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| Impact of AIDS on Mozambique's education sector
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Maputo, Mozambique (PANA) -
The Mozambican Education
Ministry estimates that about 19,200 teachers and more than 100
senior education officials will die of the lethal disease AIDS,
or of AIDS-related causes, between the years 2000 and 2010.
Ministry documents say that 23.3 percent of these deaths
will occur in the central provinces, where rates of infection by
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are at their highest.
To face this situation, the ministry needs to increase by 25
percent, over a 10 year period, basic teacher training, and by
28 percent, university level training, merely to replace those
who are likely to die.
The document states that the HIV/AIDS epidemic will reduce
efficiency and increase costs in the education system as a whole
by over 1,900 billion meticais (about 86 million US dollars) over
the next 10 years, which is an increase of 6.9 percent compared
with the current costs.
Most of the increase in costs is to go into pensions for the
families of AIDS victims, and smaller amounts will go towards the
training of additional teachers.
Other major costs include improving the efficiency of the
education system, to reduce drop out and failure rates.
This pressure on the education system comes at a time when
the sector is struggling with a brain drain, as skilled staff
desert the public classrooms to work in the private sector.
Among the major problems that cause this situation are poor
working conditions and low wages.
As an example, the document notes that a university lecturer
at a private institution earns about three times more than if he
were in a public university.
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| Maputo - 21/09/2001 |
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