Seoul, May 23, 2015 -- Today the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education approved a US$57.9 million grant to support education in Mozambique.
The grant will focus on early learning in primary education. In particular, the grant will help improve school readiness, enhance the learning and teaching environment, strengthen school management and promote local governance and accountability.
“Mozambique has been a strong partner of the Global Partnership for Education and has made good progress over recent years,” said Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education Secretariat. “We are pleased that Mozambique has been approved for a Global Partnership grant, committing to an equitable quality education for all children in Mozambique.”
“We are working hard to make our schools function more effectively. This is not an easy task as there are many challenges, and our human and financial capacity is limited,” said Jorge Ferrão, Honorable Minister of Education and Human Development of Mozambique. “In the coming years, we will focus on what is the foundation of our system: ensuring that children learn to read and write. We will do this by optimizing the resources available to us. We thank the Global Partnership of Education for their trust and continued financial and technical support, which we consider crucial to a successful implementation of our sector plan in the coming years.” Minister Ferrão added.
Mozambique joined the Global Partnership for Education in 2003 and has previously received two grants totaling US$169 million. The country has made important gains in education over the past several years.
According to data of the Ministry´s education management information system (EMIS), the net enrollment rate of 6 year-old children in first grade increased from 67 percent in 2009 to 82 percent in 2014. The student-teacher ratio in primary education dropped from 69 students per teacher in 2009 to 62.5 students per teacher in 2014. Gender parity is also improving, with 47 percent of students being female.
However, high drop-out rates and early reading, writing and numeracy skills of children remain challenging in Mozambique and negatively affect the primary completion rate, literacy rate and transition to secondary education.
Recent data showed that only 70 percent of all students who attended first grade in 2012 entered third grade in 2014 and less than half are completing a full cycle of primary education.
Mozambique is one of the first countries to receive a grant under the Global Partnership’s new funding model, which incentivizes developing countries to improve equity, efficiency and quality in education by linking a portion of funding to results. Mozambique will receive an initial amount of US$40.53 million which will cover interventions such as curriculum reform for primary education, teacher training, production and provision of revised learning materials and enhancing school management capacities. The remaining part of the grant will be based on specific results in areas jointly agreed with the government, including good governance, improved classroom dynamics and equitable distribution and efficient use of resources.
***
The Global Partnership for Education mobilizes global and national efforts to achieve quality education for all children, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable, through inclusive partnership, financing and a focus on effective education systems. The Global Partnership is an independently governed multi-stakeholder partnership with 60 developing country governments, as well as donors, civil society/non-governmental organizations, teacher organizations, international organizations, the private sector and foundations. Fifty percent of GPE's work is in fragile and conflict affected countries.
Media contacts:
In Maputo: Manuel Rego, manuel.rego@mined.gov.mz
In Washington, D.C.: Alexandra Humme, ahumme@globalpartnership.org