The choice of education as the theme for this report results from the central importance of knowledge in facilitating people's choices. Although education in Mozambique is debated in detail in Chapters 3 and 4, even at this initial stage it is pertinent to mention briefly the importance of knowledge in human development. Education has an important specific weight in the HDI, not only because it reflects the effort to satisfy a fundamental right, but also because it supplies the population with the information and instruments needed to expand their list of choices.

When carefully programmed and implemented, education can contribute to establishing strong links with the other components of the HDI index - longevity and income - as well as strengthening linkages with ideals of justice and the enjoyment of people's civic and political rights.

It is worth mentioning that the way in which education figures in calculating the HDI is rather demanding, in subtly placing special stress on the level of exclusion.

In the first place, by using the adult literacy rate, the methodology indirectly captures that percentage of the population excluded from reading and writing, and thus challenges countries to take corrective action.

Secondly, by using the joint enrolment rate, the methodology captures as a percentage that portion of children and young adults who are inside the education system, in relation to the universe of people who are "excluded" - or those people who theoretically ought to be within the system. The result is to draw attention to the distance that separates current achievements from the ideal level in terms of access to education.

The demanding character of the methodology has a logical explanation. On the one hand, educated people are more likely to optimise their performance as producers, to increase their capacity of innovation, and to profit from opportunities, with a notable impact on their own income and that of the country.

Furthermore, education allows the mastery of techniques that facilitate the provision, in quantity and quality, of health ser vices, either through the capacity to treat diseases, or through preventive methods. For example, a woman with a certain degree of education is more likely to have less children, to accept and to follow easily the requirements of preventive medicine (vaccination cycles etc), and of the treatment of illness, and is better able to provide for the basic needs of her family. These facts have positive effects on birth and death rates, and they may thus exercise influence on factors such as longevity.

Finally, it should also be taken into account that the right to education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The stress laid on education thus expresses the concern of the community of nations to assess the stage of provision of this basic human right which opens up to individuals access to the information and instruments necessary not only to improve their material well-being, but also to make informed choices about their lives. In the final analysis, one must recognise that the awareness of citizenship in all its scope is also better articulated when the members of a community are educated.