Illiteracy Rate Of Mozambique At A Glance Education Essay

The purpose of our research is to have a better understanding about the condition of illiteracy in Mozambique such as the reasons of high illiteracy rate in Mozambique, gender issues and solutions to reduce illiteracy. Illiteracy is defined as the condition of being unable to read and write. Our area of study is focused on Mozambique which is one of the country of Bottom Billion. We also hope to raise the awareness among all nations about the importance of education through this research.

The sampling method we used throughout this research is purposive sampling and snowball sampling. We have sent out our questionnaire which consists of 9 questions to 30 respondents who came from Mozambique. They are all full time students resident in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). Each of them is given 15 minutes to answer the questions. Our research is a small scale study which concentrates only on Mozambican students in UTP.

From our research, we found out that most of the respondents grade illiteracy rate as average. Besides, the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is due to insufficient budgets. Female has higher illiteracy rate than male is because of the cultural background of Mozambique. Introducing more high quality teachers and provide enough facilities are among the effective solutions to reduce illiteracy rate, as stated by our respondents.

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In conclusion, the Mozambique government should revise their current plan in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Besides, the government should also compromise and develop strategies with international communities to contain enough funds for education facilities and adult literacy programs, so that every Mozambicans can gain access to basic education.

The limitations of our research are that our scope of study is narrow and it does not represent the overall opinions of every Mozambicans. Thus, the research is encouraged to be carried out outside UTP with a larger group of respondents involved, so that the data obtained is more reliable. The time allocated to complete this research should be increased too, in order to intensify our understandings and researches on the illiteracy in Mozambique.

CONTENTS

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………… pg.2

Chapter 1: Introduction …………………………………………………….. pg.4 – 5

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Mozambique (Country Context) ……..…………………………. pg.6

2.2 History of Literacy in Mozambique …..………………………… pg.6 – 7

2.3 Statistics of Illiteracy in Mozambique .…..…………………….. pg.7 – 8

2.4 Structure of the current educational system……..……………. pg.8

2.5 Reasons, solutions and consequences regarding illiteracy … pg.9 – 10 Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Overview ………………………………………………………… pg.11

3.2 Population/Sample ……………………………………………… pg.11

3.3 Location ………………………………………………………….. pg.11

3.4 Limitation ………………………………………………………… pg.11-12

3.5 Sampling technique …………………………………………….. pg.12

3.6 Procedure ………………………………………………………… pg.12

3.7 Materials …………………………………………………………. pg.13

3.8 Statistical Treatment ……………………………………………. pg.13

Chapter 4: Results ……………………………………………………………. pg.14 – 18

Chapter 5: Discussion

5.1 Reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique ……… pg.19

5.2 Effects of illiteracy ……………………………………………….. pg.20

5.3 Illiteracy rate among women and men in Mozambique ……… pg.20

5.4 Solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique ……………… pg.20 – 21

5.5 The role of the international community……………………….. pg.21

5.6 Limitations and Recommendation ……………………………… pg.22

Chapter 6: Conclusion ………………………………………………………… pg.23

References …………………………………………………………………….. pg.24 – 25

Appendix

Sample Questionnaire …………………………………………………. pg.26 – 27

Chapter 1: Introduction

Our group has decided to study the issue of illiteracy which still exists, in fact, getting more serious for the “Bottom Billion”. Based on Oxford dictionary, illiteracy is defined as the condition of being unable to read and write. It can be further explained as the ignorance resulting from not reading. The “Bottom Billion” refers to those people living in impoverished countries which fail to progress, despite international aid and support. Collier (2007) points out that the majorities of the 5-billion people in the “developing world” are getting richer at an unprecedented rate, however, a group of countries, where mostly in Africa and Central Asia, are stuck and that development assistance should be focused heavily on them. In this context, the conflict of illiteracy is rather important and need to be resolved immediately.

Our area of study is focused on Mozambique. Mozambique situated in south eastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, with almost 17.5 million inhabitants living in an area of 801,590 km2. The country’s main economy is based on agriculture where more than 70% of the population live in rural areas and work mainly in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. In All Africa (2011), Deputy Education Minister Augusto Jone pointed out that the illiteracy rate was 60.5% when the First Literacy and Adult Education Strategy were approved in 2005, however in between 2005 and 2010; the rate was cut to 48.1%. Besides, South African Press Association (2007) stated, Ernesto Muianga, the national director of adult education in the ministry of education and culture said illiteracy level in the country is still low where only seven out of 100 Mozambicans could read and write. Melo (n.d.) mentioned that Mozambique is still lack of schools and teachers to guarantee education for the nation’s youth after independence in 1975 where an estimated 60% of adults still cannot read and write, with the illiteracy rate higher among women. These studies focused on the illiteracy rate in Mozambique which has fluctuated.

Our research paper is to get a better understanding and to investigate the condition of illiteracy in Mozambique. The increasing interest in the issue of illiteracy has heightened the need for education as a necessary element of development and fundamental human right. An educated population is essential to national development. Education is considered a key factor in promoting social well-being and in poverty reduction because it can have a positive impact on national productivity. This investigation hopes to create awareness among all nations so that the development of a country and human civilization is not neglected due to insufficient education.

Our research paper hopes to answer the following questions:

What are the reasons behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique?

What are the effects of illiteracy?

Why is the illiteracy rate among women higher than men in Mozambique?

What are the solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique?

How effective is the role of the international community in helping to improve the situation?

We hope our research paper is able to answer these questions. To complete this task, interview has been used as methodology. Our respondents are the Mozambique’s students studying in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) so that we can obtain the information directly. Our numbers of respondents are expected to be around 30.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Mozambique (Country Context)

Mozambique, with almost 17.5 million inhabitants living in an area of approximately 801590 km2, has the highest population among the former Portuguese African colonized country. (Mario & Nandja, 2005) The main economy of Mozambique is depends on agriculture. Thus, most of the Mozambicans live in rural areas which make up of 70% of total population. They work mainly in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. According to the World Bank (2011), Mozambique also have large share of youth population with about 44 per-cent of population is younger than 15 years old. After independence from colonization of Portugal for about 470 years in 1975, Mozambique was left with a very high illiteracy rate among adults with the illiteracy rate of about 93%. According to USAID (2009), an estimated of 60% of adult is still unable to read and write in 2009 where the rate decrease for about 33% with higher illiteracy rate among female.

2.2 History of Literacy in Mozambique

During the colonial period, formal education in Mozambique was provided by Koranic schools in Muslim towns. In 1907, education is conducted in Portuguese and some other native languages, where schools and textbooks were subjected to government approval. The class of “Assimilados” was firstly introduced in 1927 which separates Africans who possess a fluent command of Portuguese. In 1930, the education system has reached an amount of 47 elementary schools with 11217 students, 186 rudimentary schools where basic Portuguese were taught to just fewer than 30000 Africans and one secondary school in the capital of Mozambique. (Wikipedia, 2012)

Unfortunately, in the Mozambique Civil War (1977-1992) after the national independence from Portugal in 1975, schools were a particular target of Renamo attacks which causes the literacy rate decreases from 20% in 1983 to 14% in 1990. According to Mario and Nandja (2005), this first phase of education, from 1975 until the mid-1980, has recognized the importance of education as one of the main element of the national education. Mario and Nandja states that:

“This phase was marked by a dynamic and multifaceted process in which the people were mobilized in national reconstruction tasks, forging national unity and affirming their Mozambican identity. Accordingly:

a number of nationwide adult literacy and education campaigns were conducted;

a series of planned and agreed adult education and training schemes involving particular enterprises, communities and social sectors considered “strategic” for the social and economic development of the country were launched.”

From mid-1980s until 1995, the second phase of education in Mozambique went on and was marked by a substantial reduction in adult literacy and education activities owning to the escalation in the destabilization war. When National Adult Education Department was disbanded, this phase ended where their activities were taken over by National Basic Education Department. The third and as well as the last phase began in 1995 and is still going on that it can be as a process of rediscovery and rescue of adult literacy and education. In 1998, United Nations has estimated a literacy rate of 40% in Mozambique, where the literacy rate among women was almost half of the men.

2.3 Statistics of Illiteracy in Mozambique

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2012), the adult literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 55.06% out of the total population of people aged greater than 15 years old. For Malaysia, the adult literacy rate in 2009 is 92.46%. The difference between the two countries is about 37.4%. The youth literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 70.87% whereas for Malaysia is about 98.55% (Index Mundi, n.d.). The difference is approximately 27.7 % which is 10% less than the difference for adult literacy rate. The rate of youth literacy is higher than the adult literacy for both countries. Similarly, CIA World Factbook (2009) stated that the literacy rate of Mozambique is 47.8%. If compared with world’s highest literacy rate countries such as Andorra, Finland, Georgia, Greenland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway and Vatican City which have 100% rate of literacy, Mozambique is about 52.2% lesser. Mozambique is ranked as 199 out of 213 countries for the world literacy rate. (CIA World Factbook, 2009)

Women have high illiteracy rate if compared with men in Mozambique. According to the data published by the National Institute of Statistics in 2004, the illiteracy rate for female is 69% whereas male with 38% of illiteracy rate only. However, Millennium Development Goals (2010) as cited in United Nations Development Programme (n.d.), reported that the illiteracy rate of female has decreased as time goes, with about 66.2% in 2004 and dropped to 56% in 2009 after the launching of the literacy programmes. It also stated that the female literacy rate in rural areas is 31.3% while in urban is 70.1%

4. Structure of the current educational system

Currently, there are several policies in Mozambique that govern the education system. Among them, the most noticeable are the Republic of Mozambique, which states that every citizen has the rights to receive education and education consists of a means of achieving national unity, eradicating illiteracy, mastering science and technology and providing citizens with moral and civil values. The 1990 Constitution enshrines modernized the National Education System (SNE), bringing it into line with the new economic and political model. Besides, the eagerness of government and society in reducing the illiteracy rate due to the awareness towards the importance of education in the development of the country is further highlighted through the implementation of Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA) which defined literacy and adult education as primary goals in education programme from 2001 to 2005 as well as the National Strategy for Adult Literacy and Education and for Non-Formal Education (AEA/ENF) to eradicate illiteracy. The purposes and objectives of Education For All (EFA). (Mario and Nandja, 2005)

2.5 Reasons, solutions and consequences regarding illiteracy

According to Mario and Nandja (2005), the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is because most of the population does not have an adequate and full command of Portuguese, the country’s official language after the colonization of Portugal. Despite the government’s intention to increase funding budget for education, the amount instead remained the same without much significant difference. It is undeniable that the country has developed since its civil war but ineffective policies, government mismanagement and prolonged drought have haunted its economy. Mozambique’s annual budget depends much on foreign assistance and a large of the population lives under extreme condition. As mentioned by Linden and Rungo (2004), due to insufficient budget, the condition during learning is considered bad. The students face an amount of problems, such as lack of information, lack of classrooms and learning materials and inconvenient timetables. Lessons under a tree or in buildings of weak construction are common. These results in some of them have negative attitude towards the path of learning. Well, according to de Melo (n.d.), the reason behind the high illiteracy rate is mainly due to the legacy of colonialism and 16-year civil war.

Also, in this context, gender inequality plays vital role in contributing to the high rate of illiteracy. Mario, Nandja (2006), and Linden, Rungo (2004) highlighted the effect of unequal gender opportunities towards this issue. Linden mentioned that women seemed to be more interested in programmes specialized to enhance their lives and well-being of their families. Cultural background also affects significantly, where many women dropped out as they were kept at home when family members need care or the family ran out of money. There are also cases where men do not allow their wives to attend classes. They feel that women’s responsibilities are to stay at home, handling chores and it is pointless or rather ridiculous for them to learn new knowledge. To most of them, they assumed that wives must not be smarter than their husbands because if they do, they will start to disobey and become disobedient, opposing the usual cultural background.

After all, due to the high illiteracy rate, there a lot of measures that has been done in order to control and rectify this problem. de Melo (n.d.) told us that actually, IBIS has been working on 2 programmes, Education for Change in Rural Communities (ECRC) and a Governance programme. In ECRC, it is known that this intervention aimed to upgrade teachers’ training in the poorest parts of the countryside besides ensure better educational methods in the classroom with improved teaching materials. The main objective of ECRC is to introduce new concepts that underpin and inspire the reformations of Mozambican education.

On the other hand, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has employed a food security strategy which provides rural Mozambicans knowledge to be used to increase their incomes. To reduce the consequences brought by illiteracy, USAID recognized this problem by providing funds to literacy instructors in 10 specified rural districts to supplement the government’s struggling literacy program. In addition, the Ministry of Education of Mozambique is expanding its adult literacy program and now are able to incorporate the USAID-funded instructors into its payroll. (USAID, 2009)

Community, school and technology are the three fundamental components in order to improve literacy. As globalisation occurs, Karchmer, Mallette, Soteriou and Donald (2005) strongly agree the importance of ICT’s as the central technology for eradicating illiteracy. Hargreaves (1994), as cited by Glover and Law (2002), stated that the teaching force should be trained and retrained in order to cope with the demands of a national agenda for school improvement. Self-evaluation is also important in improving literacy rate. Education system in a country should aware about the initiative to develop a more effective planning processes, monitoring and evaluating techniques.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Overview

This chapter would focus on the methodology that was employed to enable the collection of data from the respondents’ points of view regarding the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Our task is to give out questionnaires to find out whether the causes, effects and solutions that we had listed out in the past chapters were agreed by our Mozambican respondents. These questionnaires were then compiled and the information obtained were analysed and interpreted.

3.2 Population/Sample

To conduct our research to find out more about the illiteracy rate in Mozambique, 30 individuals which were full-time students at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) were randomly selected to answer the questionnaires, we had prepared beforehand. Our respondents were fellow students of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), who came from Mozambique to further their studies in our country. They were from different courses, programmes and social background.

3.3 Location

Our location for the research was in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). The campus is built on a 400-hectare (1,000 acre) site strategically located at Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. All of our respondents lived inside the campus. Majority of our respondents lived in Village 2, while some lived in Village 1, Village 5 and Village 6.

3.4 Limitation

There were some of the limiting conditions that affected the accuracy of our research paper. For example, there were limited Mozambican students in our university to be respondents which mean we could not get sufficient information in details from that country. In addition, we had to search for them in order to have the questionnaire session because of the limited Mozambican students in our university. Besides, there were some conditions where the Mozambican students were reluctant to collaborate to carry out the research where most probably were due to their heavy language accent and some miscommunication.

3.5 Sampling Technique

The sampling techniques that we used were snowball sampling and purposive sampling. Using the snowballing technique, we found a group of Mozambican students to reach our target of 30 respondents by contacting some of our Mozambican friends. This technique helped us to obtain the information easily and precisely by approaching the Mozambican community in our University. The Mozambican community in our University are definitely literate and is able to aid in our research.

3.6 Procedure

The questionnaires were based on the respondents’ opinions on aspects related to the research, multiple choice questions were provided. Firstly, we contacted our Mozambican friends and went to their room to conduct the research. The Mozambican friends were helpful to bring us to meet the others Mozambican students in UTP and some even gave us their friends’ contacts for us to approach them. Mostly, we met them at their place of living and some in front of the market in UTP. We had also borrowed a car to reach Village 6 to approach the respondents there. All respondents were given fifteen minutes to complete the questionnaires on the spot. We had explained the questions in the questionnaire to those who didn’t understand and assisted them while answering to complete the research. After the time limit, we collected the questionnaires back and thanked them for their co-operation. The collected quantitative data was analysed and illustrated in tables, bar graphs and pie charts as in the results section.

3.7 Materials

We decided to use a quantitative method, instead of qualitative to obtain our results in regarding to the topic of research. We prepared a set of questions with 9 questions for them to fill up with multiple choice questions provided. Besides, we also provided a grading scale from very poor to excellent, from low to high or from strongly disagree to strongly agree, to ease the respondents’ answers and feedback. (Refer sample of questionnaire in Appendix 1)

3.8 Statistical Treatment

After we obtained the results or questionnaires from the respondents, we compiled the questionnaires according to the answers they had done. After that, we compared each questions and the answers in one questionnaire with the others. With different responses from the respondents, the data were able to compile effectively and efficiently. The answers from the 30 respondents are calculated and converted into percentages. Then, we substituted the information obtained into pie chart and bar chart form for easier analysis. Lastly, the statistics obtained from our results are interpreted and further discussed in the discussion section.

Chapter 4: Results

Figure 4.1: Illiteracy rate in Mozambique

According to the column chart above, most of the respondents consider that the illiteracy rate in Mozambique is neither high nor low.

Figure 4.2: Reasons for higher illiteracy rate in female than in male

According to the pie chart above, cultural background is the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate among female.

Figure 4.3: What illiterate affect the most

According to the pie chart above, illiterate affects employment prospects the most.

Figure 4.4: Reasons for the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique

According to the pie chart above, insufficient budget is the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique.

Figure 4.5: International community in helping to reduce illiteracy rate in Mozambique

From the column chart above, most of the respondents disagree that international community is helping in reducing illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Besides, the statistics above also shows that the percentage of respondents grade it as “Average” and ” Agree” are the same.

Figure 4.6: Education system in Mozambique

According to the column chart, most of the respondents feel that the education system in Mozambique is considered average.

Figure 4.7: Public awareness towards education in Mozambique

As shown in the column chart above, most of our respondents grade the public awareness in Mozambique towards education as average whereas none of them grade it as very poor.

Figure 4.8: Effort of government in reducing illiteracy rate in Mozambique

From the column chart above, most of the Mozambicans grade the effort of government in reducing illiteracy as average whereas only 10% of respondents grade it as very poor.

Figure 4.9: Ways to reduce illiteracy rate in Mozambique

According to the pie chart above, high quality teachers and sufficient facilities show the highest percentage proportion in the ways to reduce the illiteracy rate in Mozambique.

Chapter 5: Discussion

In this chapter, the quantitative results are discussed with the support of past research. Similarities and differences between the results and our literature review are explained logically and concluded for a more comprehensive discussion. The aim of this discussion is to investigate the reasons, consequences, solutions and the role of international community in regarding the illiteracy in Mozambique.

5.1 Reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique

In Figure 4.1, 33.67% of the respondents think that the illiteracy rate in Mozambique is considered average, where in fact; the adult literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 55.06% which is at a place of 199 out of 233 countries. The illiteracy rate is still most likely to be high, as approximately half of the Mozambican community is illiterate. In our study, there are only about 13.33% of our respondents considered the illiteracy rate in Mozambique as very high. None of them chose very low while grading the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. This is contradicting to our literature review which is possibly due to the low public awareness, specifically from the respondents.

Furthermore, it was found out that the major reasons that contribute the most to the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is due to insufficient budget where 40% of the respondents supported as shown in Figure 4.4. After the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975, surviving from the colonization era and the Mozambique Civil War which happened from 1977 to 1992, these probably result to insufficient budget and then the abandonment of education. Linden and Rungo (2004) mentioned too that, due to insufficient budget, the condition during learning is considered bad. The students face an amount of problems in the learning process which further results to the unresolved illiteracy problem in Mozambique.

The education system in Mozambique is a catalyst to improve literacy rate. In Figure 4.6, 40% of our respondents rate the current education system in Mozambique as average. Several policies in Mozambique that govern the education system are not noticeable, which indirectly causes the low level of respond from the Mozambican community. To achieve Education for All (EFA), a good education system provides a strong basis to attract the awareness of all Mozambicans, and to eradicate illiteracy.

5.2 Effects of illiteracy

Figure 4.2 shows 46.67% of our respondents feel that illiteracy affects employment prospects the most. The respondents realize that being literate and armed with knowledge are able to guarantee a job with promising aspects. In addition, the current condition in Mozambique depends mostly on agriculture, forestry and fishery as their main source of income. Mozambicans have to go by leaps and bounds to develop an advanced country, by exploring industries that require high qualifications and education, where literacy plays a pivotal role in increasing chances of employment prospects. Only 10% of them think that illiteracy will affect family life. This low value is likely to show that the awareness of education is still low. They may feel that they have adapted themselves perfectly in the traditional way, ignoring the importance of literacy and progressing.

5.3 Illiteracy rate among women and men in Mozambique

Based on Figure 4.2, 56.67% of the respondents stated that illiteracy rate among women is higher than men because of cultural background. It has been a tradition that males are the leader and also the sole bread winner of the family, whereas females should stay at home to do the house chores and nurture their children at home. Females are always prohibited from learning due to cultural purposes that causes the significant lower illiteracy rate among females. There are also possibilities that the programmes offered by the schools are mainly favouring the male students. Women seem to be more interested in programmes designed to improve their lives and the well-being of their families as stated by Mario and Nandja (2005).

5.4 Solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique

We found out that both introducing more high quality teachers and providing enough facilities for education show the highest percentage (30%) in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique as in Figure 4.9. This is due to the reason that there are still lacks of sufficient teachers in school especially in rural areas. Besides, there are also insufficient classroom where the children have to learn under extreme conditions in Mozambique. Thus, most of the respondents may think that both of the ways above are the solution to reduce the illiteracy rate in Mozambique.

As shown in Figure 4.7, most of the respondents grade the public awareness towards education among the Mozambicans as average with 40%. This is more likely to happen because of the less effectiveness of the campaign carried out which only stress on the importance of education to parts of the Mozambique nation and also yet being practiced thoroughly. It is clearly to be seen that the public awareness towards education should be increased and measures have to be taken drastically to resolve this issue.

Furthermore, as stated in Figure 4.8, 33.33% of our respondents grade the effort of the government in improving the literacy rate as average. It is possible that parts of the Mozambican do not recognize the policies introduced by government in reducing the illiteracy rate. Moreover, it is more likely that some of the respondents may think that the government did not increase the funds for adult literacy and education programmes. Besides , the plans in improving the education are not translated into action.

5.5 The role of the international community

From Figure 4.5, it shows that most of our respondents (30%) do not think that the international community is helping in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Only 6.67% of them agree that help has been provided. There are contradictions as United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has employed a food security with the purpose of increasing the Mozambicans’ incomes. Besides, financial assistance is also provided with literacy instructors in 10 specified rural districts are given funds. The existence of contradictions most probably results from the lack of awareness towards this issue in improving literacy.

5.6 Limitations and Recommendations

The result of the research is considered reliable. However, there are som