are students assessed? What are the educational challenges facing the College? How can its practices be improved? I have chosen a qualitative case study design in order to build a holistic picture of teaching and learning in a natural setting. Marrere College was chosen because it was among the first teacher training institutions to introduce the reforms and because a special programme, the Osuwela Project, introduced prior to the introduction of the new curriculum, included several of the reform's innovations. Marrere College has been experimenting with the implementation of curriculum change for longer than most of the other colleges in the country. Among the emerging findings is that lecturers have a superficial understanding of interdisciplinary pedagogies, especially in the social sciences, and few of them have applied these pedagogies in classrooms. On the other hand, the reforms seem to have had a deeper impact on their advocacy of learner-centred teaching strategies, although question-and-answer practices continue to be widely used. The College has also gone a long way in changing the organisation of subjects and in implementing new methods of assessment. While there has been in-service training of lecturers, there are inadequate resources and follow-up support by the Ministry of Education. The literature that informs this study is the scholarship on educational change, particularly the relationship between policy and practice. There are many international studies that have attempted to understand these problems over the last thirty years, but no such studies on teacher training in Mozambique. This study seeks to contribute to our understanding of the modalities of educational change in resource-poor contexts. It also hopes to make a contribution to the implementation of the basic education policies by the Mozambican Ministry of Education and to the practices of lecturers and administrators at Marrere and other colleges.

Discusses higher education in Mozambique, especially in the context of the dramatic changes the country has undergone. The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa commissioned case studies of higher education provision in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, as part of its effort to stimulate enlightened, equitable, and knowledge-based national development, and to provide guides to understanding. Mozambique suffers from a critical shortage of qualified professionals, as well as from acute regional disparities in wealth, development and trained human resources. Higher education is in great flux. A high priority, governmental and other sources are involved in a contested debate that provides a scenario for innovation and diversity. In association with Partnership for Higher Education in Africa; Mozambique: Imprensa & Livraria Universitária, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane