Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

epetition and drop-out rates at nearly all grade levels from 1999 to 2004, with an
accompanying improvement in the probability of moving to the next grade level.
However, the continuing extreme gap between high enrolment and low completion
rates indicates massive inefficiencies in the education system, with wasted learning
opportunities for children and wasted resources for poverty reduction.
Table 4.5: Repetition and completion rates in public schools in 1999 and 2004
Year EP1 EP2 ESG1 ESG2
Grades 1-5 Grades 6-7 Grades 8-10 Grades 11-12
Repetition Rate
1999 23.9 24.9 25.8 11.7
2004 20.8 20.3 25.1 7.8
Completion Rate
1999 26.5 10.7 2.0 0.6
2004 48.0 28.9 5.2 1.3
Source: MEC
C. Attendance
Analysis of attendance rates provides a more informative picture of the education
sector in Mozambique in that they indicate whether a child is actually attending school
(according to household surveys data), as opposed to simply being enrolled in school
(according to the Ministry of Education and Culture data). Trends in school attendance
over time confirm the positive trends in school enrolment. However, a much smaller
proportion of children are attending school than are enrolled in school. For example,
while NER in EP1 was 69 per cent in 2003, the DHS conducted in 2003 indicates that
the net EP1 attendance rate for that year was 54 per cent.
It is worth noting that the primary school attendance data collected by the DHS are
significantly lower than the data collected in 2002/2003 during the Household Survey
on Living Conditions (IAF) and the more recent 2004/05 IFTRAB. In 2003, the DHS
indicated that the primary school attendance rate was 60 per cent (57 per cent for
girls and 63 per cent for boys). The IAF indicated a net primary school attendance rate
of 66 per cent (64 per cent girls and 68 per cent boys), while the IFTRAB indicated
that the attendance rate in primary school had improved substantially to 71 per cent,
with almost no gender gap (70 per cent for girls compared to 72 per cent for boys).
The source of this discrepancy is not immediately apparent. One possible explanation
is related to the timing of the survey period. The data collection for both the IAF
(2002/03) and IFTRAB (2004/05) surveys was conducted over a one-year period,
covering two different school years. In contrast, the 2003 DHS was conducted over
a short period of time (four months of data collection), during a single school year. It
is possible that those IAF and IFTRAB interviews which were conducted during the
vacation period lead to an overstatement of attendance figures by interviewees. It
is also likely that the IFTRAB figures captured the positive effects of the abolition of
school fees for the 2005 school year. On the principle that attendance rates should
provide a snapshot of the situation in a given school year (and a given fee structure)
and are therefore best measured through surveys of short duration that coincide with
that particular year, the 2003 DHS data are given preference in this analysis.
Although girls’ enrolment and attendance rates are overall lower than boys’, there
were no differences by gender in the degree of disparity between enrolment and
attendance at primary level. In 2003, the net attendance rate (NAR) for girls was 51
per cent, compared with a NER of 66 per cent. For boys, the net attendance rate was
CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS
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