The data analysed in this Report show that illiteracy is relatively rural and female, and it will be difficult to attack this problem successfully while some basic constraints remain untouched. For example, there is the need to implement, with vigour and pragmatism, pr ogrammes and strategies for lifting levels of access for girls from the current 43% at least to levels which reflect the percentage of women in the population, and to guarantee that they stay in the system until they graduate.

The social benefits of education are universally recognised. When the female population is educated, infant and maternal mortality rates fall drastically. The level of consumption of households which include a woman with some education increases substantially. It is recognised that when the level of education of women rises, the likelihood of children under five completing the vaccination cycle increases, which in turn leads to a decline in the under five mortality rate. The extremely high rates of illiteracy among women in Mozambique are determinant factors in the prevailing sharp levels of deprivation, and should therefore be the target for urgent correction.

The obstacles presented by the curriculum structure of EP2 will have to be properly dealt with. The curriculum's demands in terms of teachers and resources pr event expanding EP2 on a mass scale across the countryside, accompanying and/or complementing the pace of expansion of the EP1 network.

Mozambicans participated en masse in the literacy campaigns carried out in the initial post-independence years, and these campaigns made a noteworthy contribution to r educing the illiteracy rate. But the movement to provide adults with reading and writing skills on a mass scale did not survive the shock of the crises cased by the war, the poor performance of the economy - and the disenchantment caused by the content of the literacy programme.

When the programmes were evaluated, the reasons why the popular impetus that characterised the early days of the campaigns later ebbed away were identified. The use of Portuguese as the medium of instruction to the detriment of the national languages, the irrelevance for practical life of the knowledge taught, the almost exclusive dependence on voluntarism in implementing programmes, and the marginalisation of traditional wisdom, all acted to sap motivation. These and other factors should be studied in greater depth before embarking upon new exercises intended to revive interest in literacy among the adult population.

The greatest challenge to the system is to find the appropriate formula to inspire once more the popular enthusiasm that characterised the initial experience of the literacy campaigns. The use of national languages could be one of the stimuli. But one cannot relegate to a secondary position the need, apart from respecting local cultural practices, to ensure that the knowledge taught to adults has practical, immediate and functional applications. That way the public concerned would not regard the effort spent on learning as an opportunity cost, whose hypothetical benefits did not compensate for the effort. Generally, adult minds are selective about what they learn. As a result adults do not learn everything that is taught to them, but only that which the rational mind regards as necessary to learn.

This will impose on education the need to learn how to enter into a dialogue with society, to be inspired by its practices and values so that, at the end of the day, it may awaken and encourage the interest of the community in taking part in the design and implementation of education programmes for themselves and for their children, and in influencing the content in accordance with their own interests and priorities.

This transformation, which in many aspects is already taking place, demands from educational planners and managers greater flexibility, a spirit of openness and a new attitude, particularly as regards the tendency to establish hierarchical relationships with the communities, which currently characterises the dialogue. The disillusion with the effectiveness of the SNE, and its being held responsible for the supposed crisis of values in today's youth should not cause dismay among the staff of the sector . On the contrary, this critical attitude reflects the importance that society attributes to education as a priority instrument for the all-round training of individuals and of their role in promoting a balanced and healthy socio-economic and cultural development.

However, rather than just the good intentions of broadening access to all corners of the country, one must face the problems of education with the realism and pragmatism they deserve - all the more so in order to avoid expectations out of line with the sector's capacity to achieve them. The intention to establish conditions to provide all citizens with educational opportunities at all levels, even with the advent of technology, is an objective that can only be attained in the long term. Supplying good quality education, as well as multiplying learning opportunities, is a noble mission - but also a difficult, complex and expensive one.

The analysis of the functioning of the education system in Chapter 3 clearly shows that Mozambique does not possess, nor will it possess, over the medium term, the human and material resources needed to guarantee universal access of its youth to the various levels of education. About half the resources spent in the education sector come from foreign aid.

Clearly Mozambique still has some room for manoeuvre, because total expenditure on the sector expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is still relatively low when compared with other countries in the same conditions. Mozambique spends 2.3% of its GDP, while the average of the countries eligible for HIPC is about 4% of G D P. The temporal series for this indicator suggests that the country is making this effort: expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP advanced from 1.6% in 1995 to 2.3% in 1999.

However, we must recognise that, even if the country increases the resources allocated to education so that they r each the recommended 4% of GDP, Mozambique is going to continue needing inter national assistance in financing education in order to expand learning opportunities for an ever -increasing number of Mozambicans and to ensure sustainable development. Although access to school education is recognised as a fundamental right, good will is not sufficient to bring it into being. The availability of resources is always a determining factor in limiting access.

But it is also necessary to acknowledge that there are structural and programmatic factors that do not depend on outside partnerships. Solving them is up to Mozambicans, and is perfectly within their grasp. The sharp narrowing of the educational pyramid that characterises even the two levels of primary education, as well as the gap between primary and secondary education, together with the high repeat and drop-out rates, illustrate problems of inefficiency which unnecessarily limit supply, and contribute to exclusion.

The need to provide the children who enter the system with the possibility of completing the two levels of primary education, EP1 and EP2, is unquestionable . It is a development imperative and an inalienable right of Mozambican children, comparable to the right to a birth certificate or an identity card.

The huge discrepancy between the number of pupils in EP1 and in EP2 is a distortion that requires an urgent solution. In 1999 there were about 2.1 million pupils in EP1 and only 186,277 in EP2. This was a transition rate from one level to the next of less than 10%. The need to correct this discrepancy takes on greater relevance when we bear in mind that children who leave the system before consolidating their basic knowledge can easily slip back into illiteracy, thus wasting the efforts spent on training them during their brief contact with the school. Curriculum reform seeking to adjust EP2 to existing conditions and to the reality of the country is an important step towards solving this problem, which basically affects the children of peasant families.

Furthermore, the education of children based on the assumption that they will progress to the subsequent stage, particularly as regards the transition from EP2 to ESG, and from ESG to higher education, has been shown as not only impracticable and utopian in many circumstances, but also inefficient and expensive for a country with scarce resources such as Mozambique.

The challenge her e is to design curriculum contents which allow all those who have access to education in Mozambique to draw the greatest possible advantage from their contact with the school, providing them with instruments to broaden their horizon of choices as autonomous individuals and to improve their lives and those of their communities. This assertion is valid for all levels of education.

Since EP1 and EP2 cover 96% of the student population, it is obvious that these levels constitute the front line in efforts to make education relevant for the autonomous lives of new generations, and for the profit of the communities they come from. How is this to be done? As was argued earlier, there are no ready-made recipes. The sector's staff, the government, society, and inter national partners can, through a process of collective reflection, set about finding creative and appropriate responses to the challenge facing them. But one thing is certain. The contents of the education programmes currently under going reform will necessarily have to deal with and accommodate the reality or realities described here.