The education sector has been benefiting from substantial contributions from the inter national community to implement its programmes As in any situation of dependence on foreign contributions, the only certainty is that the levels of funding will not remain unaltered for very long. And this trend is already visible, in relative terms. The weight of grants in the total education budget dropped from 63.3% in 1994 to 42.5% in 1999.

Fortunately, this relative reduction did not lead to a decline in the resources allocated to education because it was compensated for by growth in absolute terms in the sums mobilised internally and made available through the state budget, thanks to the increase in resources generated by the economy.

But it is important to keep in mind the train of thought expressed in Chapter 3. Mozambique spends the equivalent of 2.2% of its GDP on education, which is relatively low when compared with other countries who, like Mozambique, have been declared eligible for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative of the World Bank and the I M F. As mentioned earlier , the average in the other countries is around 4% of GDP.

The authors recognise that in a country with levels of privation as high as they are in Mozambique, all sectors are priorities because the allocated resources rarely cover the needs. The positive value of the indicator mentioned above is that it suggests that Mozambique still has broad room for manoeuvre to increase substantially the amount of resources allocated to education and to r educe, gradually and substantially, dependence on foreign aid to fund the sector . Inter national aid is welcome, but generosity and charity, as the old adage states, begin at home...

Furthermore, the few resources available could be better used. For example, it is indisputable that the material, human and financial resources mobilised each year to accommodate more than 400,000 pupils who repeat their grades thanks to the inefficiency of the system constitute a luxury the country cannot afford to finance for ever . For each desk occupied by a child who repeats a grade, there is another child being deprived of his right to school education.

It is imperative that mechanisms be instituted which guarantee that the resources allocated actually arrive and have an effective impact on the institutions where the teaching-learning process unfolds. The centralization of administrative and financial management is per haps not the most effective way of implementing programmes and projects because, among other aspects, it does not hold responsible those upon whom, in the final analysis, their implementation depends.

Broadening the supply of educational opportunities will require creativity in mobilising resources to finance the expansion of the network. The education sector should expand and deepen its dialogue with society so as to find viable, practicable and sustainable solutions to the problems of expansion and quality, seeking to this end endogenous alter natives that reduce current levels of dependency. Hence the need also to develop and consolidate the institutional capacity of the system at all levels.

It is thus becoming imperative to rescue the slogan "rely on our own forces" in its most genuine sense. The problems of education are Mozambican problems and therefore their solution essentially depends on the men and women of Mozambique.

The involvement of the private sector and of other social actors such as religious bodies, local authorities and community and local initiatives can allow exploitation of synergies with the public sector in providing opportunities for access to education. The experience of other countries in the creation of this sort of synergy in the sector includes examples such as the establishment of state subsidies per pupil in private or community schools, the building and deliver y of schools built by the various social agents, or the community management of public units. These could be explored with greater dynamism.

In this process it is pertinent to ask some preliminary questions. Are there incentives that would make private or community bodies interested in building new schools or in maintaining and managing state schools? Is there a r ole for the local authorities and other local state bodies in supplying education? In the current legislation are there not bureaucratic obstacles which, through their excessive zeal, end up by discouraging the involvement of other social actors? Is there any possibility of applying the Sponsorship Law to initiatives that promote the expansion of educational opportunities? Are there no instances in which much higher demands are made of private and community initiatives than are made of public ones? Is this not an obstacle to broadening school opportunities? These and other questions deserve the reflection of all those engaged or interested in education.