Literacy/Education Development Interview - WAY, Ilha de Mozambique
The Schools Project
I had the opportunity to visit a local educational NGO called WAY, standing for We And You, located on the island of Mozambique. I was fortunate to spend some time with the local director, who told me about their work combating illiteracy and the issues in education in Mozambique.
Can you please give me a brief background of WAY, and go into your goals and hopes for the program?
The organization was started by a Mozambiquan, who is a member of the family that runs one of the biggest companies in Mozambique, named JFS. The family had a house in Ihla, and the friend decided to start the organization for the local community. After waiting for government approval to start the organization for three years, during which time they worked to set it up as a university foundation, with the hope of providing scholarships to local students, they morphed the organization into its present form. They have built 2 preschools on the mainland to date, to serve a need that has so far gone completely unmet in terms of adolescent education. Their original intention was to build the schools on the island, but seeing that the island is overpopulated, the government directed them to build instead on the mainland, which is much less served by both domestic and foreign NGO's. In the process, WAY also was able to complete a well for freshwater on the mainland.
What is your approach to education here on the island and on the mainland?
On the island there are 3 sessions for learning in the evenings for the local high school kids. There are an average of 3 kids for each class, which last 45 minutes each. The classes aim to support second-language literacy as well as helping the kids to succeed in the government curriculum. On the mainland, the two preschools provide breakfast everyday to the students, who are then given basic instruction in Portuguese. The teachers use songs, parts of the body, and teach other basics to the children, who all speak the local language and have not had exposure to Portuguese, the national language and language of the school systems (this creates a huge problem with literacy in a second language, and is one of the main obstacles facing the national school system.) There are 2 teachers, 1 per school, 1 helper per school, ,and one cooker that are employed by WAY. The staff and students are there are between 8-10am every day. The teachers were found from contacting the community leaders/mayors of the villages, who suggested the people to hire. One of the teachers is a language teacher and the other just has the basics. WAY has been here for 3 years in its present form. The program is also starting a scholarship to send one of the students they tutor to Nampula for college for 3 years.
What are some of the issues in the schools that you are seeking to combat with your programs?
The students tend to be tough to teach here on the island. There is a lot of cheating here that happens in the classroom. A lot of cheating with grades, in bribing the teachers, and the girls also give the teachers sexual favors for grades. Here, people tend to be nice to you if they want something from you, and this translates to the classrooms and local mentality. Also, there is a big lack of materials in the schools-there are simply too many kids, with sometimes 80 children in a class. The kids also cannot afford the books that they have to purchase after the primary level (not even close!) The kids are always borrowing the books from WAY just to do their work. The teachers are also not very well trained; there are Portuguese teachers who do not speak Portuguese. Teachers are looked up to for the wrong reasons, and many tend to not set good examples for the students. In general, they are getting about 2000 meticals a month ($67), which is not much, so many choose to subsidize this with money from the students who will pay them for grades. This is endemic here in Mozambique. Tthe headmaster of the school also never shows up, which has created a huge problem with leadership at the secondary school here on the island. Because of the overcrowding, school is only in the morning or afternoon; in the morning is the secondary school, and in the afternoon is the middle school. There are also night classes for mainly the people who work during the day but still want to graduate as well as pregnant women.
What other educational programs have you tried to implement here on the island?
WAY wants to move into the secondary schools and the primary schools to do HIV education programs, but there is not a director at the secondary school to work with, which has created a big problem for getting this program started. In the primary schools, there are too many students. They have become extremely overcrowded and very difficult to work with as well. Many people come here from the mainland for opportunities and the island has become overcrowded. In addition, historically, the civil war also didn't reach the island, which created a situation of many war refugees fleeing here, which also added to the population pressures, and thus, the pressures on the schools.
Could you tell me about any vocational or alternative education that exists on the island?
There is a great technical training school on the island, which is one of the best in the country. Students from all over the region come here to study. (Showing the simple reality that even in the same geographic and demographic situation, school management and leadership will make or break a school culture). They are doing practical work, such as construction, welding, and management classes for the kids. In the morning the kids study and in the evening they have practical lessons in their vocations. This school is government sponsored, but is has much less corruption than the regular schools because of the nature of the work that they are doing and because of a stronger administration.
What groups are being specifically targeted by your programs, and how are they chosen by WAY?
We target the general youth. We will go to the secondary school to find the best students, conduct interviews, and select the students from there. WAY was started an open basis, in the aspect of the male/female ratio, but as time went on we have moved to working with only male students (interesting!) The females have been less motivated and they run the high risk of pregnancy. There is also a lot of family pressure on the females. WAY is simply looking for the most committed students through speaking with the teachers and administrators that will have the best chance at moving on to higher education. (Although not an approach that I agree with, it is interesting to see how this choice was made in a pragmatic manner here in the local level).
Many of the citizens of the country, particularly in outlying areas, are not speaking the national tongue of Portuguese; how are the efforts being made to support local language literacy as well as second language literacy being undertaken?
Macua is the local language that is spoken by most of the people here. However, WAY does not work with this local language. In the schools they only teach Portuguese, which has many issues attached to it, but this is the national curriculum that the schools need to implement. In Mozambique, there are 11 districts and 11 different majorly spoken dialects, which creates many problem for the educational system.
Teachers play an absolutely crucial role in this area. How are teachers retained, paid, trained, and motivated to progress in their work? What are the incentives for doing a good job in the classroom?
There are very little to no incentives for the teachers to do a good job in the classroom. The school system here is set up to make the appearance that it is doing well, but there is very little actual learning going on. This is the facade of learning. The government is using the education system as a propaganda tool, to show that they are improving, so that the donor money keeps coming in, but the reality is quite different in the schools.
Two specific areas for my own study include educational technology and local language literacy programs. Have you done any work in these two areas, or do you know of other organizations doing work in these two areas?
The kids have informatics class in the secondary school which seems to work reasonably well. (How about the computer labs in the village?) The Millenio computer lab is not being used by the kids because of the costs involved. SEMAN also does computer education. The problem for these organizations is in having local partners on the ground. The locals tend to be unreliable in their experience and there is no accountability with the workers here. Thus, there is very little trust with the locals and the NGO's, which is a major problem with teaching and with the educational organizations.
Where do you see your programs in 5 years? 10 Years?
This depends on the funding which is coming mainly from private Portuguese companies. Ideally, we will have 1 or 2 kids in college in Nampula and will also have reformed the recruiting program for the kids.
What resources are currently most needed by both your organization and by the schools system in Mozambique overall?
Decent teachers are the most critical need here, as well as changing the culture of corruption.
For WAY, the most critical need would be money to get the kids to college and money for a person who specialized in development to come in and professionally manage the operations. They do not want to build anything else, just to maximize the utilization of what they are doing.
Is technology being implemented in any way by WAY to help with the education of these students?
WAY used to have one computer and one projector, which were both stolen; however, the kids have a huge interest in technology, even if it is not with the internet. The demand is certainly there.
