The Articulation between Upper-secondary and Higher

Education in a war-torn society: The Mozambican case study

By

Arlindo Chilundo, Manuel Lobo, Augusta Maita, Ernesto Navohola

Introduction

• The paper describes the Mozambican educational system and its evolution since the independence.

• Details are cast on the situation of secondary education and on the transition mechanisms from upper secondary education into higher education.

• It also pays a special attention to quality assurance mechanisms, regional and gender disparities in the access to higher education, the expansion of higher education institutions to the provinces, and other issues that can undermine the possibility of the different groups of students to enter higher education.

Background information

• 1975 – Independence of the country;• Situation in Education:

– a very high illiteracy rate of about 93%;– lack of qualified personnel and particularly teachers,

health care personnel and other specialized people.

• Government response:– massive literacy campaigns:– special training programs particularly for social areas;– National System of Education which was followed by

a comprehensive curriculum reform.

Background information (cont)

• 1976-1992: destabilization war that affected the whole country and more so the education system (educational infrastructures destroyed, reducing the government capacity to provide education mainly in the countryside with the necessary quality).

• 1992 – Peace agreements and the investments in education increased, the schools were rebuilt and the educational system was very rapidly expanded with the emphasis to primary education at the beginning.

Background information (cont)

• 1990 – New constitution and the opening to private providers in education. Since then new private schools and HEIs have been established.

The education system in Mozambique

1. Primary Education comprises 2 levels:– EP1 (lower level of primary education with 5 years

of study - from 1st to 5th grade);– EP2 (upper level of primary education with 2 years

of schooling- from 6th to 7th grade.

2. Secondary Education, divided into 2 cycles:– ESG1 - first cycle of 3 years is from 8th to 10th

grade (lower secondary education);– ESG2 - second cycle (from 11th to 12th grade

(upper secondary education)

The education system in Mozambique (cont)

3. The technical and vocational education and training (TVET) comprises three levels:

(i) elementary (duration of two/three years and it is equivalent to upper primary (EP2); ;

(ii) Basic (three years) - equivalent to ESG1 ;

(iii) middle level (four years) - equivalent to ESG2 .

The basic and middle level cover three areas of training: agriculture, industrial and commercial.

The education system in Mozambique (cont)

• Tertiary education (Universities, Institutes, Academies, Polytechnics) – all after 12 years of successful schooling.

• Now the country has 23 HEIs (11 public and 12 private), with 43 thousand students enrolled in 2006. Higher education subsystem has grown more than eleven-fold over the past 16 years in terms of student numbers, from about 3,750 students in 1989 to more than 43,000 in 2006, almost half of the students enrolled in upper secondary education.

The education system in Mozambique (cont)

• Rapid expansion of HE in the country: Only in the last 4 years (2002 to 2006) the number of students in higher education more than tripled from 13.752 in 8 HEIs in 2001-2002 to more than 43 thousand students in 23 HEIs in 2006.

• Concerns about quality assurance (creation of a National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council in 2007)

ARTICULATION BETWEEN THE UPPER SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION

• Higher education law 5/2003: only students that have completed 12th grade of education or the equivalent (TVET, or TT) can attend university.

• Apart from this general criteria, each university is allowed to define own criteria in a basis of professional experience of the candidate. These criteria have to be approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

ARTICULATION BETWEEN THE UPPER SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION (cont)

• Universities also regulate the conditions for a student to be admitted and study according to the national policies, preferences of the candidates and capacity of the institution.

• Admission examinations to be admitted to some HEIs (UEM, UP, others).

• Some HEI like ISCTEM and ISPU (Polytecnic University) have organized pre-university courses in their schools to prepare students to enter the University. For these students there is no need to pass an examination to be admitted into the Institution owner of the school.

Candidates and places in UEM per year

Number of candidates per province - UEMCandidates

181 239 387 521 564 733 904 8631606

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Proportion of candidates to admission examination to the UEM by province compared with the

proportion of graduates of 12th grade per province

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70%Proportion ofcandidates toadmissionexaminationto the UEMper province

Graduates2005

Graduates of ESG2, per province in 2006, compared with admitted to the UEM in 2006

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Graduatesin 2005

Proportionof admitedto the UEMin 2006 perprovince

Number of students from 2005-2006 by gender in public and

private HEIs

Female % Female Male % Male Total Female % Female Male % Male Total

Public 4,935 26% 13,928 74% 18,863 9,043 28% 22,725 72% 31,768

Private 4,441 47% 4,994 53% 9,435 5,175 46% 5,977 54% 11,152

Total 9,376 33% 18,922 67% 28,298 14,218 33% 28,702 67% 42,920

Students 2005 Students 2006

The Issue of quality in secondary education:

• Evaluating by the admission examinations we came to the conclusion that, although from year to year there are more candidates, the scores the students get in these examinations are not increasing.

• There is a sense that quality of education is decreasing in secondary schools. Reasons:– New secondary schools are opened without all

teachers, particularly in scienc.e subjects like Physics and Chemistry, and Drawing

Average scores by subject in admission

exams (UEM) from 2004-2006

Articulation within Higher Education and with other subsystems

Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT):• Transform the current rigid program structure into a more flexible

one allowing both horizontal and vertical mobility of students;• Articulate transitions between Secondary Education and Higher

Education and between different Higher Education levels;• Mobility between private and public Higher Education Institutions

(HEI);• Allow regional mobility within the country;• Allow regional mobility with neighbouring countries as well as wider

international mobility;• Increase transparency, and more flexible responses to labour

market demands;• Improve quality through competition amongst various HEIs to

enhance the acceptance of their students by other HEIs or by the labour market.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS

1. Lack of qualified teachers, particularly for science subjects in the provinces and remote areas, is the main factor for the increase of regional disparities in the access to higher education;

2. Positive discrimination to accommodate students of some provinces helps to reduce the disparities among provinces, but it can not be taken as a long term strategy;

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (cont)

3. An urgent need to accelerate the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms. An authority to deal with quality issues in higher education must be created and supported in order to avert the declining trend of quality;

4. To fully address regional disparities there is a need improve the distribution of ESG2 along the country. In parallel, there is a need to also increase the number of HEIs in the provinces.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (cont)

5. The government may want to consider policies to increase private participation to finance secondary and higher education, which may include the tuition and fees hike for those who can pay, and the consolidation of the looming scholarship scheme to finance poor and talented students;

6. To address the quality issues in secondary education, the government may want to consider the need to increase the teaching hours, through the extension of the school year, and revise the assessment system, particularly the final examinations in Mozambican secondary schools as they are very time consuming and contribute to reducing the time on task.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (cont)

7. Consider the possibility of introducing one exam that can serve for the upper level secondary education and for admission in HEIs. This could save human and financial resources as well as time for the schools and universities.

End of the presentation

Thank You for your attention!