Maputo, 27 Oct (AIM) – Mozambican ministries of Education and Finance Louveira have announced coordination of efforts in order to settle outstanding debts owed to teachers and secure funding for school textbooks for the 2027 academic year.
The country’s National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO) has been calling for a response to the long-running dispute over the government’s failure to pay teachers for overtime since 2023. ANAPRO once said that it has lost confidence in the government institutions it was negotiating with.
Anapro claims that all means of dialogue had been tried, without any satisfactory reply to their demands. The organization also says that it had approached the Education Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Administrative Tribunal, the Ombudsman and the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, all to no avail.
However, the education ministry, now led by Edson Macuácua, wants to solve the problem by verifying the amounts owed to teachers and make phased payments for overtime work.
Together with the finance minister Carla Louveira, the education ministry is working in order to mobilize the financial resources needed to print and distribute school textbooks for the 2027 academic year.
The initiative aims to ensure that learning materials are available when the new school year begins. However, the information released does not specify the funding required, the number of textbooks to be printed or the timetable for their production and distribution.
As part of their coordination, Macuácua and Louveira have committed to holding monthly meetings to monitor progress in settling the outstanding debts and mobilizing resources for the textbooks.
These meetings are expected to allow the two ministries to assess the measures under way and coordinate further action. However, no timetable has been announced for the full settlement of the debts, completion of the verification process for 2024 to 2026 or distribution of the school textbooks for the 2027 academic year.
(AIM)
Zt/Am/