Maputo, 31 May (AIM) – The Mozambican Education Ministry has announced that the school books for first and second grade will only be available for the pupils in the first week of July, after the March deadline was missed.
According to Education Ministry spokesperson, Silvestre Dava, cited in Friday’s issue of the independent daily “O País”, activity exercise books have been printed for the initial grades to make up for the lack of textbooks, which are being printed in India.
The country expects to receive over six million first and second grade text books. However, the pupils, across the country, have already ended the first quarter of the school year without the books.
“After missing the March deadline, which was our forecast for having the pupils’ books, we have taken steps and, at this stage, we can only have the books for the first week of July. Eventually, we may have them by the end of June, but we probably expect them by the first week of July”, said Dava.
The spokesperson explained that the original plan was to print the textbooks within the country but this was not possible thanks to the rules imposed by the World Bank, which insisted on an international public tender. This was predictably won by a foreign company.
“We planned to print the books closer to the user. That means they should be printed in the country. As it happens, the rules required an international tender to be launched and companies from abroad won, which is why it’s not a Mozambican company that’s doing the printing”, Dava said.
He explained that as the books, which are coming from India, have not arrived yet, and so the Education Ministry resorted to activity books as the fall back plan.
“After realizing that we wouldn’t have the books on time, the staff from the Education Ministry set to figure out what alternative material could be put in the hands of the pupils to facilitate their learning. It was decided that activity books, entirely funded by the state budget, should be produced. There will be the same amount of these activity books as of the text books”, he said.
(AIM)
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