Setting / 90
3.4 The I.N.D.E. Project
The Instituto Nacional do DesenvolviJBento da EducaςSo is the Ministry of
Education Institute for Curriculum Development and Educational Research
in Mozamhique. It is based in the capital Maputo; its staff are
specialists in curriculum, teachers and researchers from Mozambique and
many different countries. The Institute receives financial assistance from
UKESCO.
Low pass rates at primary school level have always been a cause for
concern, and the acquisition of literacy in a L2 has been singled out as
one of the most problematic areas to be investigated. In 1982 a Research
Project was started on 'Bilingualism, Cognitive Development and Pre-school
Experience of Mozambican Children', in order to:
... analyze the pre-school experience of Mozambican children in the
communicative and cognitive use of their mother tongue ...
...analyze the communicative and cognitive demands of the school
which the learning of Portuguese as well as its use as the medium
of instruction place upon the pupils, especially in the lower
grades, and to evaluate the degree of mismatch between these
demands and the [home] experience.
... elaborate ... suggestions ... of how to profit from the child's
communicative and cognitive skills developed in its LI, in order
to diminish or eliminate the psycho- and Sociolinguistlc barriers
that affect school achievement, guaranteeing a greater continuity
between the child's pre-school experiences and formal education,
in spite of the obvious discontinuity provoked by the transition
from Ll to Portuguese. <. INDEt1982:3)
It was the first large research project with a f∞us on language in
education, and the first attempt to investigate the particular form of
school bilingualism in Mozambique, by focusing on rural children's
competence in LI, especially on those cognitive aspects believed to be
critical for school learning; it did not question the political decision
to use Portuguese as medium of instruction.