Angola Education
The twenty seven year old civil war in Angola saw 80% of the country's schools damaged or destroyed however today, nearly a decade after the war ended, the Angolan government is rebuilding the education sector with help from organisations such as UNICEF and an NGO called People in Need. The government is striving to eliminate illiteracy by 2014 or bring it down to negligible levels.
Literacy rates for the over fifteens currently stands at 67.4%, with 82.9% of males literate but just 54.2% of females, however even that is a mark of progress from ten years ago in 2001 when the rate was just 42%. Whilst this 2010 figure is comparable to the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo (67.2%) it fares badly when compared to neighbours Zambia at 80.6%, and Namibia at 85%.
Currently most schools suffer from a shortage of books and paper and many of the schools that do exist are in a poor condition without enough tables and chairs to go round forcing many children to sit on the floor. Education in Angola consists of four years of primary education starting at 7yrs old, seven years of secondary education followed by tertiary education, although this has only a 0.7% take-up.
To add to the difficulties many children who now attend school have emotional and behavioural difficulties having been traumatized as child soldiers or witnessed severe brutality with parents being killed during the war. Many of the children are also disabled from the war, some victims of landmines.
As ever enrolment rates become poorer the more rural the area and as with many other African countries education is seen as less of a priority for girls with higher drop out rates and poorer attendance sometimes as low as 40%. This short video gives an insight into classroom education in Angola.
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