Education in Angola

Education in Angola

Angola is a country located on the western side of Southern Africa. It is about twice the size of Texas (Background Note: Angola, 17). In Angola the estimated population is about 17,300,000 people (Background Note: Angola, 17). For every 5,571,406 people there are about 43.5 percent that are between zero and 14 years of. Angolans are not expected to live very long, their life expectancy is about 42 years (Background Note: Angola, 17). Within those 42 years, they have to make a family, then care for that family. Angola is still recovering from a war that finally ended in 2002, so life for all Angolans is tough (Angola Basic Facts, 19). They have to work hard at everything they do, and they try to go to school. Although Angola has an educational system in place, it is terrible because the schools are still destroyed from the war, most teachers are under qualified, and many people cannot afford to send their children to school.

After the ten year war that gave Angola its independence, Angola was never the same. The war left almost everything broken. The war not only affected all the people of Angola, but it also affected the education systems (Rural Poverty in Angola, 2). Since the war destroyed many of the schools, it has been difficult for the students to have any of the necessary supplies needed to conduct a safe and successful learning environment for school (Rural Poverty in Angola, 2). A few years after, people finally began to return home to Angola. To their surprise they found that most of the school buildings were ruined. Since this was the case, there were limited schools that could be used for teaching. The teachers were forced to put around 2,000 plus students in the remaining classrooms that were not damaged too badly (Scares of Battle, 9). Some of the classrooms were destroyed so badly that they had blown in doors and windows, and no roofs. So when it rains they do not have school (Scars of Battle, 9). The damaged class rooms make it hard for the schools to provide a good learning environment for all the kids, but they try to make do with all that they have (Rural Poverty in Angola, 2). For example, in most of the classrooms they have small plastic chairs, rusty drums for tables, and scraps of paper to write on (Scars of Battle, 9). In other classrooms they do not have any books, desks, or even chairs; all they have is closely packed students trying to learn in an unsuitable environment (Angola-Teaching Profession, 13). The children of Angola deserve to have the best education they can get, but Angola cannot provide that for them so they are forced to accept what they can get.

In Angola, the people are very undereducated. More than 40 percent of the population cannot read or write; that includes the teachers too (Angola, 19). Teachers are hard to find and even harder to keep. Usually if they are under qualified to teach, the schools allow them to teach because not many teachers stay (Angola-Teaching Profession, 16). Since the school is forced to keep all the under qualified teachers, the educational system is greatly affected (Angola-Teaching Profession, 16). Students most likely do not learn the correct curriculum that they should be taught. For the teachers who actually do go to training schools, they only have to complete around 4-6 years (Angola-Teaching Profession, 16). Since most children only complete the first stage of schooling, Basic Education, most teachers only have that same amount of education themselves (Pawson, 12). They only have to complete up to 8th grade in order to be a teacher, but most never do and that is why they are completely under qualified (Pawnson, 12). Another reason why the teachers damage Angola's education system is because they do not know how to speak many different languages, they only know Portuguese (Angola-Teaching Profession, 16). Although Angola's main languages is Portuguese, it is a diverse and multilingual country, and therefore the