The Angolan Government, through its Ministry of Education, will combat school dropout rates and increase the retention rate in the first cycle of secondary education, with the allocation of 5,732 scholarships for students in the 7th, 8th and 9th classes of the first cycle of secondary education. province of Huíla, within the scope of the Girls Empowerment and Learning for All (PAT) project
In a first phase, in the province of Huíla, four municipalities were selected, namely Chibia, Humpata, Matala and Quipungo, whose heads of the Municipal Education Offices have been, since yesterday, receiving training on the operationalization of the process for awarding the respective grants.
Among several general and specific objectives, the project aims to empower Angolan teenagers; reduce learning poverty in Angola; improve access to health information services for adolescents, with emphasis on girls; provide teens with second-chance education and life skills; restore and expand education provision; support high-quality teaching and ensure continuity of learning.
To this end, the scholarship program, called “Vapame” (a word taken from the Umbundu language that means “be strong”) provides for the attribution of 25,000.00 Kz for each student enrolled in selected schools, in the four chosen municipalities. for the first phase, intended for the acquisition of school supplies for the class they attend.
In the province of Huíla, the program plans to cover 107 schools, and from this figure, 32 schools were selected in the four municipalities, 14 of which in the municipality of Matala; 11 in Chibia; four in the municipality of Humpata and three in the municipality of Quipungo, whose managers are undergoing training on the operationalization of the scholarship award program.
The provincial coordinator of the Girls’ Empowerment and Learning for All Project (PAT), Benício Puna, said that with the allocation of the respective monetary values, the Government intends to alleviate the financial difficulties faced by many Angolan families in covering the expenses with training of their children. “Training began yesterday for the directors of the Municipal Education offices, school directors and statistics technicians, so that they can be guided on the strategies for operationalizing this project”, he confirmed.
At the level of the country’s 18 provinces, the “Vapame” program foresees the allocation of 900 thousand scholarships, of which around 130,000 are intended for girls, with a view to increasing the completion rate of the first cycle of secondary education. This program began in 2022, throughout the national territory, executed by the Ministry of Education and is financed by the World Bank. Since its launch, in the 2022/2023 academic year, 23,734 students have been registered, of which 20,707 have already received payment, covering around 67 schools.
BY: João Katombela, in Huíla
