Angola

Nonformal education is greatly needed in Angola, and it is one area where substantial innovation is occurring. As in all other areas of education, nonformal education lacks financial backing and sufficient teachers, materials, and facilities, but it has continued because of humanitarian aid such as that given by UNICEF and national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Among important efforts in rural areas have been education projects such as landmine awareness and vocational training for war-injured and landmine victims in tailoring, metalwork, carpentry, and business administration. Urban and rural education projects include literacy education as well as vocational training for targeted populations such as child soldiers (5,000 soldiers in 1997, half of which were demobilized in 1996), street children in Luanda (estimated at 5,000 in 1996), amputees (70,000 in 1996), and internally displaced persons (3.8 million estimated in 2001) who have fled their home areas due to fighting.

The Ministry of Education employs distance learning in two remote education projects to reach students in seven of Angola's eighteen provinces. The initial project in banking served 221 students. Plans have begun to launch a television education network that eventually could be used nationwide. The Adult Education Department initiated a new literacy program in 1999 that hopes to eradicate illiteracy in the country by 2007. Greater effort will be directed to the countryside and particularly to women who have had limited access to education. The literacy program also teaches adults in local vernaculars. Angola has six national languages: Kikongo, Kimbundo, Umbundo, Chokwe, Mbunda and Oxikuanyama. Although Portuguese is the official language and that of instruction, only 27 percent of adult men and 10 percent of women speak the language, greatly limiting their educational and occupational opportunities.