Maputo — Mozambique's Ministry of Education is to distribute "micro-kits" for physics, chemistry and biology to 200 secondary schools in rural areas.

According to the daily newspaper "Diario de Mocambique", the move is in response to the high failure rates seen in science.

The micro-kits are intended to address the problem that students currently receive no practical experience of the subjects. Teachers will also receive training in the use of the micro-kits.

Speaking on the sidelines of the national meeting on secondary education, which is being held in Dondo, in Sofala province, the National Director of Secondary Education, Ivaldo Quincardete, revealed that 22 schools have already received micro-kits as part of the pilot phase.

According to Quincardete, "our objective is to get students to show an interest in natural sciences".

He revealed that to reduce the lack of teaching materials the ministry will also be purchasing eleven mobile science units, each with a library and equipment such as microscopes. These will be distributed to each of the country's provinces.

Quincardete explained that "the mobile units will go to the students and move from school to school, whilst the micro-kits will be given to rural schools that do not have libraries or laboratories".

He continued, "this is the beginning of a process and it will be reviewed. We will look at the impact and results".

Quincardete stated that the micro-kits will cost seventy million meticais (about 2.5 million US dollars) with funds coming from the country's cooperation partners.

A public tender to award the contract to put together the kits has been launched.