Universities do what they can to keep learning ticking over

The higher education sector of Mozambique has been thrown into disarray by the COVID-19 pandemic, with colleges and universities closed since 1 April when President Filipe Nyusi approved a state of emergency decree, imposing movement restrictions that have been extended to 30 June.

Some universities have been trying to keep operations going through online classes, with privately-owned universities leading in this area, partly to keep fees being paid by students to help finance lecturer salaries and prevent a total shutdown. As elsewhere in Africa, state-owned universities in Mozambique have lagged in developing online services and many have cancelled classes entirely. As yet there is no reopening date, and the academic year ends in December.

Even where online services have been provided, many Mozambican university students in rural areas have struggled to access them, having no steady access to electricity or the internet. Only those staying in cities have access to such services and many of these urbanites have also struggled because internet services are very expensive in Mozambique.

For private universities such as Universidade Técnica de Moçambique (UDM – Technical University of Mozambique), Instituto Superior de Transportes e Comunicações (ISUTC – Higher Institute of Transport and Communications), Universidade São Tomás (USTM – University of St Thomas) and the Universidade Católica de Moçambique (UCM – Catholic University of Mozambique), online classes are being delivered via Zoom, WhatsApp, NoodleTools, Google Classroom, G Suite and other online platforms.

However, due to the reduced percentage of students participating, the country’s minister of education and human development, Carmelita Namashulua, told lawmakers at the country’s Assembly of the Republic that such classes via digital platforms could not be used to generate credits needed to complete degrees.

Limitations of online learning

“The classes transmitted by radio and television channels and other digital platforms only serve to occupy students and consolidate the knowledge acquired before the closure of schools in the scope of the state of emergency, in the face of COVID-19,” she said, in an answer to questions about the effectiveness of online classes.

The state-owned Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM or Universidade Eduardo Mondlane), based in the capital Maputo and the largest in the country with approximately 40,000 students, stopped contact classes on 23 March and since then has been trying to operate online classes without much success.

As with private university students, poverty is a problem, with many students dependent on scholarship fees and lacking their own computers or smartphones for research. Normally they rely on university libraries and computer rooms, which are now closed.

Professor Orlando Quilambo, the university rector, tried to reassure students in a letter: “On March 23, the first day of your absence, the campus was, for the first time in recent history, without its soul, which is the students. However, your physical absence should not mean that you are far from your home [the university]. Your teachers in the various subjects and courses are preparing teaching content so that they can follow some subjects that allow them to complete, as far as possible, what remained unfulfilled in the modules and in the semester subjects.”

Appeals for student solidarity

He also asked wealthier students to help poorer colleagues with accessing online services: “In this delicate moment, we appeal to student solidarity so that the resources that each one has can be shared with others.”

The Eduardo Mondlane University has waived student fees during the state of emergency.

Such generosity has not been an option for private universities in Mozambique, which make up 50% of the country’s 40 universities and higher education colleges. Fees at these institutions are often paid on a monthly basis, and many students attend night courses.

The fees are also high – above the average monthly minimum wage, which is MZN4,266 (US$61). With traditional classes suspended, students and their guardians have been complaining about paying school fees for online classes.

“Our struggle is that universities must lower the school fees. With online classes, we increased spending on the internet and the purchase of mobile devices to follow the classes, but universities continue to charge the same amounts,” said Marlene Chimene, a representative of the country’s National Student Union. “Of the private universities, only the University of São Tomás [St Thomas University, in Maputo] reduced tuition fees by half in April and May,” Chimene said.

“We lowered the school fees because we understand that we are in difficult times for everyone and students need to continue studying,” Silvério Samuel, director of the faculty of ethics and human sciences of St Thomas University, told University World News.

Collective action

Postgraduate students at the state-owned Joaquim Chissano University, also in Maputo, have met with some success: classes (and fees) were suspended after a collective letter by students was sent to the university rector on 10 May demanding the suspension of classes and fees on the basis that the university was not able to teach proficiently online.

“Joaquim Chissano University has no … experience [of] distance learning, so starting to teach distance learning master classes would be a new experience for both the university and students, with visible disastrous results in the teaching and learning process,” said the letter.

“Students are not prepared to receive classes using virtual platforms, which includes the lack of adequate infrastructure and equipment, physical space for this purpose, as well as mastery of the platforms to be used. Thus, it is our understanding that the use of virtual platforms for teaching would harm the teaching and learning process.”

The students proposed the “suspension of classes while the state of emergency lasts”, and that classes “be resumed as soon as the conditions for returning to face-to-face classes were met”.

But most universities are continuing to charge 100% tuition fees. And the government is reluctant to cancel academic studies, even when they are poorly delivered, noting that it wants to maintain all possible efforts to boost Mozambican educational standards in a country where around 39% of the population remains illiterate. The population with higher education is less than 5% of the total of about 29 million inhabitants, according to data from the Mozambique National Institute of Statistics.

“We do not consider the academic year lost, but this is a guess because we do not know what guidelines will come further,” said Gina Guibunda, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education and Human Development. “We will continue to deliver our classes, also using all available platforms.”

Looking ahead, help for hard-pressed students may come from the courts. Parents and guardians have found some success when suing primary and secondary schools in Mozambique that have refused to lower school fees during the COVID-19 lockdown. A judge of the Judicial Court of the City of Maputo decided on 19 April that the Nilia Institute, a Maputo high school, “must lower the school fee to 50% while the state of emergency lasts”.

So far, five court rulings across Mozambique have told primary and secondary schools to lower fees during the state of emergency – offering a potential precedent for cases that might follow against tertiary institutions, although none have yet been filed.