Maputo — Mozambican Education Minister Aires Aly said in Maputo on Wednesday that though there are still problems of access of children to school, the main challenge to the country, at national level, is about the quality of education.

Addressing the opening session of a seminar on Reading and Writing, under the theme "know how to read and write to learn more", Aly admitted that there are still 'serious' problems with the quality of education and the performance of students.

"We are all aware that the fight against poverty calls for education, and additional efforts to improve quality in this sector are pressing", he said.

Aly recalled that for the five year period 2005/2009, the government programme established education as one of its priorities, and the main challenges were outlined as expanding access to school, improving the quality of education, and improving institutional capacity.

"Concerning the first challenge, significant progress has been made, although there are still not enough schools to cater for every child of school age", said Aly. "But the government is striving to improve the quality of education, thus meeting the second objective of the programme".

All participants to this three day seminar agreed about the poor quality of education in the country, and pointed to a number of ways in which this can be noted, particularly in primary education.

Presenting a paper on "'Reading and Literacy: a question of citizenship', the vice chancellor of the Polytechnic University, Lourenco do Rosario, noted that there is usually a very simplistic understanding of the concept of literacy in Mozambique.

He said that the ability to read does not only mean the capacity to put letters together, but understanding and retaining the message. According to him, when children read and do not understand the contents of the text, they give up that activity.

Rosario insisted on the need for the learning process to include attractive elements and practices, that are useful to local society, involving concrete local problems.

"If the pupil belongs to a rural society, where hunting is practiced, then elements of his reading and learning should include aspects about hunting, if agriculture is practiced, then agriculture should be reflected" he said.

Do Rosario suggested, among other strategies, the need to recover the "heroes" of fiction stories of typically Mozambican mythology as a means to encourage children to read more, while learning aspects of the local culture.

He claimed that what currently happens is that thousands of children in the formal education system, particularly those in the rural areas, are being taught aspects that have nothing to do with the local reality, in terms of history, geography and language.

He launched into a lament that Mozambican children, particularly in the urban areas, grow up knowing about Spiderman, Peter Pan and Cinderella, but have never heard of the country's first president, Samora Machel. Rosario also suggested the re-introduction of pre-primary education, a level in the formal system that was dropped about 20 years ago.