The approach adopted towards literacy activities, which consisted in organising a national campaign without taking into account the specific characteristics of the social groups at which it was aimed, or the particular characteristics of the various regions of the country, proved inadequate. It is thus urgent to find a way out which can rekindle the same enthusiasm with which the public embraced literacy campaigns in the years immediately following independence. This can only be achieved through programmes and contents that respond to the real needs and aspirations of the literacy students and allow them to view the time spent on learning as an opportunity benefit rather than as a cost.

In this effort, obviously not all the responsibility for providing this education can be shoved onto the state. Other institutions, such as the local authorities, will have to play a significant r ole.

The challenge of adult literacy work becomes more complex when we bear in mind that the incidence of illiteracy is not uniform throughout the country - there are regions with a greater level of literacy than others. This is a consequence, on the one hand, of the unbalanced way in which colonial education was implanted in the country, but also of the differentiated impact of the war on school infrastructures.

Graph 3.16 shows precisely the flagrant asymmetries in terms of the percentage of the population that is literate. In the 11 administrative divisions of the country, the rate of illiteracy among the adult population ranges from 15% in Maputo city to 75% in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The national average illiteracy rate is estimated at 60.5% of the adult population.