The HIV/AIDS epidemic will reduce the efficiency of the education sector and increase costs throughout the system. Additional costs alone are expected to exceed 1,900 billion meticais (about US$ 110.5 million). This represents additional costs to the system of 6.9% just due to HIV/AIDS. This is an under estimate because some costs cannot be quantified based on available data, and because it assumes that the Ministry of Education will bear no costs associated with expanded HIV/AIDS prevention activities by, or within, the sector .

A large part of these costs arise from HIV/AIDS-r elated sickness and death benefits (750 billion meticais), and to a lesser extent from expanded teacher training costs (187 billion meticais). There are also costs associated with increased inefficiencies in the system, most notably increased drop-out and repetition rates (936 billion meticais). With education currently receiving some 14% of the national budget, these losses will have a significant impact on the ability of the state to cover these additional expenses.