The school enrolment rates tend to be higher in the Southern region; in Maputo City (96%), Maputo Province (95%), Gaza (91%), and Inhambane (91%) compared to the Central and Northern parts of the country. Tete Province has the lowest school enrolment rate at national level, 69%.

Boys and girls from higher wealth quintiles tend to have higher enrolment rates (95.2% boys and 94.5% girls), than girls and boys from lower quintiles (74.6% boys and 69.9% girls).

In general, the primary education enrolment rate of boys is greater than the enrolment rate of girls in all wealth quintiles. The difference between the enrolment rates of boys and of girls is the highest in the lowest wealth quintiles.

In 2008, the provinces of the southern region had higher completion rates, with the highest being for Maputo City (92.5%). Tete in the central region and Cabo Delgado in the north have the lowest EP1 completion rates, 62.5% and 62.1 respectively.

In the higher wealth quintiles the completion rates are higher (92.9%) than in the lower wealth quintiles (72.3%). This relation shows that the fact that EP1 is free does in itself not guarantee the stay of poorer households’ children at school until completion.

From 1997 to 2008 the net primary school conclusion rate in the first level (grades 1-5) increased from 22% in 1997 to 77% in 2008 (55% in 11 years) and the rate of adult education increased from 39.5% to 49.7% during the same period.

Primary Education in Mozambique comprises two levels, the 1st level (grade 1 to 5) and the 2nd level (grade 6 and 7).

Constraints on the achievement of the targets for 2015

• The increase of the primary education pupils is not always accompanied by the improvement of the quality of education;
• The lack of classrooms. A significant part of the 6 year-old children has no access to school;
• The combined fail and dropout rates produce considerable school waste;
• The student/teacher ratio continues high;
• The results that have been achieved in primary education create new challenges for the subsequent levels of education, namely general secondary and technical-professional education;
• The lack of a law making primary education compulsory;
• The existence of cultural habits which give little importance to schooling in the rural areas.

Recommendations for the achievement of the targets for 2015

• Improve the student/teacher ratio and improvement, support and supervision of the teaching/learning process.
• Strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Education, particularly at provincial, district and school level.
• It is necessary to continue the expansion of the next levels of education (ESG).
• Continue with teacher’s training.

Positive factors of progress in the indicators

• The Ministry of Education has a strategic plan that aims at increasing access to schools and improving the quality of education.
• Investment in the area has increased annually, and the sector’s proportion of the state budget is currently about 21%.
• The allocation of resources to schools and the free distribution of school books.
• The Government has recruited more teachers for primary education, about 10,000 new teachers per year.
• The Government has decided to make primary education free.

Source: Report on the Millennium Development Goals - Mozambique 2010