Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Setting I 83

3.2.3 Prinary Education and its Teachers

In 1980 work began on the elaboration of the new Hational Education
Systea <S^,.JΓ.E.) which was to start in 1983. The SHE envisages 7 years of
compulsory schooling for all, starting from the age of 7 (or earlier if
so wished, as in the case of town children).

Schools function in three shifts, the 3rd shift being for evening classes.
The maximum number of children per class should be 75, with a national
teacher-pupil ratio of 1:55 <1:88 before 1980) <Johnston,1984). The medium
of Instruction is Portuguese from the beginning of Grade 1. At the end of
each year the pupils have to pass an exam to be admitted to the
following year.

... the Ministry of Education calculates that 12% of 1st grade
entrants complete 4th Grade in four years. ... Repetition rates for
1st and 2nd Grade are around 30%. (Johnston,1984:47 and 48).

In 1983 the pass rate from 1st to 2nd Grade was 61% <1982 = 51%) and
from 2nd to 3rd Grade was 65% <Machel,G.,1985a)

In evaluating repetition and drop-out figures, it is important to consider
other factors before going into pedagogical reasons:

- 1982 is considered the last year when education, and indeed the whole
country, was not severely affected by the drought and the war
<Machel,G.,1985b) : by mid-1984, 840 schools were destroyed or damaged
by the counter-revolutionaries <Machel,1984:52) and by the end of the
year 280.000 children were unable to continue their classes
<Machel,G.,1985a);

- children, especially in rural areas, miss sch∞l very often, for a
number of reasons such as poor health, families needing them to work
at home, absence of teachers, long distances to walk to school;
parents may interrupt their studies to send them to initiation
ceremonies involving appropriate preparation;

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