Angola: Education
Angolan Education
Angola—like all the other countries colonized in Africa—has had a hard time stabilizing itself ever since their colonial power granted it its independence in 1975. This was followed with a three-decade long civil war for absolute political power mostly between two nationalist groups: UNITA and MPLA. Because the government used most of its funds in military and very little in education during the civil war, it was not a surprise that education crumbled. Even to this day, Angolans are still struggling to pick it back up. Schools were even used as military bases for each side and some still wear the evidence with bullet-holed walls, shattered windows, or demolished buildings remain where schools once stood. This is no motivation for children to enroll in school while other problems like a lack of basic school supplies and the lack of money to attend school are factors working against Angolans. The constant struggle to renew education is clear evidence that colonization had a negative impact on Angolans and it is now causing their futures to be jeopardized if something is not done about it.
Because Portugal never allowed blacks to have an education beyond the first few years of primary school when the Portuguese left, Angolans were confused and disagreed on their government ( wasting more of their recovery time) and it turned into a 27-year war on themselves. After the civil war finally ended in 2002, education was definitely among the most urgent issues to be aware of. The aftershock of the war did not make it any easier to rebuild the Angolan education system. As stated in the article Angola: Slow Recovery by Issa Sikiti da Silva, teachers fled, schools were destroyed, there was a lack of educated or well-trained teachers, and orphaned children had no desire to go to school during or even shortly after the civil war. In Angolan society overall, boys are thought to be more eligible or capable to study where as girls usually take the role of providing food for their orphaned family--most of the time through unhealthy measures like prostitution, or selling on the streets, being domestic workers, and other jobs. This is why—according to ABC-CLIO—83% of men are literate and only 54% of women are literate. Pretty soon though, people started to realize the urgency of the situation and according to Issa Sikiti da Silva, over 6 million students enrolled this year, which was an increase of over 1 million as compared with the 2008 data stated by the Angolan state-controlled news agency Angop—though it is highly untrustworthy to pay attention to facts given by the state because it could just be a method of manipulating people for propaganda. There are claims that the government has no political will to help improve the state of the situation in education. Other problems like water and overall sanitation in schools, lack of basic school materials (like pencils, sheets of paper, books, and even chairs); lack of funds, and the need for educated teachers soon began to be more noticeable as classrooms quickly became overcrowded.
Angola has not been alone in its efforts though there is still much room for improvement and many issues to solve. International organizations, foreign governments, or sometimes even wealthy people have donated to this cause. According to Issa Sikiti da Silva, in 2005, UNICEF pledged to work with the Angolan government to build of modify 1,500 schools under Schools for Africa (SFA) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Ever since 2002, under the Back to School Campaign, UNICEF has supported in training 20,000 teachers. Progress within the country itself has also been noted where, according to Issa Sikiti da Silva, the education ministry has promised 13 million books to secondary schools throughout this year, and establishing 21 new technical schools. According to Issa Sikiti da Silva, Angop stated that there were 2,627 new classrooms in the province of Huambo since 2002 and there are 3.5 million students attending them. Huambo’s government also stated that it had rebuilt and furnished 841 classrooms—although because government-posted figures on improvement are most likely unreliable, there is not much information that can be declared certain. The article “Education Minister Reiterated Free School Meal for Children,” stated that the Ministry of Education’s minister, Burity da Silva, reminded people of the goal to have a feeding program at schools at a meeting held on May 8 of this year. He hopes to increase the enrolment of students because they will be well-fed in school. He also hopes to use this program to educate people about nutrition and hopefully get the community, involved. The article “Scholarship Enrolment on May 4,” stated that in Luanda, the internal higher education scholarships were to be delivered from May 4-15 and according to Angop after being informed by the National Institute of Scholarship, there are 3,000 places available: 25% for sciences, 25% got engineering, 20% for Technology, and 15-5% for art and social and human sciences. Ties with other Portuguese nations have also been made, as stated in the article “Angola: Cooperation Has Enabled Public University Development – Principal.” Here the University of Agostinho Neto in Luanda is cooperating with Brazil to give their students the opportunity to learn abroad, and is offering to give Master’s Degrees.
There has been much done already to help improve the state of education in Angola, but it is still far from being fully caught up with the normal standards of education as it is still recovering from the civil war and trying to manage all of the issues that followed it. Many schools and classrooms are overcrowded and in rural villages, it is often common to see children carrying their own chairs to school. Some schools in Angola don’t have toilettes, windows, doors, or even roofs. Most people in the U.S. and especially living in the North Shore where there are great opportunities at education and economic-level wise problems are taken care of, it is hard to appreciate or notice how lucky one is. In the case of New Trier High School, we have been considerate enough to get involved by donating school supplies to children in Africa, making children dolls to play with, and even having the opportunity for a few students to travel to Africa, build schools and help out as much as possible. Angola just needs to be supported and approach its problems with a desire to succeed and people should continue helping to build schools and give supplies so that one day Angola’s setbacks from being a Portuguese colony will be distant in its memory.
Angola—like all the other countries colonized in Africa—has had a hard time stabilizing itself ever since their colonial power granted it its independence in 1975. This was followed with a three-decade long civil war for absolute political power mostly between two nationalist groups: UNITA and MPLA. Because the government used most of its funds in military and very little in education during the civil war, it was not a surprise that education crumbled. Even to this day, Angolans are still struggling to pick it back up. Schools were even used as military bases for each side and some still wear the evidence with bullet-holed walls, shattered windows, or demolished buildings remain where schools once stood. This is no motivation for children to enroll in school while other problems like a lack of basic school supplies and the lack of money to attend school are factors working against Angolans. The constant struggle to renew education is clear evidence that colonization had a negative impact on Angolans and it is now causing their futures to be jeopardized if something is not done about it.
Because Portugal never allowed blacks to have an education beyond the first few years of primary school when the Portuguese left, Angolans were confused and disagreed on their government ( wasting more of their recovery time) and it turned into a 27-year war on themselves. After the civil war finally ended in 2002, education was definitely among the most urgent issues to be aware of. The aftershock of the war did not make it any easier to rebuild the Angolan education system. As stated in the article Angola: Slow Recovery by Issa Sikiti da Silva, teachers fled, schools were destroyed, there was a lack of educated or well-trained teachers, and orphaned children had no desire to go to school during or even shortly after the civil war. In Angolan society overall, boys are thought to be more eligible or capable to study where as girls usually take the role of providing food for their orphaned family--most of the time through unhealthy measures like prostitution, or selling on the streets, being domestic workers, and other jobs. This is why—according to ABC-CLIO—83% of men are literate and only 54% of women are literate. Pretty soon though, people started to realize the urgency of the situation and according to Issa Sikiti da Silva, over 6 million students enrolled this year, which was an increase of over 1 million as compared with the 2008 data stated by the Angolan state-controlled news agency Angop—though it is highly untrustworthy to pay attention to facts given by the state because it could just be a method of manipulating people for propaganda. There are claims that the government has no political will to help improve the state of the situation in education. Other problems like water and overall sanitation in schools, lack of basic school materials (like pencils, sheets of paper, books, and even chairs); lack of funds, and the need for educated teachers soon began to be more noticeable as classrooms quickly became overcrowded.
Angola has not been alone in its efforts though there is still much room for improvement and many issues to solve. International organizations, foreign governments, or sometimes even wealthy people have donated to this cause. According to Issa Sikiti da Silva, in 2005, UNICEF pledged to work with the Angolan government to build of modify 1,500 schools under Schools for Africa (SFA) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Ever since 2002, under the Back to School Campaign, UNICEF has supported in training 20,000 teachers. Progress within the country itself has also been noted where, according to Issa Sikiti da Silva, the education ministry has promised 13 million books to secondary schools throughout this year, and establishing 21 new technical schools. According to Issa Sikiti da Silva, Angop stated that there were 2,627 new classrooms in the province of Huambo since 2002 and there are 3.5 million students attending them. Huambo’s government also stated that it had rebuilt and furnished 841 classrooms—although because government-posted figures on improvement are most likely unreliable, there is not much information that can be declared certain. The article “Education Minister Reiterated Free School Meal for Children,” stated that the Ministry of Education’s minister, Burity da Silva, reminded people of the goal to have a feeding program at schools at a meeting held on May 8 of this year. He hopes to increase the enrolment of students because they will be well-fed in school. He also hopes to use this program to educate people about nutrition and hopefully get the community, involved. The article “Scholarship Enrolment on May 4,” stated that in Luanda, the internal higher education scholarships were to be delivered from May 4-15 and according to Angop after being informed by the National Institute of Scholarship, there are 3,000 places available: 25% for sciences, 25% got engineering, 20% for Technology, and 15-5% for art and social and human sciences. Ties with other Portuguese nations have also been made, as stated in the article “Angola: Cooperation Has Enabled Public University Development – Principal.” Here the University of Agostinho Neto in Luanda is cooperating with Brazil to give their students the opportunity to learn abroad, and is offering to give Master’s Degrees.
There has been much done already to help improve the state of education in Angola, but it is still far from being fully caught up with the normal standards of education as it is still recovering from the civil war and trying to manage all of the issues that followed it. Many schools and classrooms are overcrowded and in rural villages, it is often common to see children carrying their own chairs to school. Some schools in Angola don’t have toilettes, windows, doors, or even roofs. Most people in the U.S. and especially living in the North Shore where there are great opportunities at education and economic-level wise problems are taken care of, it is hard to appreciate or notice how lucky one is. In the case of New Trier High School, we have been considerate enough to get involved by donating school supplies to children in Africa, making children dolls to play with, and even having the opportunity for a few students to travel to Africa, build schools and help out as much as possible. Angola just needs to be supported and approach its problems with a desire to succeed and people should continue helping to build schools and give supplies so that one day Angola’s setbacks from being a Portuguese colony will be distant in its memory.
Bibliography
“Angola: Cooperation Has Enabled Public University Development - Principal.” AllAfrica Global Media. 2009. Angola Press Agency. 13 May 2009 <http://allafrica.com///>.
This article was about the improvements in universities like being able to gramy Master’s Degrees and making ties with schools in other Portuguese-speaking countries (like Brazil).
Da Silva, Issa Sikiti. “Angola: Slow Recovery.” Chalkboard. 2009. 13 May 2009 <http://chalkboard.tol.org/>.
This source was very detailed and told me about all the issues that are related to the lack of education in Angola. It gave me details on the general topics that I had researched before like the lack of school supplies, teachers, and schools themselves in Angola.
“Education Minister Reiterated Free School Meal for Children.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This small article was helpful in giving me more insight that there is more to a school than just education. In this case, the article was focusing on getting free lunches for their students.
“Education Ministry and Juvenile Organisation Renew Partnership.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This short article shows how the government is trying to get more involved and help education in Angola increase because the Ministry of Education and the MPLA ruling party juvenile organisation (OPA) renewed their cooperation accord originally signed in 2003.
Eisenstein, Zoe. “Angolans Head Back to School.” BBC News. 28 Oct. 2003. 18 May 2009 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/////////.stm>.
Because this source wasn’t the most recent it basically just helped me get a basic overview of the general problems that Angola was having with education ever since the end of its civil wars.
“Scholarship Enrolment on May 4.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This small article talked about the dates open for enrolment this year in schools all over Angola. There were only 3,000 places available and depending on what field of knowledge someone wanted to be educated in there were different percentages for what places went to which study.
Staeger, Rob. “Education.” Angola. Philadelphia: Mason Crest Publishers, 2008. 63-64. After picking my topic, this source helped give me a general understanding of the basic issues of education in Angola. It gave me a good general base that lead me to research more with more detail based on the basic knowledge I had already been given by this source.
World Geography. “Angola: Contemporary Issues.” ABC-CLIO. 2009. 13 May 2009 <http://www.worldgeography.abc-clio.com>.
This source was the first I looked at to pick my topic because it gave me three major current issues in Angola and I decided to research education. It also gave me a brief overview on the situation on education in Angola.
“Angola: Cooperation Has Enabled Public University Development - Principal.” AllAfrica Global Media. 2009. Angola Press Agency. 13 May 2009 <http://allafrica.com///>.
This article was about the improvements in universities like being able to gramy Master’s Degrees and making ties with schools in other Portuguese-speaking countries (like Brazil).
Da Silva, Issa Sikiti. “Angola: Slow Recovery.” Chalkboard. 2009. 13 May 2009 <http://chalkboard.tol.org/>.
This source was very detailed and told me about all the issues that are related to the lack of education in Angola. It gave me details on the general topics that I had researched before like the lack of school supplies, teachers, and schools themselves in Angola.
“Education Minister Reiterated Free School Meal for Children.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This small article was helpful in giving me more insight that there is more to a school than just education. In this case, the article was focusing on getting free lunches for their students.
“Education Ministry and Juvenile Organisation Renew Partnership.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This short article shows how the government is trying to get more involved and help education in Angola increase because the Ministry of Education and the MPLA ruling party juvenile organisation (OPA) renewed their cooperation accord originally signed in 2003.
Eisenstein, Zoe. “Angolans Head Back to School.” BBC News. 28 Oct. 2003. 18 May 2009 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/////////.stm>.
Because this source wasn’t the most recent it basically just helped me get a basic overview of the general problems that Angola was having with education ever since the end of its civil wars.
“Scholarship Enrolment on May 4.” eLibrary. ProQuest. New Trier High School Library, Winnetka, IL. 13 May 2009 <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/>.
This small article talked about the dates open for enrolment this year in schools all over Angola. There were only 3,000 places available and depending on what field of knowledge someone wanted to be educated in there were different percentages for what places went to which study.
Staeger, Rob. “Education.” Angola. Philadelphia: Mason Crest Publishers, 2008. 63-64. After picking my topic, this source helped give me a general understanding of the basic issues of education in Angola. It gave me a good general base that lead me to research more with more detail based on the basic knowledge I had already been given by this source.
World Geography. “Angola: Contemporary Issues.” ABC-CLIO. 2009. 13 May 2009 <http://www.worldgeography.abc-clio.com>.
This source was the first I looked at to pick my topic because it gave me three major current issues in Angola and I decided to research education. It also gave me a brief overview on the situation on education in Angola.
Last Updated by Samantha Rivera 5/22/09
