1.

Introduction

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, so do the risks we face. The COVID-19
pandemic has not stopped at national borders. It has affected people regardless of nationality,
level of education, income or gender. But the same has not been true for its consequences, which
have hit the most vulnerable hardest.

The educational system and institutions are going through a tough time in order to maintain the
educational activities as the immune system of children and students is weak, which might affect
the health badly. The study investigated the impact of COVID-19 period on education systems
and institutions

Students from privileged backgrounds, supported by their parents and eager and able to learn,
could find their way past closed school doors to alternative learning opportunities. Those from
disadvantaged backgrounds often remained shutting out when their schools shut down.

This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in our education systems – from
access to the broadband and computers needed for online education, and the supportive
environments needed to focus on learning, up to the misalignment between resources and needs.

If schools are slow to return to prior levels of performance, the growth losses will be
proportionately higher. Of course, slower growth from the loss of skills in today’s students will
only be seen in the long term. However, when considered over this term, the impact becomes
significant.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a severe impact on higher education as universities closed
their premises and countries shut their borders in response to lockdown measures. Although
higher education institutions were quick to replace face-to-face lectures with online learning,
these closures affected learning and examinations as well as the safety and legal status of
international students in their host country. Perhaps most importantly, the crisis raises questions
about the value offered by a university education which includes networking and social
opportunities as well as educational content. To remain relevant, universities will need to
reinvent their learning environments so that digitalization expands and complements student-
teacher and other relationships.
School closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have shed a light on numerous issues
affecting access to education, as well as broader socio-economic issues. As of 12 March, more
than 370 million children and youth are not attending school because of temporary or indefinite
country wide school closures mandated by governments in an attempt to slow the spread
of COVID-19. As of 29 March, nearly 90% of the world's learners were impacted by closures.

Even when school closures are temporary, it carries high social and economic costs. The
disruptions they cause affect people across communities, but their impact is more severe for
disadvantaged children and their families including interrupted learning, compromised nutrition,
childcare problems and consequent economic cost to families who cannot work. According to
Studi Economici Dell'Ocse (OECD) studies, school performance hinges critically on maintaining
close relationships with teachers. This is particularly true for students from disadvantaged
backgrounds, who may not have the parental support needed to learn on their own. Working
parents are more likely to miss work when schools close in order to take care of their children,
incurring wage loss in many instances and negatively impacting productivity. Localized school
closures place burdens on schools as parents and officials redirect children to schools that are
open.

1.1. Learning opportunities

Schools have closed across the country as a social distancing measure. Over eight million
children were immediately affected: 101,000 in pre-primary, 6.9 million in primary, 1.25 million
in secondary schools and over 85,000 students in technical and vocational education. More than
two-thirds of countries across the world have quickly adapted distance learning programmes.
However, most children in Mozambique lack access to the basic information channels, making
the transition to distance learning extremely challenging: 74 per cent of children live without
electricity, and only 2 per cent have access to the Internet, 35 per cent to radio and 22 per cent to
television. Access to information is even more limited for rural children.

Mozambique’s educational system is already battling poor educational outcomes. Before the
outbreak, in 2016, only 4.9 per cent of Grade 3 pupils had the desired literacy level, 26 per cent
of children aged 5-12 were out of school; and three-quarters (68 per cent) of children aged 12−13
years had not completed primary education, with rates reaching 86 per cent in Cabo Delgado.
Released from formal schooling, children’s time will be diverted to other activities to support
livelihoods and immediate family needs, which includes caring for the sick and elderly, which
are more likely to be taken up by girls.

Evidence from other countries affected by large scale pandemics also indicates increased
pregnancy risk for girls, which in turn increases the likelihood of dropout. Currently, in
Mozambique, 33.2 per cent of girls in urban areas and 44.4 per cent in rural areas get pregnant
before the age of 18. New family and school conditions expose more girls to the risks of
pregnancy, leaving them no option but to enter early marriage in order to escape poverty and
further humiliation in the community. Adverse coping strategies flourish when jobs and
educational opportunities are limited, and the economic welfare of the family is failing. The
longer schools are closed, the greater the loss of learning time and the greater the chances that
children, particularly girls, will not return to the classroom when schools reopen. A prolonged
school closure will also have an incremental effect on those who return to school, resulting in
grade repetition and a deteriorating educational achievement. The negative impact on learning
opportunities and outcomes will have a life-long impact on children’s future, affecting their
income-generation capacities and their participation in society.

2. Impact on National education

The COVID-19 outbreak puts more than 8 million children and 136,000 teachers at risk, due to
the closure of all schools since 23 March. While the closure of schools will help to avoid the
spread of the disease, it immediately affects full access to education and quality of learning.
Those most at risk are the children and families who are displaced as a result of natural disasters
and the violence in Cabo Delgado and vulnerable groups in society, such as children and families
with disabilities. More than half of these parents do not understand or read texts in Portuguese,
limiting knowledge about the disease and infection information.

Even prior to COVID-19, the Education system in Mozambique had been weakened by high
teacher absenteeism, limited teaching skills and effective days of teaching, distances from
community to schools, poverty, insecurity, cultural reasons, gender-based violence, natural
disasters (Idai, Kenneth, rainy seasons), and violence in Cabo Delgado. Now that schools are
closed, these challenges are exacerbated. Home methodology has not yet been developed and
many children and teachers do not have adequate ITC-facilities or resources to continuously
charge and maintain their cell phones, which will affect the quality of learning and achievement
of standard literacy and numeracy levels. Teachers do not have enough resources to manage
teaching from home and collecting tasks done at home by children, while many children do not
have conducive learning environments at home. Overall quality control of teaching or learning
from home is limited as educational institutions do not have the tools, equipment or training on
how to do so. The transition to digital learning will be especially challenging within lower-
income neighborhoods and communities, and amongst refugees and IDPs; relying on remote
learning and online classes exposes the country’s deep digital divides and socio-economic
vulnerabilities.

For children benefiting from school feeding, the suspension of classes also has an impact on their
food security, since meals in schools were contributing to their access to food and nutrition.
School feeding also represents an indirect income transfer to the families that will have to
provide the meals that were previously offered at schools before the suspension of classes.

2.1. Remote Learning plan

This time the nature of the emergency is unlike anything we have ever seen before, as children
may not even gather in the same place. As a consequence, the response must also be very
different; temporary learning spaces need to be virtual or remote.

MINEDH, with support from the Ministry of Health, is working with the United Nations, the
World Bank, key bilateral agencies, and other cooperating partners, in exploring alternative and
innovative ways to ensure that learning can continue remotely.

A critical task of any remote learning system is to support teachers’ ability to stay closely in
touch with their students despite being physically distant. For most children, community radios,
which have been successfully used in other countries, will be the most accessible means, but a
variety of other complementary distance-learning opportunities - such as television, digital
platforms, or catch-up and accelerated programs - could also be implemented. To be functional,
all these initiatives will require solid coordination, and effective monitoring and support systems,
which will help avoid widening of inequalities in the education system.
MINEDH, along with education partners, is leading the way to ensure that the needs of the most
vulnerable, such as children with disabilities or children who are displaced as a result of last
year’s cyclones, are addressed. 

Although MINEDH is working with the online learning access there are few gaps to mention:

 Due to limited access to TV, radio and internet, there are concerns that most children
had no access to education over the last months.
 Muanza District, in Sofala Province, which was affected by Tropical Storm Chalane,
has reportedly the least number of beneficiaries and humanitarian actors operating. The
district has hardly recovered from the impact of Idai.
 With limited stock, the cluster is not able to provide sufficient temporary learning spaces
and additional basic education services are needed to respond adequately to the impacts
caused by Tropical Storm Chalane.
3. How prepared are our schools?
As far as the social sectors are concerned, it should be noted that there were those who did not
adjust properly to the Covid-19 pandemic. These include the sector of education where
deficiencies in approach or implementation of measures to control contagions with the new
corona virus resulted in failure.
As far as the education sector is concerned, at the level of the private sector, the discussion of
the matter related to the payment of school fees was notorious, in a situation in which the
government was not prepared to regulate the matter in question, leaving it to a negotiation
between the educational institutions and the parents and guardians. The regulation of tuition
fees, as the health crisis at Covid 19 is not over and its end cannot be predicted, as is
happening this year, with the increase in the number of infections that can condition the return
to school attendance, which will certainly revive the debate about the payment of tuition fees.
On the other hand, the government has not yet presented how it will manage the sector in this
matter, given that the problem of tuition fees is only postponed, but not closed.
Therefore, it is up to the Government to take a position in the absence of a specific regulatory
body for the sector, which it must do, with some urgency, to try, at least this year, to anticipate a
conflict that may return the society. The creation of a regulatory body would help to solve this
situation in a solid way, for the future. However, at present, the Government should seek to
mitigate this social problem, and, through the Ministry of Education, should take over the
regulation of the private education sector, drawing up the respective guidelines and mandatory
obedience commands for operators in the sector.

The public transportation sector has become the visible face of public sector inefficiency in
dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has failed to introduce structural reforms
in the sector to reduce the levels of contagion that may be occurring in public transportation on a
daily basis when the population is transported through the Chapa-100 fleas and crowded buses.

If structural reforms are not introduced in this sector, it is very likely that levels of contagion will
continue to rise, with a considerable part of the population being transported through public
transportation companies. Therefore, negative impacts on the economy can be expected.
 4. Conclusion

The research has identified the impact of this pandemic issue of the education system and
approaches of the institutions for offering the learning through other mediums. According to the
study, people are facing serious issues related to learning and looking for new approaches to
learning. The leading authorities have to consider the seriousness of the issues and have to take
the corrective measure for improving the situation that will help to normalize the things and
support in enhancing the living experience. The lack of technical understanding of students and
teacher is also a big challenge for the system to offer training and support. The proper
implementation of rules for social distancing and sanitizing will also increase the operational
cost of the institutions.

I’ve also realized that one effect of the COVID-19 outbreak in this country has come in the form
of increases in private school enrollment. Many parents seeking out private school instruction
needed a place to send their child due to the parents need to work outside of the home. Despite
the high cost of private schools, parents found that the tuition cost to be worth it.

An unintended consequence of this migration to private schooling is the widening inequality gap
between families that can afford private school tuition and those who cannot. These families
often have their children at home in virtual learning environments. Issues like poor broadband
connection and the inability for parents to properly support their children's learning due to lack
of English language skills or work conflicts will see certain students fall behind academically.

Secondary education is the phase in the education continuum responsible for the development of
the young during their adolescence, the most rapid phase of their physical, mental and emotional
growth. However, according to many researchers, secondary education students have lost the
structure they need in order to thrive in the secondary environment. Instead, students struggle
with self-sufficiency and are at risk of falling behind due to distracters in their home and online.
The social-emotional wellbeing of secondary students is also of concern with a recent survey
citing that 80% of students have experienced some negative impact to their mental health due to
the pandemic. 20% say their mental health has significantly worsened.

Even though roughly three-quarters aspire to a higher education, only one-third are enrolled.
School closures, which are the direct result of the pandemic, have reduced access to education
but these are not the primary obstacle. School closures only account for between 9–20% of the
reasons.

The primary reason is financial difficulties, especially for respondents in Beira. These are related
to the important role many youths play as active contributors to the household income of their
families. As their own financial situation, and that of their families, has become more
pronounced by the COVID-19 pandemic, access to education has narrowed. Related to this, for
young men getting a job was the second reason they stopped pursuing their education.

There are also important gender differences in these constraints. For young men, the need to
enter the labour market may disrupt their education. For young women, pregnancy is also often a
disruptor of educational aspirations.
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