Ndalatando — The Education sector in Cuanza-Norte lacks 112 new schools to accommodate 28,000 children who are outside the learning system.
According to the provincial governor of Cuanza Norte, João Diogo Gaspar, who was speaking at the meeting chaired by the President of the Republic, João Gonçalves Lourenço, with the construction of the new classrooms (112 schools), the province will have full coverage.
According to the governor, the province, which has 160,000 students enrolled this school year, also needs 3,755 new teachers and more than 4,000 administrative assistants.
In the current school year, Cuanza-Norte has mobilized more than three thousand teachers who teach in 2,693 classrooms, distributed in more than two hundred schools.
Of the existing schools, he said, 116 are built with local material (adobe) that cry out for urgent rehabilitation.
In the chapter on vocational training, the governor noted that the province registered, this year, the inauguration, in the municipality of Lucala, of a training unit, called 'Cidadela Jovem de Sucesso'.
The institution ensures the technical and professional training of more than 2,500 young people, in different courses, some of which are in internship regimes.
Despite the aforementioned innovation, he said, the province is still calling for the construction of five new vocational training centers in some municipalities in the interior and a media library.
In the field of higher education, the governor welcomed the fact that Cuanza-Norte will be contemplated with the construction of a university campus that should house the province's Higher Polytechnic Institute.
Despite this gain, he said there is a need to build new university units in the municipalities of Ambaca and Cambambe.
The official also pointed out the need to strengthen public investments to ensure the management of existing units, especially with regard to the maintenance of infrastructures, laboratories and human resources.
He said that the scarcity of training opportunities represents a great concern for the Government, as it means a factor of flight of staff to other regions of the country and with a negative impact on local socio-economic development.
João Diogo Gaspar also pointed out the need to increase the number of scholarships for university students in the province, which has 445 university students with scholarships. LJ/IMA/YD/DOJ