“The corrections made, contained in the advisors’ reports and signed by the Director of the National Institute for the Development of Education, were not fully accepted by the Porto Editora, revealing a negligence on its part in fulfilling its obligations,” the Minister of State stated. Education and Human Development, Carmelita Namashuloa.
The official was speaking during a press conference the purpose of which was to present the report of the commission of inquiry set up to investigate, within 15 days, the cause of errors classified as serious, in the 6th grade free distribution brochures in Mozambique.
According to the official, the booklets were approved without taking into account all the five evaluation stages stipulated in the contractual clauses, although the books passed the analysis of the National Institute for Education Development, by the Textbooks Department and Materials Department. and the National Directorate of Primary Education, which also reveals neglect and lack of professionalism on the part of these bodies.
The commission of inquiry recommends restructuring the Textbook Evaluation Board, focusing on the dismissal of the Director-General of the National Institute for the Development of Education, Ismail Nizi, and of the National Director of Primary Education, Gina Gibunda, who was also the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education and Human Development.
The Ministry of Education also announced the formation of a specialized committee to assess the financial matters related to the case, with a focus on analyzing the contracts signed with the authorities concerned with the production and printing of the book.
Among the various errors revealed in the book, which was removed from schools after the discovery of crows, is the geographical location of Mozambique, which in the book is located in East Africa and is not included as a country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the entity it co-founded.
Another serious anomaly is the location of the former border of Zimbabwe, a country that borders Mozambique, but the book notes that it is inundated by the Red Sea.
Misconceptions also include an illustration of the Angolan parliament as being from Mozambique.
In public education, Mozambique has a total of 13,337 primary schools and 677 secondary schools, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Education and Human Development.
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