Thousands of students studying in precarious schools in the province of Benguela will continue to see their learning conditions improved thanks to the project to build permanent classrooms, ANGOP learned
At issue is a program to build classrooms in existing schools in the province of Benguela, where around 300,000 students continue to take classes in spaces without minimum operating conditions.
By 2027, the Provincial Government of Benguela plans to build and equip 231 schools, which will allow the creation of more than 3 thousand new classrooms for more than 200 thousand students in the region.
The authorities’ goal is to reduce the number of precarious classrooms in the province from 47 percent to 22 percent, in addition to improving the quality of education.
The provincial governor of Benguela, Luís Nunes, said that the project, planned for more than a year, was sent to the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, who, in turn, gave the “green light” for its implementation.
According to the government official, the President of the Republic arranged a “platform” for the project, which aims to remove children from classrooms through the recovery of precarious schools, especially in coastal municipalities.
Speaking recently to the press, after delivering 22 new classrooms in two primary schools, Luís Nunes reiterated the goal of gradually replacing the classrooms with conventional structures, to improve children’s teaching conditions.
As he explained, the Government will work to solve the populations’ problems precisely in the education and health sectors, which present enormous challenges.
“The first units we delivered ready made it possible to remove children from the sheet metal rooms”, said Luís Nunes. For the governor, the existence of sheet metal rooms in the urban area of the two large cities on the coast of the province, namely Benguela (headquarters) and Lobito, is not healthy.
“I’m not saying that we don’t have [escolas precárias] across the entire length of our province”, he acknowledged, assuring that, little by little, the Government will deliver all the rooms ready to be available to students and teachers.
“Teachers teaching in those conditions, at 40 degrees Celsius, here in our coastal area. Who can learn like that?”, he asked, in a clear allusion to the intense heat that can be felt in the sheet metal rooms.
In addition, the governor of Benguela highlighted other challenges, such as the existence of 200 thousand children outside the normal education system, and therefore the need to build more classrooms.
For his part, the director of the Provincial Education Office, Edmundo Salupula, applauds the initiative, as it will reduce the number of children studying in precarious conditions and admit new students.
The manager admits that the number of precarious rooms is still high, despite the Government’s work to change the situation. “We believe that, if we continue at the pace, we will be able to minimize this negative situation”, he noted.
Health The governor also highlighted the delivery of the operating rooms at the General Hospitals of Benguela and Lobito, as part of the authorities’ commitment to improving health care for the populations.
As for the Lobito General Hospital building, which shows signs of degradation, the governor recognizes the problem and guarantees that it will be gradually restored.