Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, presided, Friday (18), in Luanda, at the launch of the Girls Empowerment and Learning for All Project (PAT2), budgeted at US$250 million and which will benefit more than one million of citizens, as well as allowing the distribution of 620 thousand scholarships to young Angolans, especially girls.
The project, financed by the World Bank, begins to be implemented in March of this year and should end in December 2025. When speaking at the ceremony, the President of the Republic considered PAT II a project of great importance, for the objectives it intends to achieve. , however, said it is demanding, due to the complexity and multiplicity of actions and actors that will act in the different components.
He said that the project will contribute to the sustainable improvement of the quality of Education and Teaching in the country, adding that it will also be a timely response in the particular context of the Covid-19 pandemic, to strengthen the resilience of the National Education System. .
“Doing justice to the set of objectives and goals recommended, the Girl Empowerment and Learning for All Project will contribute to the promotion of access and school success, promoting schools, adequate teaching means and resources and in-service training provision for teachers and school managers”, he pointed out.
With a particular look and attention to girls and adolescents, João Lourenço highlighted that PAT II will implement concrete actions that will result in their empowerment. The project’s focus on girls and adolescents, he said, is justified, to the extent that factors linked to gender, especially in rural areas, are negatively marked, with access to and permanence in school and the school promotion of young women.
In this regard, the Head of State made it known that one of the main causes of school dropout by girls and adolescents, especially in rural areas, is early pregnancy, which he said is a concern of the authorities and society in general.
“We must all fight to promote Sexual Education and Reproductive Health for potential victims of such behavior and other measures in the communities where they live”, he urged.
The President stressed that Angola values cooperation with the World Bank and considers the PAT II Project to be of particular importance, due to the significant gains that will result from this cooperation. “I am sure that this partnership is advantageous for our country, so I take the opportunity to thank the World Bank for the support and confidence shown”, he stressed.
In order to achieve the expected results, João Lourenço urged the ministerial departments of Education ; Health; Social Action, Family and Women Promotion; Energy and Water; and Youth and Sports; Finance, as well as provincial governments and municipal administrations working as a team.
On the occasion, the Head of State stressed that this project is part of the Executive’s set of policy measures aimed at promoting quality education that meets the principles of equity, school inclusion and efficiency.
“It is on Education that the entire social, economic, political and cultural life of a country is based, as it alone guarantees development and guarantees the fundamental rights of all citizens, giving them the tools to participate, in a conscious and active way, in in building Angola, as a nation that wants to be prodigious in the regional and world context”, he stressed.
He said that it is for this reason that the Executive has been working hard to give Education a central role in the dynamics of transformation and development in the country, through increasing investment in the sector, both with OGE resources and with resources resulting from agreements and partnerships with other countries and international organizations.
He referred that the country has been carrying out, during the current legislature, “important actions” to guarantee children, young people and adults an increasing access to education, investing, in a continuous and sustained way, in the expansion of the school network.
In this context, the President said that since 2017, more than 650 new education and teaching establishments have been built and nearly 150 have been rehabilitated, which has allowed access to more than 1.2 million new students across the country.
Due to the fact that teachers are the pillars of the education system, as the quality of the student largely depends, the Head of State stressed that the Executive has been paying special attention to the hiring of new professionals to exercise the teaching activity in Education pre-school, primary and secondary education, as well as professionals for non-teaching school functions.
João Lourenço said that this is why, in the period in question, 45,000 teachers and 7,500 cleaning assistants joined the Education and Teaching System for the first time. Likewise, within the scope of the National Program for the Training and Management of Teaching Staff, a set of innovations was implemented with regard to the requirement of initial teacher training at various levels, their continuous training, updating and career progression of about of 105 thousand, in a first phase, according to the length of service and their level of qualification.
“These are some of the measures that are in line with the continuous appreciation of professionals in the sector, which stimulate their good performance and the attractiveness of the teaching career”, he declared.
President João Lourenço recognized that the conditions and means available for teaching work influence the quality and expected result, which is why he said that they have been progressively implementing measures to improve pedagogical and didactic resources, such as laboratories, classrooms information technology and multimedia, school manuals and bibliographic material to support teaching and students’ work, in addition to stimulating the acquisition of the reading habit and increasing literacy levels, through the National Reading Plan.
“The promotion of quality education and universal access has been our compass”, stressed the Head of the Executive Power, referring that the partnership with the World Bank in the Education sector falls within this scope. The First Lady, Ana Dias Lourenço, will be accompanied by the
Project guarantees multifaceted training
The Minister of Education explained that the Girls’ Empowerment and Learning for All Project is a successor to the Learning for All Project, started in 2013, also in partnership with the Bank that will, over the next five years, guarantee the multifaceted training of beneficiaries.
Luísa Grilo said that the project is formulated in three components. The first aims to empower and provide information and sexual and reproductive health services to 300,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 17, of which 180,000 are girls, with a view to ensuring a decrease in school-age pregnancy.
This component is also intended to prevent gender-based violence, encouraging students to stay in and return to school, through the granting of scholarships to the most vulnerable. It also includes the construction, expansion, rehabilitation and renovation of more complex schools, especially secondary schools.
The Minister of Education said that, in this component, intervention in 4,000 classrooms is planned to benefit 280,000 students per academic year, support for the professional development of 120,000 teachers, management training for 10,000 school directors and supervisors. educational programs, to directly benefit around 6 million students.
The third and final component aims to safeguard project management, its development, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of Education policies, as well as strengthening the management capacity of the Ministry of Education staff.
The World Bank director for Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe and Burundi, Jean-Christophe Carret, welcomed the project and said it was the best investment for a country. “Keeping girls in school and ensuring they learn will do much more for Angola’s future than any other public investment,” he said.
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