O enigma do modelo por competência no ensino primário de Moçambique

A implementação efectiva do Modelo por Competência nas instituições da educação constitui um dos maiores desafios do Ministério da Educação e Desenvolvimento Humano. Passa mais do que uma década que os currículos baseados em competência estão sendo implementados no Ensino Primário. Contudo, a qualidade de formação dos alunos nos diferentes ciclos de aprendizagem tem sido reclamada e/ou censurada por diferentes grupos sociais, incluindo professores, pais e encarregados de educação. É neste âmbito que o presente artigo pretende analisar o impacto e efeitos do desenvolvimento de competências na organização curricular moçambicana na qualidade de aprendizagens dos alunos do Ensino Primário do país. Para o efeito, foram eleitos os paradigmas quantitativo e qualitativo, a combinação de métodos bibliográficos, documental e de estudo de caso e ainda de técnicas como entrevista, questionário, observação e testes diagnósticos aplicados sobre uma amostra de (N=908) indivíduos (gestores, professores e alunos. O percurso investigativo permitiu que se chegasse à conclusão de que o modelo por competência está longe de ser implementado efectivamente nas escolas moçambicanas, uma vez que apenas 45% dos cerca de n=112 alunos testados é que desenvolveram as competências prescritas nos programas do Ensino Primário. Este facto deve-se à falta ou deficiente apropriação da filosofia e estratégias exigidas pelo currículo pelos dirigentes, gestores, professores e encarregados de educação, exiguidade de recursos infraestruturais, materiais e meios de ensino para efectiva implementação do currículo do Ensino Primário.The effective implementation of the Competence Model in the institutions of education is one of the major challenges of the Ministry of Education and Human Development. There is more than a decade that the competence-based curriculum is implemented in the Primary School level. However, the quality of the pupils' achievement in different learning cycles has been complained and/or censured by different social groups, including teachers and parents. It is in this context the article intends to Analyze the impact and effects of the development of competences in the Mozambican curriculum organization in the quality of the Primary School students’ learnings in the country. For this study, we chose the quantitative and qualitative paradigms, the combination of review of literature, which includes norms or official documents, case study method and techniques such as interview, questionnaire, observation and diagnostic tests. The techniques were applied on a sample of (N=908) people namely school managers, teachers and pupils. The research itinerary allowed us to reach to the conclusion that the Competence Model is far away from its effective implementation in Mozambican primary schools once only 45% out of n=112 tested pupils have developed competences prescribed in the Primary School syllabi. This fact is due to the lack or deficient appropriation of the philosophy and strategies demanded by the curriculum by the leaders, managers, teachers and pupils, lack of infrastructural resources, materials and teaching aids for effective implementation of the Primary school curriculum

Sustainable Water Quality Monitoring for Developing Countries in the Context of Mining : Monitoring systems and modelling

Mining, seen as a source of revenue in most developing countries, threatens seriously the environment. Mining impacts the water quality and one of the main problems of mining is acid mine drainage. Low pH and high concentration of heavy metals characterize acid mine drainage. When a stream is impacted by acid mine drainage both human activities and the ecological system are seriously affected. In Mozambique coal mining is growing faster since 2010 while water quality monitoring programs are not well established and improvements are limited due to lack of skilled people and financial resources. The major coal reserves of Mozambique are located in the riparian area of Zambezi River Basin which is the largest river basin in Southern Africa with 11% of its catchment area in Mozambique. The Zambezi river basin in Mozambique has a high potential for development of human activities and its environment is rich and diversified. There are water quality monitoring systems already developed and successfully implemented in developed countries. However, these systems are not sustainable for developing countries due to lack of resources. A water quality monitoring system that (1) produces consistent and comparable water quality information; (2) provides feedback to outcomes and goals of the government; and (3) promotes continuous improvement of the water quality, in the context of mining development and under the constraint of lack of human and financial resources, is proposed for the Zambezi River Basin in Mozambique. The system includes two alternative monitoring procedures. It is concluded that the best way forward is to implement the first procedure which improves the current situation by using web-based data sharing and slowly move to the second procedure which is centralized and with one company doing water quality monitoring for the entire river basin in Mozambique.Modelling is an alternative solution for reducing the cost of monitoring by: (1) estimating difficult and costly to measure parameters based on others which are easily obtained and (2) simulating contamination and reclamation of already impacted streams thus shifting usage of resources to monitor water quality changes in more vulnerable areas. Existing surface water quality models have limitations in simulating contamination of streams by acidic discharges. OTIS and PHREEQ C are used for simulating mixing and transport of non-conservative pollutants but they fail when the task is to simulate pH in streams which are influenced by equilibrium reactions between the alkalinity species interacting with the surrounding environment.Within the scope of this work two models were developed, model (I) for estimating the concentration of inorganic ions in surface water, and model (II) for simulating pH and alkalinity in streams impacted by acidic discharges. The model (I) estimates the concentration of major ions (〖Na〗^+, K^+, 〖Mg〗^(2+), 〖Ca〗^(2+),〖HCO〗_3^-, 〖SO〗_4^(2-), 〖Cl〗^-, and 〖NO〗_3^-) together with the maximum possible concentrations of minor ions and heavy metals (〖Fe〗^(2+), 〖Mn〗^(2+), 〖Cd〗^(2+), 〖Cu〗^(2+), 〖Al〗^(3+), 〖Pd〗^(2+) and 〖Zn〗^(2+)) based on pH, alkalinity and temperature. The model (II) was developed and tested to simulate pH and alkalinity in the near field, mixing zone considering only the effect of carbonaceous alkalinity. Finally, the model (II) was extended to include the effect of iron (III) in the near field and a modelling methodology is proposed for simulating pH and alkalinity in the far field. The modelling methodology proposed is based on already demonstrated valid principles and the models results while not tested using laboratory or field data are as expected. The modelling methodology can be used for simulating processes in streams. For real cases calibration will be necessary by adjusting parameters such as the dispersion and mass transfer coefficients

Cooperação técnico-militar entre Portugal e Moçambique: Projetos em curso e perspetivas futuras

O presente Trabalho de Investigação Aplicada enquadra-se no âmbito da Cooperação Técnico-Militar entre Portugal e Moçambique, no quadro dos principais projetos em curso e perspetivas futuras desenvolvidos na Academia Militar Samora Machel. Num mundo caracterizado e dominado pela complexidade de conflitos em todos aspetos da vida social, há necessidade de intensificar as relações no seio da comunidade internacional. O bem-estar é um dos assuntos mais abordados na sociedade atual, na medida em que está associado à Segurança e Defesa. É nesta perspetiva da Segurança e Defesa que Portugal e Moçambique desenvolvem ações de Cooperação Técnico-Militar, com intuito de estreitar as relações e criar condições para o desenvolvimento das Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique, através da formação de quadros capazes de fazer face as necessidades dentro e fora de Moçambique. A atual crise financeira internacional, especialmente de Portugal, coloca algumas questões relacionadas com o desenvolvimento das relações de cooperação no domínio militar, entre o Exército Português e a Academia Militar Marechal Samora Machel. De modo que essas questões levantam algumas dúvidas ligadas à continuação dos futuros projetos no âmbito da Cooperação Técnico-Militar entre os dois países. De forma a responder a estas questões segue-se uma metodologia baseada maioritariamente no Manual de Investigação em Ciências Sociais, de Quivy e Campenhoudt, de entre outras referências. Este trabalho permite concluir que apesar das várias dificuldades que se apresentam a nível financeiro, a Cooperação Técnico-Militar continuará a ser uma aposta fundamental para os dois países, no caso específico da Academia Militar Samora e, de certa maneira, esta cooperação tenderá a expandir-se mais para os outros ramos das Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique.Abstract The current Work of Investigation is fitted in the context of the Military-technical Cooperation between Portugal and Mozambique, within the main current projects and future perspectives developed in the Military Academy Samora Machel. In a world characterized and dominated by the complexity of conflicts in all aspects of the social life, there is the need to intensify the relations in the heart of the international community. The well-being is one of the subjects most discussed in the current society, because it is associated to Security and Defense. It is in this perspective of Security and Defense that Portugal and Mozambique develop actions of Military-technical Cooperation, with the intention of narrowing the relations and creating conditions for development of the Mozambique Armed Forces of defense, by training young people who will be able to deal with any issue inside and outside of Mozambique. The current financial international crisis, especially in Portugal, puts some questions connected with the development of the relations of cooperation in the military power between the Portuguese Army and the Marshal Samora Machel Military Academy. These questions raise some doubts related to the future of the projects of the MilitaryTechnically Cooperation between both countries. In order to answer these questions was followed a methodology mostly based in the Manual of Investigation in social sciences described in the book of Quivy and Campenhoudt and in other references. This study shows that despite the various difficulties that are present in the financially level, the Military-Technical Cooperation will continue to be a fundamental aim for the two countries, in the specific case of the Military Academy and Samora and, in a way, this cooperation will tend to expand to the other branches of the Mozambique Armed Forces of defense

The Social Dimensions of Adaptation to Climate Change in Mozambique

The purpose of the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) study is to better understand and estimate the true costs of adapting to climate change in less developed countries. The study is made up of three components. At a global level, there is an analysis of costs across different economic sectors. At a country level, there is an economic component and a social component, taking place in a set of representative case study countries. Mozambique is one of these countries. The economic component of the Mozambique country study has the objective of identifying a set of robust adaptation options for the country, then comparing the direct costs and benefits of those options. To calculate the costs, the team has utilized a computable general equilibrium method. This method is data intensive, it requires a good model of the national economy, but can generate an estimate of the costs of targeted government interventions, in terms of reduced overall economic growth, once those effects have trickled through the labor and capital markets and the economy has returned to equilibrium. The economic team considered a range of adaptation options, which were gathered from the literature and from interactions with national level policy makers and other stakeholders

Making chocolate truly sustainable

When we eat a delicious piece of chocolate, do we have any idea of the journey it undertook to get to us, or the potential harm it has caused to people and the planet? This article discusses the potential and actual sustainability of cocoa and chocolate, from farmer to consumer. This round-the-world journey follows cocoa production from the tree all the way to supermarket shelves. This voyage of discovery shows that zero deforestation efforts are an excellent means of addressing the challenges in making cocoa production and trade sustainable. Many other issues need to be addressed before cocoa — or even better, chocolate — is truly sustainable. Efforts to make supply chains “green” must be embedded in a broader discussion about how to ensure sustainability, from commodity production to end products, from farmer to consumer, and not just at some of the points along the way.Peer reviewe

Satisfação com a educação recebida e rendimento académico em estudantes do Ensino Superior da Cidade da Beira, Moçambique

O estudo da satisfação estudantil no círculo universitário é de vital importância, dado o seu papel nas relações cotidianas que se estabelecem entre indivíduos e instituições. A presente pesquisa busca identificar o grau de satisfação com a educação recebida e o rendimento académico em estudantes universitários. Participaram do estudo 400 estudantes de quatro Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES), duas públicas e outras duas privadas, sediadas na Cidade da Beira, Moçambique. Para a obtenção dos dados da satisfação estudantil foi aplicado o Questionário da Satisfação dos Estudantes Universitários com a Educação (SEUE) de Gento Palacios & Vivas Garcia (2003), que seguiu um processo de validação para utilização na presente pesquisa. A análise factorial feita para confirmar a estrutura do Questionário original reduziu o número de itens de 93 para 88, divididos em dez dimensões. Os dados do rendimento académico foram obtidos com recurso à obtenção das notas académicas do primeiro semestre do ano lectivo 2016. Os resultados evidenciam que os estudantes em geral estão satisfeitos (59%) com a educação que recebem. Quanto ao rendimento, a maioria dos estudantes reportou um rendimento académico classificado de suficiente (64.25% dos estudantes), neste caso no limite para aprovar o semestre. O tipo de IES é um factor determinante da satisfação estudantil e do rendimento académico. Não se constatou nenhuma influência do sexo, Estatuto socioeconómico (ESE) ou do Agregado familiar na satisfação estudantil e rendimento académico. Foi reportada uma relação significativa e positiva entre a satisfação e o rendimento académico. Acções são encorajadas para melhorar a satisfação estudantil e o rendimento escolar, destacando-se neste aspecto a melhoria da qualidade dos serviços oferecidos nas IES da Cidade da Beira

Sea level variability and coastal trapped waves around southern Africa

Includes bibliographical references.The propagation characteristics of the coastal trapped waves (CTWs) around the coast of southern Africa were investigated by analyzing the observed daily mean sea level data from 16 coastal tide gauges, as well as outputs of sea level anomalies from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) at a grid point closest to each tide gauge station under consideration. The observed records showed sea level variability dominated by the short time variability with a period shorter than one month. This short time variability varies from season to season with the largest CTW amplitude during austral winter. The short time variability propagates anticlockwise as coastal trapped wave around the coast of southern Africa with a propagation speed ranging from 3 to 6.5 m/s, and from 1 to 7.5 m/s, along the west and south coasts, respectively. These propagation speeds are forced by synoptic atmospheric disturbances mainly in term of wind variability. Coastal trapped waves were observed propagating equatorward in the east coast of southern Africa in the opposite direction of Agulhas current on a few occasions. It can be a result of a good resonance between a strong and persistence of weather system and the coastal trapped wave. It is believed that more precise response and good answers for some discrepancies that were found can be achieved when a longer time records from Inhambane is included in future similar study. The outputs from HYCOM showed very similar propagation characteristics to the observed data. Along the south coast, the behaviour of the CTW is well reproduced. Unfortunately the model does not reproduce very well the variability along the west coast. While it seems to underestimate the west coast response, at same time it seems to overestimate it along the south coast of southern Africa. Although the model demonstrated some CTWs travelling northwards along the east coast, such disturbances were infrequent and difficult to find in the observed data

Drivers of coastal sea level variability along the east and south of South Africa

Sea level rise and variability is of great concern in the coastal areas where a significant part of the global population is settled. Therefore, understanding regional and local long-term sea level variability as well as its trend is critical. On the other hand, quantifying how the sea level has varied on different timescales and why, is critical for understanding sea level changes, and crucial for improving future global, regional, and local projections. In this study, monthly mean sea level records of seven individual tide gauges, from the east and south coast of South Africa were used to analyse the embedded timescales of variability. These timescales were separated through the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method. This is the first time that the EMD method has been applied to southern African tide gauge records. The sensitivity of the EMD method when dealing with data gaps was tested on artificially created gaps in monthly mean synthetic altimetry sea level records, representing the seven individual tide gauges under consideration. The missing values were filled by linear interpolation, average value and linear trend value. The results suggested that whichever gap filling method is applied, the separated EMD timescales will display a distorted temporal structure of the continuous time series. As a consequence, monthly mean tide gauge sea level records were optimised by filling the gaps as best as possible using satellite altimetry data and the adjacent tide gauge records where possible, and then the oscillatory timescales of variability were separated using the EMD method with the intent to determine their physical drivers. However, identifying a single driver for each separated timescale is challenging due to our limited knowledge of how sea level is linked to the various forcing mechanisms. Therefore, the timescales of sea level variability extracted using the EMD were grouped into sub-annual and interannual timescales, and their relationship to possible driving mechanisms was investigated. The sub-annual timescale indicates how sea level responds to the mesoscale and synoptic weather systems in the annual cycle, including seasonal and annual large-scale wind and atmospheric pressure pattern changes. The interannual timescale indicates an association with the climate indices including El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole and Southern Annular Mode through large-scale sea surface temperature patterns and large-scale pressure and wind patterns. In addition, the results have suggested that the studied coastal sea level has an association with the Agulhas Current at both sub-annual and interannual timescale through absolute dynamic topography variations at the Agulhas Current core locations. However, due to limitations in Agulhas Current data, the study was limited to East London and Port Elizabeth and the results suggested that the Agulhas Current contribution is responsible for over 62% of the monthly sea level variability at East London. However, the results were not sufficiently consistent to suggest a firm conclusion at Port Elizabeth

Autonomia na gestão das escolas técnico-profissionais em Moçambique : um estudo de caso

Mestrado em Ciências da EducaçãoA educação em Moçambique está a atravessar um período muito complexo, devido às transformações que vem sofrendo nos últimos anos. Essas transformações surgem com a necessidade de o país procurar afirmar-se diante da corrida da globalização, pela pressão dos organismos internacionais, pela pressão da sociedade e dos seus intervenientes. Estas mudanças têm também um grande impacto na administração e gestão das organizações escolares. O presente trabalho propõe-se estudar, por um lado, o grau de autonomia (financeira, administrativa, pedagógica e cultural) concedida por decreto às escolas técnico-profissionais de nível médio em Moçambique. Por outro lado, pretende-se analisar qual o grau de autonomia exercida por parte dos atores educativos locais, nomeadamente o diretor de escola, os professores e os representantes do sector produtivo e dos alunos. Em termos de metodologia a pesquisa foi baseada num estudo de caso de uma escola técnico-profissional, com uma abordagem mista, ainda que predominantemente qualitativa. Como técnicas de recolha de informação, utilizou-se o inquérito por questionário aos professores da escola, entrevistas aos principais atores educativos e ainda a análise documental. Como principais resultados do estudo, confirmou-se, por um lado, a centralização na gestão das áreas financeira e administrativa e por outro lado uma autonomia construída pela própria escola nas áreas pedagógica e cultural, com o objetivo de tornar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem mais eficaz e respondendo às necessidades dos seus clientes. Desta forma assiste-se a existência de uma autonomia relativa, pois a escola em análise tem uma autonomia decretada pela administração central e ao mesmo tempo ela vai construindo a sua própria autonomia na tentativa de melhor gerir a escola.Education in Mozambique is under a very complex stage, as a result of recent changes. These changes arise associated with the country need of being part of a global world, be under pressure moved by international organizations, civil society and other stakeholders! These changes also have a visible impact on the administration and management of school organizations. This paper proposes to study, dimensions of that process, on one hand, the degree of autonomy (financial, administrative, educational and cultural) granted by law to Vocational Schools in Mozambique. Moreover, it aims to analyze the degree of autonomy exercised by the local actors, school principal, teachers, representatives of the productive sector and students. It is case study conducted in a Vocational School; mixed methods were used, though predominantly qualitative. Data collecting techniques used are questionnaire survey to the teachers, interviews with key actors and documentary analysis. Main findings of the research confirmed centralization in the management of the financial and administrative autonomy. On the other hand, intending more efficient learning process there are the schools built educational and cultural autonomy. Existent autonomy is quite relative autonomy, as under autonomy by decree, the school builds its own autonomy attempting to better results in the management of the school