WhatsApp Video 2025-03-29 um 06.38.24_2c29ea3b.mp4
Mike
<aside> In Maputo, limited access to quality education and low awareness of its importance hinder social and economic development. As a result, nearly 40% of Mozambique’s population is illiterate, leaving them with severely limited job opportunities (Club of Mozambique, 2023). One of the main drivers of this issue is the country’s high dropout rate, with Maputo City surpassing the national average, weakening the city’s resilience. Poverty, gender inequality, and the need for children to contribute to household incomes are common reasons for dropping out (Mambo et al., 2019). Many families either cannot afford or do not prioritize education, as the short-term loss of income from attending school is seen as more costly than its long-term benefits. This lack of awareness about the value of education poses a major threat to Maputo’s long-term social and economic success (JICA, 2015). Addressing this challenge is essential to ensuring inclusive and equitable education that empowers future generations and fosters sustainable livelihoods.
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<aside> Our solution focuses on raising parental awareness of education’s long-term opportunities and benefits, helping them see it as a valuable investment in parents and their children’s future. To achieve this, we engage directly with parents and communities to highlight overlooked opportunities and shift perceptions. To further enhance schooling’s relevance, we also propose adapting the curriculum, we propose adapting the curriculum to include essential skills in tourism, manufacturing and transportation, which are key sectors in Maputo, while collaborating with companies to demonstrate education’s practical value and create career pathways (EENI, n.d). Financial feasibility is ensured through partnerships with NGOs like Save the Children and CARE, which provide critical resources such as food, textbooks, and teacher training, which have proven to reduce dropout rates (Human Rights Careers, n.d. & UNICEF, n.d.). To improve accessibility, we advocate for flexible schooling options, such as part-time attendance with supplemental homework, allowing children to balance education with household responsibilities. This approach increases participation, fosters parental support, and ensures education is both practical and attainable.
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<aside> Our solution assumes that raising parental awareness will lead to increased school attendance, but the exact impact remains uncertain, even though studies suggest a positive correlation. Cultural and economic barriers may still prevent families from prioritizing education, despite awareness efforts. Additionally, while incorporating industry-relevant skills into the curriculum is expected to boost engagement, we lack concrete data on employer willingness to participate. Although there is evidence of a skilled labor shortage, this does not guarantee company buy-in. The feasibility of flexible schooling options also hinges on government approval, which remains uncertain.
To address these uncertainties, we propose pilot programs in select communities to assess parental response and student retention. Collaborating with parents, students, local businesses, and policymakers helps to refine curriculum adjustments and gauge industry demand. Surveys and focus groups will identify barriers to adoption, ensuring adaptability and collecting data and refining strategies will help enhance effectiveness.
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<aside> Mozambique’s very high score of 85 indicates that it is a strongly hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organisation is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralisation is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat (Hofstede, n.d.)
With a very low score of 15, Mozambique is considered a collectivistic society. This is evident in a close, long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount and overrides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies: offense leads to shame and the loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, and management is the management of groups. (Hofstede, n.d.)
Mozambique is currently one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 181 out of 189 on the Human Development Index. Like many African countries, Mozambique’s political unrest and internal conflict stopped it from reaching long-term economic stability, contributing to the pervasive challenges of poverty (The Borgen Project, n.d.).
Due to an acute shortage of skilled labor in Mozambique, firms often hire foreign employees with the required skills. The government of Mozambique limits the number of expatriates a business can employ in relation to the number of Mozambican citizens it employs. Mozambican law requires employers to devise skills transfer programs to train Mozambican nationals to eventually replace the foreign workers (U.S. Department of State, n.d.).
Additional future solution: In the future digital learning or mobile education programs could also be leveraged to increase participation, however this depend highly on the development of Maputo’s spotty internet infrastructure, the development of technical skills, and availability of technology .
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