Luanda – The minister of Education, Luísa Grilo, said on Thursday that the Angolan 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 zero precarious schools, zero improvised schools by 2027,” 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 precariousness of schools is also linked to the restoration of toilets and the creation of conditions for a better teaching and learning environment.
According to the minister, 68 municipalities with makeshift schools were catalogued, with emphasis on the provinces of Benguela, Huíla and Uíge.
She also added that the mapping made it possible to identify the gaps, in terms of school infrastructure, and make a plan for the construction of schools in places where there is a shortage.
Likewise, she 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.
“We want this project to be increasingly focused on the quality of education, through articulation and interaction with the other bodies in the sector”, she emphasized.
The official clarified that this component will make the 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”, she 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 neediest, in terms of transportation and the purchase of school material, as a way of encouraging their permanence in classrooms.
She also made it known that, as part of the implementation of the Pilot phase, in Luanda, in a first phase, 500 students, from the municipalities of Viana, Icolo and Bengo, already benefit from a subsidy of 8,000 kwanzas per month.
She clarified that the project plans, in this pilot phase, to benefit 300,000 children and to reach 900,000 beneficiaries by the end of the project.
During the meeting, the commission was informed of the development of PAT II actions since its opening in 2022.
The project aims, mainly, 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 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 tangible actions that will result in the empowerment of girls and teenagers.
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 effectiveness and monitoring and scrupulous compliance with its three structural components, namely, empowering Angolan girls, reducing poverty and management.
Among the commission's goals, 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 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.
FMA/SC/DOJ
