Correcting mistakes detected in primary school textbooks in Mozambique should be concluded this year, and the books will be available for use in the 2023 school year.The institutions invited to work on the corrections, including the Eduardo Mondlane University, which is the oldest higher education establishment in the country, began last week to build teams for the task.

The Minister of Education, Carmelita Namashulua, acknowledged that, due to the complexity of the work, it is not yet possible to give an exact date for concluding the corrections.

Last Monday, in her first public reaction after the discovery of the mistakes, especially in the sixth grade Social Science textbook, the minister announced the withdrawal of that book, and a review of all textbooks in use for revision and correction.

This measure is intended to prevent students from assimilating syllabus contents riddled with errors and inaccuracies.

Namashalua said while the correction work is underway, teachers should use theme plans to prepare their lessons.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Feliciano Mahalambe, said the institution is urging teachers to redouble their efforts, as they did in previous years, during the emergencies caused by natural disasters and the pandemic, to avoid the failure of children.

A Commission of Inquiry is investigating how the textbooks came to be written so badly. They contain errors in basic maths, mistakes in geography, and ungrammatical Portuguese.

Perhaps most serious of all, one of the books praises colonialism for supposedly ending ethnic wars in Africa.

The author of the Social Science book, Firoza Bica, has said nothing about the scandal. Did she really write the book or did somebody else change it? And did nobody proof-read the books before they were sent to the printer? Claims of deliberate sabotage have been made, but have yet to be proved.

The General Director of the National Institute for the Development of Education (INDE), Ismael Nheze, was suspended a week ago, and the National Commission to Assess School Textbooks has been dissolved.

There have been demands that Namashalua herself should be sacked, while her defenders argue that sabotaging the textbooks might have been part of a plot to get rid of her.

The Educate HER Liberia team has embarked on a Country Tour conducting Girls’ Education Summits in all 15 counties.

The goal of the Girls Education Summit is to provide a platform for women, girls, and community leaders to engage local decision-makers and partners to build strong partnerships for joint actions for girls’ education throughout Liberia.

A key focus of the work is to enhance strategic partnerships among line ministries, and civil society organizations and citizens for increased awareness, coordination and monitoring, capacity, and commitment on policies supporting girls’ education.

During the summit, school administrators, education officers, traditional, religious, women and girl leaders meet to discuss the key issues and barriers to promoting and ensuring girls’ education in their communities.

Coming out of the discussions, County Action Plans for Girls Education, which outline joint actions to promote girls’ education at the county level will be validated.

These action plans will roll out at the county level and quarterly meetings will be held to discuss progress made, challenges and gaps identified, recommendations and next steps.

The plans will also be distributed to the national legislatures, relevant line ministries, donors, civil society organizations and other key education stakeholders to engender their strategic support and commitment to girls’ education. Women’s rights groups, autonomous social movements, and media institutions will also be targeted.

Educate HER strives to build strategic partnerships with the Government of Liberia, and civil society organizations for the effective implementation of National Policy on Girls Education.

Educate HER is a national coalition focused on ensuring the effective implementation of the National Policy on Girls Education, with specific focus on areas of the policy that addresses key barriers to girls’ attendance, retention and completion (GARC). This coalition is led by three women-led, women-rights organizations, (Helping Our People Excel (HOPE), CareFound Liberia and the Paramount Young Women Initiative (PAYOWI).

“Educate HER”: “Promoting Gender Equity and Equality in Education is a 3-year project supported by Oxfam-IBIS and Global Partners for Education through the Education Out Loud grant.