Adult Literacy for Development in Mozambique

Abstract

The history of literacy learning in Mozambique proceeds through a number of sharply contrasting phases, and is particularly interesting in the way that it reveals its dependence on the political and economic strategy being practiced by the government. In each phase, the motivations of the providers and the seekers of access to literacy differ, as do the literacy results, in line with the prevailing relations of power, mode of production, and political situation. Underlying this paper are two basic understandings about the provision and use of access to adult literacy: —adult participation in literacy teaching-learning programs is first and foremost a question of motivation; and —large-scale successes in literacy programs are dependent on factors that raise and sustain that motivation, and therefore, principally on the power, legitimacy, and encouragement of the state (Lind and Johnston, 1986). The effects of literacy on society seem reasonably clear; at least, it is clear that societies with a high level of literacy are materially better off than those with a low level, and that the presence of widespread literacy skills in a society substantially affects its culture, relationships, power structure, and economy. To an extent this has given rise to the idea that education has the value of material capital and that economic development will take place if (and maybe only if) enough effort is invested in education. A careful look soon shows, however, that one is rather faced with a typical chicken and egg issue. Consequently, heavy investment in the promotion of literacy skills in a society does not automatically guarantee economic development. Nor is it necessarily satisfactory to begin by defining development as synonymous with economic growth.

Renegociar a Centralidade do Estado em Moçambique

“…Sem voltar detalhadamente à história da educação em Moçambique, (Castiano et al 2009;Gomez 1999;Johnston 1990), é contudo necessário precisar que ela representa um dos sectores da administração pública com maior número de funcionários. Cerca de 296 586 funcionários e agentes do Estado foram recenseados em 2013 pelo então Ministério da Função Pública, actual ministério da Administração Estatal e Função Pública (desde 2014).…”

“…Resumindo, a educação constituía o primeiro vector de integração na administração do Estado, e o professor era um ponto de acesso aos serviços administrativos, principalmente por causa da difi culdade provocada pela língua ofi cial única, da administração do Estado. Efectivamente de 97% de analfabetismo no fi nal do colonialismo, esta taxa baixou para 70% no início dos anos 1980, sendo por isso preciso sublinhar o progresso devido à expansão dos serviços de educação, nessa altura, relativamente ao período colonial, em que a educação era das mais reduzidas (Johnston 1990). Contudo, as incongruências dos planos modernizadores e o agravamento da guerra entre a Renamo e a Frelimo (1976Frelimo ( -1992, logo a seguir a independência, travaram sensivelmente as aspirações em matéria de educação.…”

The Conditions of Peasant Organisation: Fragmented Livelihoods and Social Memory in post-Independent Mozambique

“…Access to basic services such as education was extremely limited for black Mozambicans (Cross 1987). To the Portuguese rulers, education was not only unnecessary for their strategy, which was based on super-exploitation of unskilled manual labour, but higher levels of literacy were also viewed as a political danger (Johnston 1990). Mozambicans were prohibited from developing their own businesses, as a way for the colonial power to ensure access to cheap labour and the absence of competition from Mozambican businesses (Assis 1997).…”