Background
Book box libraries
Methodology
Findings
Evaluation
Conclusion
References
Interviews
Wanda do Amaral
Socio-economic and political context
Situated on the south-eastern coast of the African continent and bordering the Indian Ocean, Mozambique extends from the mouth of the River Rovuma in the north (latitude 10° 27') as far as Ponta do Ouro in the south (latitude 26° 52'). Covering a surface area of 799,380 sq. km, it has a border in the north with Tanzania, to the west with Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Swaziland and in the south it again borders on South Africa. To the east (longitude 40° 51'), the maritime coast, which is generally sandy, extends for a distance of 2,470 km. Mozambique plays an important role for a group of countries in southern Africa, that of offering an outlet to the sea (as is the case for Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and the South African province of Gauteng).
In terms of climate, the year is divided into two main seasons: the hot and rainy season which occurs between the months of September and April and the cooler dry season, with very sparse rainfall or even none at all, between the months of April and September. As it has a very irregular rainfall pattern, the country is affected by cycles of either heavy rains (as was the case for example in 1976-1977 and 1979) or very great drought (as was the case for example in 1982-84, 1986-87 and in 1992).
Although the majority of the African population was originally 'Bantu', which in turn encompasses several distinct ethnic groupings, there are also minority groupings of Asiatic and European origin. For historical and political reasons associated with the heterogeneity of the African languages, Portuguese was adopted as the official language. In 1990, the population was officially estimated at 15,656 million inhabitants and the estimate for 1996 was about 18 million inhabitants.
Having been a Portuguese colony for almost five centuries, Mozambique, led by FRELIMO (the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), became independent on 25 June 1975 after ten years of armed fighting against colonial domination. In the following year, with the insurgence of a political opposition movement (called RENAMO), there began a period of guerrilla warfare and internal fighting, which finally came to an end in 1992 with the signing of a peace agreement. The single-party government of FRELIMO, which was initially markedly Marxist-Leninist in character, has undergone changes and since the end of 1990 there has been a multi-party democracy and a market economy.
Administratively the country is made up of 11 provinces which are divided into 128 districts and these in turn into administrative localities. Maputo, the capital city (in the south), and Beira (in the centre) and Nacala (in the north) are the most important international sea ports.
The economic policy of the Portuguese colonial administration in Mozambique was directed towards absolute dependence on South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (nowadays Zimbabwe) in the form of an economy which was basically run to offer rail and port services, the provision of a labour force and the setting up of huge foreign plantations for cultivating tropical products for export.
After Independence, the economic and social structures which were inherited were completely distorted and it became apparent that not only had the country to develop but it also had to make wide-ranging and profound changes in all areas. In the period between 1975 and 1985, this work was made more difficult by a number of factors which destroyed much of the existing socio-economic infrastructure:
After Independence, the economic and social structures which were inherited were completely distorted and it became apparent that not only had the country to develop but it also had to make wide-ranging and profound changes in all areas. In the period between 1975 and 1985, this work was made more difficult by a number of factors which destroyed much of the existing socio-economic infrastructure:
· the large-scale sudden exodus of almost all the Portuguese companies, managers and technical personnel;· armed aggression from the regimes in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa;
· internal armed fighting between the party in power and the opposition;
· a systematic and prolonged series of natural disasters (drought, floods, cyclones).
One of the biggest problems which negatively affected the Mozambique economy was the lack of qualified managers which were greatly needed by an economy which was going through major restructuring. This was caused by the frighteningly high level of illiteracy; at the time of Independence, more than 93% of the population was illiterate; currently the level of illiteracy stands at around 72%.
With the ending of the war in 1992 and with a GDP estimated at US$97 per capita, Mozambique was considered one of the poorest countries in the world. It embarked on the process of development by investigating a whole range of economic activities designed to allow a potentially rich country to make progress.
Educational policies and practices
The current National System of Education (SNE) began to be implemented in 1983 and basically responds to three main objectives:
· eradication of illiteracy;
· introduction of a compulsory schooling system;
· training of managers for the country's socio-economic development needs.
SNE is divided into five sub-systems:
· general education;
· adult education;
· technical and professional education;
· teacher training;
· higher education. and is structured into four levels:
· primary;
· secondary;
· further;
· higher.
The general education sub-system covers primary, secondary and pre-university education:
· primary education, from the ages of 6 to 12, covers first grade (years 1 to 5) and second grade (years 6 and 7);· secondary education, from the ages of 13 to 15, covers 3 years (8 to 10);
· pre-university education, from the ages of 16 to 17, covers 2 years (11 and 12).
The structure for controlling and providing educational support to teachers, which was partially destroyed during the war and then by changes of minister and modifications to the central directives from the Ministry, is, at provincial level, made up of educational support commissions (CAPs) - consisting of delegates for each subject whose role is to solve educational problems which have arisen in the schools - and at district level by zones of educational influence (ZIPs) - an ensemble of schools grouped by geographic proximity, one of which is the co-ordinator, whose role is to solve any educational problems which might arise.
After Independence, state investment in this sector concentrated on building schools and on implementing literacy and adult education campaigns. The civil war, which devastated the country for years, was responsible for the destruction of part of the school network which then existed. Between 1983 and 1987, at primary and secondary education level, 6,062 existing schools were destroyed and 2,677 closed, representing 44.16% of this network; 456,534 pupils were affected in the two levels of education in question. Table 1 shows the numbers of students registered in public schools/educational institutions in Mozambique over the fifteen year period from 1980 to 1995.
Private education, which was abolished finally in 1975, became officially accepted again following measures adopted in 1990 and now there are several such schools from primary to higher level.
Table 1. Number of students and number of schools/institutions, 1980 to 1995
|
Levels |
1980 |
1985 |
1990 |
1995 |
||||
|
Students |
Schools/Inst. |
Students |
Schools/Inst. |
Students |
Schools/Inst. |
Students |
Schools/Inst. |
|
|
Primary PE1 |
1387192 |
5,370 |
1311014 |
4616 |
1260218 |
3441 |
1415428 |
4241 |
|
PE2 |
79899 |
99 |
111283 |
156 |
116718 |
169 |
127294 |
234 |
|
Secondary |
9729 |
19 |
21623 |
41 |
25280 |
39 |
34464 |
50 |
|
Pre-university |
413 |
2 |
2162 |
5 |
3343 |
5 |
4110 |
10 |
|
Tech. Elem. |
2807 |
13 |
747 |
10 |
98 |
1 |
158 |
2 |
|
& Prof. Basic |
9897 |
19 |
9334 |
24 |
7987 |
24 |
11968 |
23 |
|
Middle |
1047 |
3 |
1562 |
4 |
1847 |
6 |
2404 |
11 |
|
Higher education |
836 |
1 |
1442 |
1 |
3715 |
3 |
6186 |
3 |
Information provision
The economic constraints which resulted from the long period of fighting and natural disasters is reflected in the very poor state and services of the documentation and information systems found in the country. In the majority of cases, the lack of financial resources and the shortage of qualified staff are the main reasons why library and information services have not developed.
The National Library, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, has no financial resources and few qualified staff and acts more as a public library for general reading than as an organization for controlling and safeguarding the heritage of publications by and about the country.
The eleven existing provincial libraries (which are also the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport) are in practice the public libraries for the provincial capitals. All these libraries are operating with greater or lesser degrees of difficulty and in most cases with the support of foreign NGOs, support which translates into the purchase of books, subscriptions to periodicals, the provision of some mobile support, financing for study visits to neighbouring countries, participation in regional conferences, etc. Some of the 128 existing districts do have libraries but the number of these is unknown.
The three existing public institutions for higher education are served by libraries but they all suffer from the same problems:
· lack of technically qualified staff;
· shortage of storage space;
· the small number of sitting areas in reading rooms;
· the almost complete non-existence of photocopying facilities;
· the non-existence of a national budget for purchasing books, which has resulted in almost total dependency on international co-operation.
Most of the ministries, national organizations and central agencies of state and government have specialized libraries/documentation centres. The way they have developed is very diverse; whereas some are already using the new technologies to provide the most up to date information, others simply fulfil the passive role of safeguarding collections of tied-up bundles of documents whose content is out of date and irrelevant.
The Mozambique Historic Archive forms part of the support structure for studying archival documents and is one of the best libraries on the history of Mozambique and southern Africa, welcoming within its walls pre-university students.
Set up as a planning activity under a co-ordination unit at central level, the school libraries service is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education; it was only set up in 1979 but to date no policy has been defined for its development. As it is without the financial or human resources it needs to function properly, the school libraries service is almost non-existent in primary education; it operates extremely badly in secondary and pre-university schools, even when there is a library. Various projects are being carried out with the objective of awakening interest in books and in reading, principally at primary level, although these projects are not being organized by the Ministry of Education but by foreign organizations.
Since 1982 Mozambique has been the scene of various experiences relating to the use of book box libraries in schools; some of the most notable are:
· projects where the basic objective is the improvement of the teaching/learning process, with the provision of educational materials emerging as one of the supports in this process:- the 'mobile' libraries project was the full responsibility (concept, finance and management) of the Ministry of Education (MINED) and embraced all primary schools in the country. (Pre-university schools have also received books from MINED, but not in the form of book box 'mobile' libraries.) This project operated from 1982 to 1984 and constitutes one of the case studies examined in this chapter.- the 'moveable' libraries project (packed in metal boxes) formed part of an educational support programme ('Creating the habit of reading') which the French NGO 'Action Nord Sud' operated in five districts of the province of Inhambane, covering 70 schools at primary level. 12 boxes were packed, each one containing a collection of 59 titles (subjects: Portuguese, mathematics, natural sciences and children's literature). These libraries circulated around 70 schools, staying in each school for one month. Although these libraries continue to circulate, the project was cut back in 1996 because, starting in 1997, the NGO planned to locate a fixed library in each of the schools covered by the project.
According to the person in charge of the project, continuing the programme of circulating libraries would not be sustainable in the future, because the provincial and district education authorities do not have the human resources or materials (principally the transport network) necessary for maintaining access, once the boxes are handed over to the government;
· projects in which the fundamental objective is the creation of a more effective reading environment either in school or locally:- the 'portable' libraries were part of a project supported by the Canadian CODE organization and was carried out between 1990 and 1995, involving all primary schools (about 550) in the province of Cabo Delgado. (As there were only 5 secondary schools in Cabo Delgado, they were also included in the scheme.) This project constitutes the other case study examined in this chapter.
The end result of all the projects referred to above was that there was improved access to reading materials for the school population involved.
From the interviews which I have had with the people in charge of these projects, I have come to see that the exchange of information about the work involved in each of these projects was not undertaken satisfactorily. Lessons learnt in one project were not transferred to the next.
Since the central co-ordinating agency of the Ministry of Education (School Libraries Department) does not have a sufficiently strong structure to allow it to do this type of work, the donor agencies prefer to give support at local level, to the geographic areas in which they work and not to the 'system' or 'network' of school libraries, especially since it barely exists.
Aims and objectives
For the 'mobile' libraries (MINED), the beneficiaries were the school population throughout the country aged between 6 and 12 and thus the future teachers of primary education. The objectives were to develop the habit of reading in pupils and the development of a teaching body. Factors critical to the success of the project included:
· the choice of titles being put into the collection;· the quality of the co-ordination between the central agency (School Libraries Co-ordination Commission) and the link people for education at provincial and district level;
· planning for the circulation of the libraries;
· training for the people in charge of the libraries and their use.
For the 'portable' libraries (CODE), the beneficiaries were the school population aged between 6 and 12 and the teachers in the primary schools in the province of Cabo Delgado. The objectives were to provide culturally appropriate supplementary reading materials and thus to reinforce post-literacy habits by developing the habit of reading at the level of primary education. Factors critical to the success of the project included:
· the choice of titles to make up the libraries;· the training programmes in the use of complementary reading:
- training at director level (district education directors, ZIP directors, school heads); their contribution was important to the project objectives being achieved;- empowerment of the teachers and technical staff in the Provincial Education Service through seminars lasting one week.
Origins, history and development
'Mobile' libraries
The 'mobile' libraries pilot project was designed and managed by the School Libraries Coordination Commission Agency (now known as the School Libraries Department), an agency which at MINED level superintends all the problems relating to libraries.
The renewed outbreak of war, which resulted in part of the school network being destroyed, along with many of the roads, meant that this project lasted for little more than two years (1982-1984).
At the time, the static school library was practically non-existent as an instrument of educational support. The impossibility of providing a library to each primary school in the country (in 1980 there were about 5,830 schools at this level with about 1,467 million pupils), led to taking up the option of the circulating book box library. With about 3,015 book boxes of three different types (years 1 to 4, urban schools; years 1 to 4 rural schools and years 5 to 6), it was possible, using a termly rotation system, to allow access to books by practically all primary schools in the country. The decision to pack these libraries in strong cardboard boxes was linked to the fact that many of the schools in the country, because they were operating under the cover of trees or in very precarious buildings, did not have the physical space to house the collection; in such cases, the boxes were the responsibility of the head of the school, who kept them in his own house. The forward plans for the project provided for updating and improving the collections and a gradual hand-over of the libraries to those schools which showed that they were able to set up the structure for housing them.
In the course of the project, three evaluation seminars were conducted which brought together all the people in charge of the whole project, including some of the people who formed a link with the provincial directors of education.
The archives which contained almost all the documentation produced about this project have now been destroyed; all the information given was collected in the course of interviews with the then head of the School Libraries Co-ordination Commission.
'Portable' libraries
In 1990, CODE identified Cabo Delgado as the area in which to concentrate its activities. This was a province which had been very little affected by the civil war and 70% of its school network was still operating.
Although Portuguese is the official language and the language of instruction in schools in Mozambique, the reality is that it is a second language and there is a huge need to reinforce people's ability to understand and speak the official language of the country. This could be made easier by introducing supplementary reading material at primary school level. It is becoming increasingly clear that success in introducing these supplementary reading materials is linked to training primary school teachers in how to develop a better reading environment in their schools and communities.
The project, which lasted for five years (1990-1995), was the responsibility of the Cabo Delgado Provincial Director of Education and was managed entirely by Progresso, a Mozambique NGO which has the general social objective of contributing to the development of basic communities, with particular attention to women and children, and aims to raise the living conditions of the population and improve their abilities to manage themselves.
The books for the libraries were purchased in Maputo by Progresso and sent to the Provincial Director of Education in Cabo Delgado; there, the people in charge of the project set up the libraries, packed them in boxes made of material produced locally and sent them off to the district education officers who in their turn despatched them to the schools. This project differed from that of MINED, in that the boxes did not circulate but remained in the school to which they were sent.
Initially, the plan was for the project to make up libraries which each contained 150 volumes (15 titles and 10 copies of each title). However, 46 titles were purchased (over a period), making a final purchase total of 166,663 volumes.
In 1993 the project underwent a positive intermediate evaluation, in the course of which it was established that one of the principal reasons why the all the planned objectives had not been achieved was the poor ability of the primary school teachers to teach the early stages of reading. The positive results of this evaluation led to approval being given for a new project called 'Improving the teaching of reading' in which, whilst maintaining the activities of the first project, there was an emphasis on a component for training teachers in the use of the book box libraries to develop the oral tradition and the ability to tell stories in Portuguese and improve the methods of teaching reading and writing to years 1 and 2.
Functions
The 'mobile' libraries had the function of supporting the teaching/learning process at primary education level in all schools in the country and of training teachers at this level, by supplying books covering the teaching areas and reading books for children and young people.
The function of the 'portable' libraries was to reinforce post-literacy habits in the province of Cabo Delgado by developing the habit of reading at primary school level.
Governance
The 'mobile' libraries project was conceived and managed centrally by the School Libraries Coordination Commission and operated wholly from a national budget. The choice of books and the organization of the libraries was entirely the responsibility of the co-ordinating agency. The latter then sent them, together with a list of the contents, to the provincial authority using the educational support commissions (CAPs) as the links. These people were responsible for all the activities relating to the libraries; they organized the despatch of the libraries to the ZIPs who in turn sent them on to the schools.
According to the information given during this research, there was not a great deal of understanding at central co-ordination level of how to go about receiving/despatching the libraries in the CAP-ZIP-school circuit. In the schools, the head was the person responsible for the use of the libraries and for receiving/despatching them. When the project was first implemented and in accordance with the norm which became established, the libraries for years 1 to 4 were to stay in each school for one month; requests from several schools meant that the period in which they did stay was extended to three months, which is what had already been established from the beginning for the libraries for years 5 and 6.
The 'portable' libraries was a project which was conceived and presented to CODE by the Provincial Director of Education for Cabo Delgado. The role of co-ordinator and manager for the project was awarded to the Mozambique NGO Progresso which operated it in close cooperation with members of the Provincial Administration of Cabo Delgado, who were specifically allocated to the work. It was executed at province level. The Provincial Director of Education received the books, put together the libraries and sent them to the district authorities; they were in charge of delivering them to the schools within their jurisdiction.
Target user populations
The 'mobile' libraries covered the whole of the school population in the country at primary education level, corresponding to around 1,377 million students in about 5,833 schools. The 'portable ' libraries covered the whole of the school population at primary education level in the province of Cabo Delgado, involving around 110,000 pupils and about 2,500 teachers in about 550 schools.
Choice of methodology and rationale
For gathering data on the 'mobile' libraries, the methodology used in the study, because of the problems which have been identified already, was basically a series of interviews with the person responsible for the project and the use of the few pieces of archive material and reports which had not been destroyed.
For the 'portable' libraries, the methodology was similar. A series of interviews were held with the executive secretary of the NGO Progresso and a number of its reports and archive documents studied.
Methods used in data collection and analysis
Statistics, published annual reports and archive material from the institutions responsible for the book box libraries were used collect background information. Written reports and other documentation were a particularly important source of information on the CODE project.
Based on the general picture which was given to this researcher by the initial interviews and after a first analysis of some of the archive reports and documents, the bulk of the data was collected through structured interviews with the people in charge of the projects. These interviews were designed to take account of the data necessary for presenting the case studies but which did not figure in the documentation used or where a reading of the same gave rise to doubts over its interpretation.
Interviews with a sample of teachers or students to gather data on satisfaction and impact did not prove possible. In the case of the MINED project, the situation of instability and mobility among the population (in this case of teachers and heads of schools) caused by the war, together with the destruction of the archives relating to the project, meant that any sampling procedure would be impracticable.
An intermediate evaluation of the CODE project was conducted at the end of 1993, based on a sample of schools in Cabo Delgado. It did not use probability sampling, which is typical in statistics, but rather 'convenience sampling', which is characteristic of qualitative methods, namely selecting elements which will supply information which is pertinent to an in-depth study. The people responsible for the sampling chose two districts in the Province which were among the first where the project was implemented or where there was ease of access. By using the processes of interviews and direct observation, they visited a total of 10 schools in the two districts and interviewed about 25 pupils; they also interviewed teachers, the people responsible for the libraries, executives from the Provincial Education Office in Cabo Delgado and the district authorities for Pemba and Montepuez who were involved in education. The data collected in this evaluation is used in the present case study.
Problems
In respect of the MINED project, the biggest problems lay in the fact that the project archives had all been destroyed (a result of changes to the structures and management organs of the Ministry); the huge level of mobility among heads and teachers of schools throughout the whole country (mainly as a result of the war) meant that there was no possibility of interviewing any of the teachers or heads who had taken part in the pilot project.
Time and expense contributed to the difficulties encountered in collecting data on the CODE project. The lack of information in circulation in Mozambique on this project meant that it was only at the end of November 1997 that this researcher learnt of the existence of the project. The school teaching year in Mozambique is from February to November, which meant no data from the field could be collected until the following year, outside the time limits of the research. In addition, the costs of travelling and staying in Cabo Delgado (a province in the extreme north of the country), amounted to US$1,200, also outside the research, in terms of the funding available.
Collection development
Availability. In both cases, these are libraries packed m boxes and handed over to the responsibility of the head of a school (MINED) or of a teacher who has been trained for the work (CODE) and potentially access is easy. However, as people were not used to 'having books' and because there was fear of losing them, the pupils' use of them and the possibility of more pupils reading them was restricted. This not being used to 'having books' also existed amongst the teachers, which meant that they had little desire to encourage the use of the libraries.
In the case of the 'portable' libraries, there were indications that in some schools the books were difficult to access for a variety of reasons:
· the transfer of the active teacher (the only one capable of managing the library) meant that the book box libraries were locked up in a room which was difficult to access;· the person in charge of the library was a teacher who also taught during the teaching periods; this meant that no attention was given to pupils in the other lessons;
· the concept of the book box library (a wooden box containing books which was in the care of the teacher designated for the purpose of managing it and to which all the pupils must have access) had not been properly assimilated by the heads of the schools and the teachers responsible. This meant that the books were held on to so that pupils could not damage them and, for the same reason, the books were not lent out, the pupils being obliged to read them in school. It should also be noted that the school timetables did not have any periods specifically for the use of the library.
Sufficiency. In the two projects analyzed, the number of titles in a box proved to be insufficient to cover need, when the number of users is considered.
In the 'mobile' libraries, there was only one copy of each title in a box and the number of books in each box ranged from 31 to 76, as can be seen in Table 2.
Table 2. Number of books in different levels of 'mobile' libraries
|
Level |
No. of books per box |
|
|
Years 1 - 4 |
Type A |
31 |
|
Type B |
35 |
|
|
Years 5 - 6 |
|
76 |
In the 'portable' libraries, each library was made up of 15 titles and there were 10 copies of each title, making a total of 150 volumes. If we consider that 166,663 volumes were purchased to serve 106,465 pupils, this means there were 1.5 volumes per pupil, which is obviously insufficient. There were signs that in some schools the number of books was insufficient to meet the demand and the interested pupils had to wait a long time before being able to read the most sought-after titles.
Relevance. In both projects, the collections were chosen with care, the opinions of specialists and educational experts were sought and account was taken of the different objectives of each of the projects.
In the 'mobile' libraries and mainly in the collections which were destined for level 1 (years 1-4), the subjects were almost exclusively school subjects for supporting the education provided (Portuguese, mathematics, natural sciences). Care was again taken in putting together different collections, depending on whether the schools were located in a rural or an urban environment. The collections destined for years 5-6 included a good percentage (about 40%) of children's and young people's literature as well as the school books.
The 'portable' libraries were made up for the most part of children's and young people's literature, with 1.53% of books being for the teaching of Portuguese and 5.58% for natural sciences. The indicators to which this researcher had access show that the imported books were more in demand than those produced nationally, due to the print quality (mainly the colour).
Selection/acquisition. In both cases, selection was handled by the people in charge of the projects after they had heard the views of teachers and educational experts.
For the 'mobile' libraries, the books were all acquired by being purchased in Portugal and then imported.
For the 'portable' libraries, in year I of the project (covering the schools in 3 districts), the books were all imported from Brazil (about 14,000 volumes); in year II (covering the schools in 3 districts) and in year III (covering the schools in 2 districts), the books were partly imported (about 25,500 volumes) and partly produced locally (about 49,400 volumes); in year IV (covering the schools in 4 districts), there was a small percentage of books imported from Portugal (about 2,550 volumes) and the great majority were acquired from local production (about 24,800 items); in year V (covering the schools in 5 districts) it was not necessary to import as they were acquired from local production (around 21,350 items) and they benefited from a UNICEF offer of around 30,000 volumes. In total, the books purchased represented 82.54% of the total in the collections.
Organization. The libraries were packed in boxes, either cardboard or wood. The small number of the books meant that the contents were easily visible and no organization such as classification or cataloguing proved necessary.
Staffing
For the 'mobile' libraries, the co-ordinating agency for this project had a sector head, with a degree in history and philosophy, who worked closely from 1979-1981 with a Cuban national who was a specialist in school libraries; the co-ordinating agency also had three education experts who had basic training in documentation. During the First National Meeting of School Libraries, held in 1982, it was agreed that at least one person from each of the provincial education authorities (qualified with a degree in education) and answering to them should act in the province as trainers of the teachers and heads responsible for the libraries in the schools; a small guide on the organization and management of school libraries was prepared and distributed at that time. It is felt today that this preparation was insufficient because, in most cases, these 'trainers' did not pass on the knowledge they had acquired and did not circulate the guide.
One of the objectives of the 'portable' libraries project was 'to develop and carry out training programmes for teachers in primary schools in the use of supplementary reading material'. Throughout the 5 years of the project, a total of 729 teachers and education staff were trained in annual seminars which lasted a week and which were run by a team of provincial trainers, which stayed together for the 5 years. The seminars provided minimal training in the organization and management of this type of library and were accompanied by the distribution of a short guide.
Physical facilities
An advantage of the book box library is that it does not require physical facilities such as buildings, table and chairs, shelving. In both the MINED and CODE projects, the libraries were often used under the trees, which is where even today some schools in the country operate. These libraries do not need a specific 'house' in which to be kept, it being the responsibility of the head or the teacher to keep them in his home outside school hours. and chairs, shelving. In both the MINED and CODE projects, the libraries were often used under the trees, which is where even today some schools in the country operate. These libraries do not need a specific 'house' in which to be kept, it being the responsibility of the head or the teacher to keep them in his home outside school hours.
Finance
Due to the destruction of the archives, there is very little financial data available in relation to the MINED project. Financing was wholly the responsibility of the Ministry of Education via the general state budget. Table 3 gives the costs of the books (i.e. their cover price only). It should be noted that there is no record of the costs of customs charges, packaging (boxes), transport, training, seminars, management, etc.
Table 3. 'Mobile' libraries: cost of books in US$
|
Level
|
No. of libraries |
Cost of books per library (US$) |
Total cost (US$) |
|
| Years 1-4 |
Type A |
1 511 |
41 |
61951 |
|
Type B |
1714 |
27 |
46278 |
|
| Years 5-6 |
|
102 |
191 |
19482 |
| Total |
|
3 327 |
|
127 711 |
Table 4. 'Portable' libraries: cost of service in US$
|
|
1990/91 |
1991/92 |
1992/93 |
1993/94 |
1994/95 |
Total |
|
Physical resources (boxes and recovery of one library) |
|
|
2379 |
17529 |
4500 |
24408 |
|
Development of human resources (training) |
11240 |
32020 |
11892 |
16307 |
13018 |
84477 |
|
Purchase of books |
4973 |
7000 |
23994 |
34434 |
27018 |
97419 |
|
Evaluation |
|
763 |
|
8381 |
153 |
9297 |
|
Management (Progresso and Prov. Ed. Auth.) |
6263 |
14298 |
14468 |
16129 |
16294 |
67452 |
|
Local production of books |
3755 |
14732 |
1541 |
36 |
|
20064 |
|
Total |
26 231 |
68 813 |
54 274 |
92 816 |
60 983 |
303 117 |
The 'portable' libraries project, which covered about 550 schools was wholly financed by the Canadian organization CODE, which contributed 544,432 Canadian dollars. The costs of the project over the five years are given in Table 4.
Both projects were financed centrally, one by central government and one by a donor agency. There were no local financial inputs, whether at the province, school or user level.
Use
For the 'mobile' libraries, the destruction of the archives and the fact that the project was a long time ago, meant that not a great deal could be ascertained on usage. But because there was a lack of effective checks on the part of the co-ordinating agency, it is known that there was little statistical data on the use of the libraries available at central level. Moreover, there was no form of training on how to use the libraries given either to teachers or to school students.
Documents to which this researcher had access show that the Progresso NGO tried to obtain statistical data on use by sampling two districts and three libraries in each of them. The three libraries in the Montepuez district did have papers which were more or less complete. This was quite unlike the three libraries in the Pemba district where, because few statistical data were supplied, no opinion could be formed. One can only conclude that no statistical record was kept in these libraries in relation to the use of the books, notwithstanding the fact that there was an exercise book in each box for recording loans and checking them.
In the statistical sample from the three schools in the Montepuez district, over a period of one year, each of the students visited their respective library 0.33, 1.3 and 1.4 times; in respect of the loan service, the number of loans per student per year was 0.9, 1.1 and 1.3. On the other hand this low level of usage must be weighed against the finding that in some schools, given the small number of books, there were waiting lists for the books which were most in demand.
The evaluation of the 'portable' libraries project also found some cases where, because of the wrong attitude having been adopted by the active teachers and heads, the use of the libraries in some schools was little more than a vain hope, in terms of both reading in school and home loans.
The population covered by both projects, in most cases, did not have access to any other sources of information, which was the basic reason for creating these libraries in the first place. It could not access supplementary reading material through any other means.
Costs and cost effectiveness
For the MINED project, the only data which existed related to the purchase price of the books, is shown in Table 3. However, by adding to the purchase price estimated % costs of packaging and transport (25%), customs duties (5%) and indirect costs (15%), it is possible to arrive at total costs for the 3,327 libraries acquired. These are given in Table 5.
Therefore, given that about 1,349,103 students were served at level one of primary education and 95,591 at level 2, over the two year period of the project's operation:
· the cost of the service per school student at level one was US$0.12;
· the cost of the service per school student at level two was US$2; and:
· the average cost of a book box for level one was US$51;
· the cost of a book box for level two was US$288.
Table 5. 'Mobile' libraries: total costs of service
|
Level |
Cost per book box (US$) |
Total cost (US$) |
|
|
Years 1 -4 |
Type A |
61.87 |
93486 |
|
Type B |
40.76 |
69863 |
|
|
Years 5 - 6 |
|
288.30 |
29407 |
|
Total |
|
|
192 756 |
For the CODE project, Table 6 gives the number of book boxes provided against the total cost of the service.
Table 6. 'Portable' libraries: number of boxes provided and cost of service
|
Year |
No. of book boxes |
Total cost of service (US$) |
|
1990/91 |
100 |
26231 |
|
1991/92 |
117 |
68813 |
|
1992/93 |
115 |
54274 |
|
1993/94 |
115 |
92816 |
|
1994/95 |
128 |
60983 |
|
Total |
575 |
303117 |
Therefore, given that about 110,000 students were served in 550 schools, over the five year period of the project's operation:
· the cost of the service per school student was US$2.75;
· the average cost of a book box was US$527.
These costs are low. To be able to provide access to supplementary reading materials at an average of around US$3 per student over a five year period is negligible compared to the overall costs of education. However the question must be asked as to how effective the access provided was. It did not prove possible for either project to conduct interviews with users, so it is difficult to make any evaluation in relation to the level of user satisfaction achieved. But the data acquired during the evaluation of the 'portable' libraries project may act as indicators in this matter:
· the fact that people are not used to having books and the fear of losing them restricted free circulation of the books among the pupils;· 'in many schools the library is almost a secret between one or two teachers';
· in some schools, the books were insufficient to meet the demand, giving rise to long waiting lists for getting hold of a title a person wanted to read;
· the 4-colour books which had good graphics were the most sought after;
· some of the national books were not much sought after because the texts were long and sometimes difficult;
· the fact that there was just one active person per school who was also a teacher during lesson time meant that the pupils in other lessons were ignored.
In short, access to the collections was not easy and once accessed there was an insufficient number of books, some of which not very relevant to need. However, and in relation to the level of user satisfaction, the following may be maintained: the almost total lack of knowledge among the population about books, libraries and how to use them led these users to be very undemanding in terms of the quality of the services provided for them.
Overall, based on the experiences of the two projects, this modality can be judged effective: the costs were low, yet some access to reading materials was provided to a large target population, who had never before had any sort of information provision. Both projects constituted a first and unique experience in the provision of access to information.
Impact
For the MINED project, there is little available data on whether the provision of the 'mobile' libraries improved educational performance or the quality of education. In the various interviews which were conducted with the people in charge of the project, it was maintained that in the three evaluation seminars which were held during the two years, some teachers and heads had affirmed that as a result of using the libraries, their schools suffered fewer repetitions and saw school performances improved.
As for the 'portable' libraries, the results from the sampling carried out during the intermediate evaluation showed that, mainly due to the poor teaching abilities of the teachers of pupils in the early years, the educational benefits of the libraries on the teaching of reading and writing was not satisfactory. According to the final report on the project, 'the only ones who liked reading were those who could read',... 'to promote the taste for and habit of reading among children, their own teachers must know how to read and cultivate this taste for reading'.
Overall assessment
Considering:
· the non-existence of access to information of the school population (primary education) in the country;· the economic impossibility of providing a library for each school;
· the need to complement the teaching/learning process by the use of a library;
the book box library is a possible and cost-effective solution. It provides the school population with books, the basic tools for creating the habit of reading. The person in charge of the MINED pilot project states that it was a success and that it proved the viability of this kind of access to information. The benefits of the CODE project were obvious in the province of Cabo Delgado.
The main weakness of the 'mobile' book box lies in the need to ensure that the libraries circulate properly and in the need for a functioning transport network. The later experience with the French NGO 'Action Nord Sud' project, which has already been mentioned, confirms that any lack of sustainability of this type of project in the future lies in the missing transport network and in the lack of functioning infrastructures at provincial and district education level.
The biggest weakness of the 'portable' libraries project seems to rest in the teachers' lack of preparation and the non-existence of a methodology for teaching reading and writing.
In both of the projects described, preparation of the managers of this type of library proved to be insufficient both in terms of the quality of training and in terms of the numbers of people trained.
Future prospects for book box libraries
'Mobile' book box libraries cannot be considered as a sustainable modality in the short or medium term because of the poor educational and communications infrastructure. In order to be viable and sustainable, the modality of the mobile book box library presupposes the existence of strong co-ordination at all levels (central and local) and a good transport network or nothing will come of it.
'Portable' book box libraries, which have already been tried out in two provinces of the country with the support of the Canadian CODE organization, seems to offer a safe solution for providing access to information for the school population when, inter alia, the following are taken into account:
· the existence of many schools which operate in precarious conditions, for example under trees (mainly in the rural areas);· the fact that improving the country's educational system, which is already under way, is a long process which requires economic and human resources which are not totally available.
The modality of the portable library, in boxes, introduced a new library concept (wooden box containing books which are in the care of teachers who are trained for the work and to which all pupils have access); under this concept, the library is moveable, portable, simple, produced locally and may be acquired at low cost.
The success of this modality depends in large measure on the ability of the active teachers who are responsible for the libraries, their ability to use a methodology for teaching reading and writing and to assimilate and apply the new library concept, because those teachers who are not used to 'having books' find it difficult to provide access to them for the pupils.
With positive experience of seven years of activity which has already covered two provinces in the country, it seems that it is up to someone of the stature of the Minister of Education to study and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this experience, starting with this evaluation, and to design a project which can be phased in so that it can cover all the provinces. Particular attention should be paid to the rural areas where the school population does not have any other form of access to information and to those schools which do not have the conditions necessary for housing a conventional type of library.
Amaral, W. d. (1994) Sistemas e serviços de informação em Moçambique: panoram geral. Maputo, 1994. (Paper, 1st anniversary of DABA [Angolan Library Association])
Martins, Z., F. Zacarias and J. Matavele. (1993) Avaliação intermedia do projecto 'Criação de um ambiente de leitura em Cabo Delgado', Moçambique. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação.
Maximiano, E. (1996) Síntese das visitas às províncias. Maputo: Ministério da Educação, Centro de Documentação.
Mozambique. Ministério da Educação. (1994) Indicadores educacionais e efectivos escolares: ensino primário, 1983-1992. Maputo: Ministério da Educação.
Mozambique. Ministério da Educação. (1994) Indicadores educacionais e efectivos escolares: ensino primário, 1993-1994, ension secundário gérai, 1983-1994. Maputo: Ministério da Educação.
Mozambique. Ministério da Educação. Centro de Documentação. (1996) Política para a constituição, apetrechamento e melhoramento das bibliotecas escolares. Maputo: Ministério da Educação.
Mozambique. Instituto Nacional de Estatística. (1997) Moçambique, em numéros 1996 = Mozambique in figures 1996. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estatística.
Niconte, M. B. (1994) Visita de trabalho as províncias de Nampula e Cabo Delgado: relatório final. Maputo: Ministério da Educação, Centro de Documentação.
Cabo Delgado e Niassa, referente ao perfodo Nov. 1995/Mar. 1997. (1997) Maputo.
Sistema Nacional de Educação: linhas gérais; lei. (1985) Maputo.
Structured interviews with the head of the Documentation Centre in the Ministry of Education, who was in charge of the 'mobile' libraries pilot project.
Interviews with two teaching experts who were responsible for the 'Action Nord Sud' French NGO 'moveable' libraries project.
Structured interviews with the Executive Secretary of the Mozambique NGO Progresso.
