Setting I 84
- girls are still removed from school when they reach puberty, although
the percentage of girls in primary schools went up from 33.9% In 1975
to 43.2% in 1984 (Xachel,G.,1985b), a result of the committment of
FRE.LI.XO. to promote the liberation of women from the double
oppression of traditional and colonial attitudes <Xugomba,1980;
Urdang,1985; Isaacman and Stephen,1984);
- many children are undernourished and too weak to engage in school
work. Teachers may be in the same condition;
- the material conditions of many schools, mostly rural, are completely
Indequate in terms of buildings, sanitation, furniture and equipment.
Texb∞ks, exercise b∞ks and pencils, distributed by the Ministry
central planning offices, do not always reach the village schools, even
If great efforts are put into overcoming disheartening transport
problems.
Subjects of study in the primary school are Portuguese, Arithmetic, Manual
Work and Production, Physical Education in the 1st Grade, with History,
Geography, Katural Sciences and Political Education being introduced in
later years. Materials are being produced so that every year a new grade
of the SEE is introduced, a new syllabus, Teacher's Manual and children's
textbooks are available.
Teachers are regarded as the key factor in Education (Machel ,1981). The
number of teachers trained since Independence documents well the effort
of the Government (14,355, beteween 1976 and 1983 - C.JP.,1985) , but the
scarcity of graduates available for teacher education and the ever
Increasing requirements of schools still leave the percentage of untrained
teachers in primary schools at 64% in 1981 (Johnston,1984:44); for Grade
5 and 6 only, the percentage of untrained teachers was 46% in 1984
(Machel,G.,1985b). 75% of the teachers are aged under 30 (Jonhston,1984).
The definition of 'trained teacher' in official statistics is sometimes
confused by the fact that many, varied refreshment courses and in-service
programmes have been carried out since Independence, many in the form of
crash courses to face urgent upgrading requirements. In the 17 Teacher
Training Centres for Primary Education (Grades 1 to 5) in operation,