The Education Commission’s Pioneer Country Initiative has been on the road the past few weeks. Following recent visits to Uganda, Malawi and Ethiopia, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete led a Commission delegation to meet with His Excellency President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique on 8 December 2016. The Presidents were joined by the Minister of Finance and Planning and Deputy Ministers of Higher Education, Science and Technology and Technical Education as well as Education and Human Development.
Along with the Commission report, The Learning Generation: Investing in education for a changing world, President Nyusi received a Presidential briefing detailing the state of education in Mozambique as well as projections of what the country could achieve if it adopted the Commission’s Learning Generation vision.
The challenges before Mozambique are clear as only one in ten preschool age children are enrolled in school today, but under the Commission’s vision defined by smart funding and the better use of existing resources, pre-primary enrollment could increase to 60 percent by 2040. And at the primary level, completion rates – which today have stalled around 50% – could be nearly universal by 2030. Secondary and post-secondary enrollment could also see generational transformations if reforms are made. Indeed, smart investments in quality could increase the number of students learning by more than a factor of four.
President Nyusi welcomed the Commission’s findings and said Mozambique’s education spending moving forward will reflect the Commission’s vision for expanded financing alongside the better use of existing resources. He also indicated that Mozambique is ready to take the necessary steps to join the Learning Generation. This support from Mozambique’s government was reiterated in a later meeting between President Kikwete and various ministers where the Deputy Minister of Education spoke to the country’s education financing challenges and welcomed the Commission’s Financing Compact for the Learning Generation.