Chapter 10: The Difficult Route to Developing Distance Education in Mozambique

Distance education has gained a modest place within Mozambique’s educational system in the past four decades. There remains, however, potential for a much greater use of distance education within the country, particularly when one considers pressing problems that the country continues to face, including an educational system with high dropout rates and grade repetitions, huge human resource needs, and the challenges of a high incidence and prevalence of HIV and AIDS.

With this background in mind, this chapter describes in greater detail the developmental history of distance education in Mozambique. After a brief introduction to the country, a discussion of Mozambique’s first post-independence distance education course (launched in 1983) is used as an illustrative case study. Key issues and emerging trends from this experience are highlighted, and the implications for subsequent use of distance education are discussed. Next, current developments, trends, and issues in distance education in Mozambique are presented. The chapter concludes with a series of discussion points that are aimed at helping realize the full potential of distance education in Mozambique.