EDUCTION AS CONTROL
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It is man's nature to live in society. But
for a man to be an integral part of this society, he should present himself with the
necessary requisites. One of these requisites,
is the integral education. Physical, moral,
and intelectual education. In the shortage of
one of these elements, a man becomes inapt
for his engagement in this giant social building, and for his domestic functions, he takes
an undignified life of a modern man. We
undersand, by education, is to take an individual from a stage of crude material, from the
state in which the child is still unprovided
with the knowledge of exterior world projects, to another worthy state of a man. To
educate in our -view is to give a child all
qualities it needs in order to comfort with the
society as a man not as an animal. For
education to he considered as complete it
has to include the physique and intellect, because a man is composed of material and
spirit. How then is the Mozambique African
educated within the frame work of the so-
called "Portuguese Civilising Mission?"
Unfortunately, in the family circles,
where education is supposed to begin, reign
ttemendous deficiency. Cursed be (chibalo)
the forced labour which desunitcs families.
The' mother of the family is forced to
cultivate big cotton and ricc fields demarcated by the Portuguese colonialist authorities.
If she fails to finish the acres or to produce
the required tonnage, she is severely punished. While the mother is busy in the fields, the
father is also arrested for forced labour
leaving the children without anyone to care
for nor educate them. Children in Mozambique are forced to grow like wild plants
without  the knowledge of parental love.
In Mozambique today 98% of the African population is illiterate. Two types of
education are provided. The so-called
"elementary"  schools  and  the  "rudimentary"
schools, the latter being only for Africans.
These latter schools, arc in charge of the
agents of Vatican imperialism. Thc Roman
Catholic missions which operate like feudal
estates, but which do not teach their pupils
to read and write.
According to the terms of the educational
mandate conferred upon the Catholic church
by the Estatuto Missionario of 1941, the
objectives of this mandate are set forth in
article 68: "Native education will conform to
the doctrinal orientation established by the
political constitution, will for all effects be
considered official and will regulate itself by
the plans and programs adopted by the '
Government of the colony. These plans and
programs will have in view the perfect nationalization and moral uplift of the natives
and the acquisition of habits and aptitudes
for work". Thus to distort all African history,
culture and civilization. So far Africans remained with neither African nor European
civilization.
African children under the age of 8 are
not admitted in these schools. The rudimentary mission schools have a three year
course at the end of which those children
who pass an examination are entitled to start
at the third year level of a public or mission
primary school.
In all schools in the colony it is against
the law to employ African languages except
in certain circumstances for the purpose of
religious instruction which is considered
more important than any other school subject by the Portuguese. Completely absent
from the curriculum of these rudimentary
schools. are any systematic references to
personal or public hygiene adapted to African conditions, despite the fact that there is
always an urgent need for alerting the African children  to  modern means of protection
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