[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1137, 419], "category": "Text", "text": "Large numbers of students leave school without the academic skills expected for their grade level - **only 4.9% of grade three students master basic literacy skills**¹⁶. Less than 4% of the age-specific population has access to early childhood education¹⁷. Retention has remained a challenge. Many factors contribute to children not finishing school, including poverty, early marriage and adolescent pregnancies, lack of safe school spaces, degraded environmental resources, lack of adequate number of teachers and overcrowded classrooms. Progress towards gender parity in primary enrolment is encouraging but significant challenges are faced by girls, particularly due to child marriage (around 50% of girls marry before the age of 18), adolescent pregnancies, violence and sexual abuse in schools¹⁸ and lower participation in secondary education. All these challenges contribute to **Mozambique having one of the lowest levels of human capital in the world** and fundamentally undermine efforts for Mozambican children and youth to realise their full potential."}, {"bbox": [96, 435, 1137, 650], "category": "Text", "text": "**COVID-19 has aggravated the learning crisis¹⁹ and increased inequalities within and between schools.** Long school closures affected children and youths and exposed the lack of learning spaces and basic WASH conditions. Various measures were taken by the government of Mozambique, including reducing the pupil/teacher ratio (to 25/1) to allow social distancing; revision of the academic year to compensate for the lost learning, support to schools with additional funds specifically for COVID-19 response, with an additional grant for all secondary schools in the country. The EU has been contributing to this emergency education response as well as other social sectors through a 2 years state resilience building contract as an exceptional EU short-term emergency response to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic."}, {"bbox": [96, 668, 1137, 958], "category": "Text", "text": "**The conflict in the north has heavily affected the education sector,** by disrupting education attainment but also the mental health and psychological well-being of children and youth²⁰. Almost 38 000 students and 1 800 teachers have been displaced and relocated to new communities due to the conflict²¹. For the current academic year 183 schools remain closed²². Administrative buildings and district education offices have also been affected. This crisis came on top of the impacts of **climate change and extreme weather events** such as droughts, floods and cyclones. Tropical cyclones have compromised important infrastructure, as most schools were not designed to withstand the extreme weather events or to function as potential temporary emergency shelters. In the recent tropical storm Ana alone it is estimated that 500 classrooms where totally destroyed and more than 210 000 students and 3 700 teachers impacted²³. The reestablishment of education in the safe areas and education in emergencies activities to reach affected families, provision of teaching and learning material, school rehabilitation, and psychosocial support to teachers and students have been essential to address the short-term needs."}, {"bbox": [96, 977, 1137, 1059], "category": "Text", "text": "The new **decentralisation law**²⁴ institutes a decentralisation process for the education sector at the level of primary, secondary education and vocational training. This foresees an increase in decision making and management at provincial and district level but the real implications for the sector are not yet clear."}, {"bbox": [96, 1077, 1137, 1264], "category": "Text", "text": "The **new Law (18/2018) of the national education system** outlines a number of highly ambitious reforms, including the expansion of early childhood development, the introduction of bilingual education and teacher training reform. Introduced in a gradual way, the basic education system is foreseen to shift next year already from serving children up to grade seven to then serving children up to grade nine. This means the 7th grade will move into the secondary education and primary education reduced by one grade to six grades. There is not yet a road map on how the law will be implemented by realistic measures, and the COVID-19 pandemic severely delayed this planning."}, {"bbox": [96, 1282, 1137, 1363], "category": "Text", "text": "The policy environment seems promising, as the government of Mozambique has defined education as one of the priority sectors in its 5-year plans (PQG 2015-2019 and 2020-2024). The **Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2020-2029**, approved in early 2020, aims to 'equip citizens with knowledge, skills, cultural, moral, and civic values"}, {"bbox": [86, 1395, 1144, 1433], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁶ Second National Learning Assessment 2016: learning results of the Mozambican children have deteriorated during the past 3 years, to only 4.9% of the grade 3 students mastering basic literacy skills. Mathematics results are a bit better but still very low, at 7.7%."}, {"bbox": [86, 1433, 408, 1452], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ UNICEF (2019) MOZ ECE Diagnostic report"}, {"bbox": [86, 1452, 1144, 1492], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty noted that in one survey, 70 % of girl respondents reported that some teachers used sexual acts as a condition for promotion between grades and 50 % stated that they faced sexual abuse from teachers and boys in their peer groups."}, {"bbox": [86, 1492, 1144, 1530], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ In Mozambique school closure has been in effect since 23 March 2020, affecting a total of 8,5 million Mozambican children and youths during its full closure. Phased school reopening had begun in August 2020. In 2021, schools closed again for a shorter period."}, {"bbox": [86, 1530, 642, 1549], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁰Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) sector note on education, 2021"}, {"bbox": [86, 1549, 1144, 1587], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) sector note on education, 2021. The data presented might be an underestimation considering the almost 800 000 IDPs but it provides a strong representation of the physical damages that have occurred."}, {"bbox": [86, 1587, 673, 1607], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²² According to Cabo Delgado Provincial Directorate latest presentation, February 2022."}, {"bbox": [86, 1607, 764, 1627], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²³ Data from education in Emergencies coordination group/education cluster factsheet, January 2022."}, {"bbox": [86, 1627, 437, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁴ Decentralisation Law, Law nr 1/2018, Article 270."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1144, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 29"}]