29 January 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's Minister of Education, Aires Aly, guaranteed on Tuesday that the 2008 school year has begun throughout the country, despite the flooding that has affected the major river valleys in the central provinces.
"Classes have begun in all the country's schools", declared the Minister categorically, when he spoke to reporters after the opening in Maputo of a regional literacy seminar.
In the flood-stricken areas, he said, teams from the Education Ministry are working to ensure that children have the opportunity to study, and that all the programmes on the school syllabus are carried out.
However, cited in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Alves Cangana, the director of education in the province worst hit by the floods, Sofala, admitted that there would be delays in starting classes in several schools.
In many instances, classes must be held under tents. 37 schools require tents in Machanga district, inundating by flooding on the Save river earlier this month, 16 in Nhamatanda in the Pungue valley, and 13 in Chemba, on the south bank of the Zambezi. A survey of school needs is still being undertaken in Caia and Marromeu, Sofala districts on the lower Zambezi that have been severely affected by flooding.
Furthermore, not all teachers have been able to return from holiday to their schools, because many of the roads are impassable.
Cangana guaranteed, however, that all the school textbooks for Sofala have been distributed to the districts and localities, and none have been damaged in the floods.
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