Africa-Press – Angola. The Minister of Education, Luísa Grilo, said this Thursday that the Government intends to put an end to precarious and makeshift schools, by 2027, within the scope of the implementation of the Project for Empowerment of Girls and Learning for All (PAT II) .
“Therefore, we are assuming the challenges of, by 2027, zero precarious schools, zero improvised schools”, underlined the minister.
The minister, who was speaking on the sidelines of the 1st Ordinary Session of the Multisectoral Commission for the Implementation of the Project for Girls’ Empowerment and Learning for All (PAT II), guided by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, stressed that the strategy to fight The precariousness of schools is also linked to the rehabilitation of toilets and the creation of conditions so that children, especially women, can gain better teaching conditions.
Luísa Grilo said that this is one of the projects aimed at helping to combat the existence of precarious schools, since it has a component of construction and rehabilitation of school infrastructure.
According to the minister, 68 municipalities with makeshift schools were catalogued, with emphasis on the provinces of Benguela, Huíla and Uíge.
He also added that the mapping made it possible to identify gaps, in terms of school infrastructure, and with this to project the construction of schools in places where there is a lack.
Likewise, he stressed that the project will also train school managers to improve and enhance learning, through more participatory management, with the involvement of communities, a committee of parents and guardians.
“I mean, with that, that we want this project to be increasingly focused on the quality of education, through articulation and interaction with the other bodies in the sector”, he emphasized.
The official clarified that this component will make girls and boys able to finish secondary education, without having a pregnancy, at a stage when they are not yet prepared to be mothers or fathers.
“For this we have an incentive, with the attribution of a scholarship, in which the girl or boy can have some value that makes it possible to overcome difficulties in going to school, as well as buying material”, he said.
The minister reinforced that the PAT II includes scholarships for the benefit of enrolled students, starting from the seventh grade, with a subsidy to help families, especially the most needy, in terms of transportation and the purchase of school material, as a way of encouraging the permanence in classrooms.
He also made it known that, within the framework of the implementation of the Pilot phase, in the country’s capital, in a first phase 500 students, from the municipalities of Viana and Icolo and Bengo, already benefit from a subsidy of 8 thousand kwanzas per month.
He clarified that the project plans, in this pilot phase, to benefit, by the end of the current month, 300,000 children and, by the end of the project, to reach 900,000.
In addition, he referred that literacy teachers included in PAT II are also benefiting from a subsidy so that children do not miss classes.
During the meeting, the commission was informed of the development of PAT II actions since its opening in 2022.
The project aims, fundamentally, to empower girls through the theory of quality of education and the fight against poverty in education, as well as the sustainable improvement of the quality of education and Angolan teaching, for the strengthening of the education system, with innovative solutions for children , young people and adults, always with a particular eye and attention for girls and teenagers.
Budgeted at USD 250 million for the next five years, PAT II includes concrete actions that will result in the empowerment of girls and adolescents.
The commission, recently created by Presidential Order, is responsible, among others, for enforcing the general strategic orientation of PAT II, proposing the preparation of technical studies, reports and balance sheets on its validity and monitoring and scrupulous compliance with its three structural components, namely, empowering Angolan girls, reducing learning poverty in Angola and management.
Among the commission’s objectives, there is also the monitoring and evaluation of the project, as well as developing tasks aimed at creating technical, material and human conditions to boost and guarantee its implementation.
The commission, coordinated by the Vice-President of the Republic, is coordinated by the Minister of Education and includes the Ministers of Finance, Health, Environment, Youth and Sports, Social Action, Family and Women’s Promotion, and Public Administration, Labor and Social Security, the Ministers of Territorial Administration and of Energy and Water, among other personalities.
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