However, the reports also revealed certain
difficulties related mainly to teaching
methods, difficulties resulting from a lack
of adequate preparation of the teachers,
and a lack of textbooks and manuals to
guide the teaching.
methods of teaching - the problems
The Seminar made a thorough study of
the problems involved in each of the
subjects taught in the schools. Thus, it
was found that our students do not
master the Portuguese language and that
this prevents them from fully understanding other disciplines. The teaching
methods some teachers have been using
also do not help the situation. There are
schools where the pupils confine themselves to learning the grammatical rules
by heart without being taught how to
apply them in the spoken or written
language. They are taught words without
being taught how to link them to form
sentences. They do not do enough exercises. All this is the result of the lack
of teaching handbooks with instructions
to guide the teachers. To remedy this
situation, the seminar recommended that:
a) the teaching of Portuguese should
be done on the basis of complete sentences instead of isolated words. In this
way, the students would be able to learn
and grasp the whole idea, which is essential to their being able to think and,
therefore, to communicate in the language they are learning.
b) the teacher should find topics for
discussion and talks in order to enable
the students to get used to expressing
themselves easily.
c) The teacher should introduce many
more written and oral exercises.
In the field of mathematics, the teachers
sometimes fail constantly to relate theoretical teaching with practice and do not
give illustrative examples taken from
everyday experience, or they do not
encourage the students to make use of
what they are learning. The recommendations of the seminar therefore related
to these matters.
Concerning history, there is the imrne-
diate difficulty already referred to of
insufficient knowledge of the Portuguese
language. Moreover, many teachers do
not know how properly to relate history
to politics.   The Seminar called the atten
tion of the teachers to the fact that
knowledge of a people's past is important
as a means of understanding the present
and drawing up a strategy for the future.
Through the study of history we are
passing on the experiences of past generations and these experiences, in our
specific case, help us to understand the
necessity and importance of the revolutionary  armed  struggle  we  are  waging.
There were not many problems in the
field of geography. However, the Seminar recommended that the same principle of constantly relating theory to
practice be reinforced, and that examples
taken from the immediate environment
be used as much as possible.
As regards  the  teaching of politics, in
many schools all that was studied were
the statutes and programme of FRELIMO, and a few other documents. Although it is difficult in primary schools
attended by children to expect a profound study or understanding of political
phenomena, the Seminar recommended
that even so the teachers should impart
basic notions to enable the students to
understand our policy in the different
sectors of activity, specifically in education and culture; the fundamental aspects of the liberation struggle, what
colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism are, and so on, preferably using concrete examples taken from our own experience which are already familiar tc
the students. Here too the aim should
not be to learn definitions by heart, but
to understand situations. In the more
advanced classes and in secondary schools,
political classes should continue to include more advanced concepts such as
what politics is, what our political line is,
what ideology is, the difference between
a revolutionary political line and a reactionary line, the meaning of a revolution, a protracted war, a people's war,
people's power and so on.
Agricultural production     is   one   of the
subjects taught in our schools. The students learn about the preparation of the
soil, sowing, germination, transplanting
and all the necessary tending. The classes
are always composed of two parts, one
theoretical and one practical. The Seminar also recommended the detailed study
of certain basic aspects of the economy
of Mozambique, the chief products, the
diversification of production.
Also discussed at the Seminar were problems of philosophy, psychology and taking
care of material goods For example,
the two philosophical concepts of the
world (materialist and idealist); dialectical contradictions; the reactions and
specific behaviour of children, (child
psychology); the importance of material
goods, especially the instruments of production, to the organisation of man's life;
thc need for these goods to be properly
used and protected, particularly those
which are given to us, since they represent the efforts and sacrifices of other
peoples. The seminar made several suggestions to the Department of Education
and Culture on each of the points dis-.
cussed.
recommendations
1. A more complete programme should
be organised for raising the political level
of teachers. The basic material for this
programme should be FRELIMO's political documents. The teachers themselves also have a great responsibility in
this respect: they should undertake self-
education, training themselves.
2. Whenever possible, theory should
be combined with practice, applying what
is observed and practised.
3. The technical level of teachers
should be raised through constant seminars at provincial level.
4. The adult literacy programme
should be stepped up, making it truly
popular and using the programme to
disseminate scientific ideas and revolutionary political concepts among the
masses. This year, 1973, we should
launch a general offensive against illiteracy.
5. More textbooks and manuals should
be prepared.
6. The information organ of the Department of Education and Culture (the
bulletin «Rasgando as Trevas» - ((Clearing   the   Darkness»)  should  be  revived.
The work of the Seminar was characterised by a spirit of deep understanding of
the principle of unity - criticism - unity.
All the participants contributed actively
to the discussions, bringing their experiences to help find correct solutions.
The Seminar was a further step forward
in the progress of our revolution.
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