The Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, reaffirmed, yesterday, in Luanda, the Executive’s commitment to improving the quality of the higher education subsystem in the country, placing it at the service of inclusion, innovation and development sustainable
Speaking at the solemn opening ceremony of the 2023/2024 academic year, the Vice-President of the Republic said that the progress the country has made in terms of expansion and access to higher education in the last two decades is undeniable. “But, we need to convert this expansion into the training of more qualified professionals capable of meeting the demands of current times and upcoming challenges,” she said.
In the event that took place at the Academy of Social Sciences and Technologies (ACITE), Esperança da Costa said that the Executive’s vision revolves around the need to pave the way for a future where knowledge is, in fact, the transformative force necessary to make face contemporary challenges. The Vice-President of the Republic highlighted the actions that the sector should carry out over the five-year period (2023-2027), which rely on resources from the OGE and financial support from partners such as the European Union, the World Bank and the Partnership Global for Education, as well as the African Development Bank.
According to Esperança da Costa, the Executive intends to increase and improve infrastructure, increase access to higher education, which involves improving the training offer and valuing gender equity. The Angolan State also intends to invest in Higher Institutes of Education Sciences (ISCED) and Higher Pedagogical Schools, as well as promoting digital transformation in institutions in order to consolidate the Higher Education Quality Assurance System and strengthen its management.
Strengthening skills
According to Esperança da Costa, if on the one hand it is necessary to improve the training offer and access to higher education, on the other it is critical to promote the strengthening of skills and qualitative differentiation of teaching staff, scientific researchers and non-teaching staff. She explained that for the country’s reality, improving the training offer should focus, above all, on the creation of new STEAM courses (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).
However, he said, it will be essential not only to invest in human capital but also in the strengthening and modernization of infrastructures, with a set of actions being underway in this sense, revealing the Executive’s commitment to the permanent search for quality.
UNI.AO Program
He highlighted, in the curricular field, the introduction of five new doctoral courses, nine master’s degrees and four specialization courses, with funding of 1.8 million Euros. The courses will benefit the Agostinho Neto University (in Luanda), the José Eduardo dos Santos University (in Huambo), the Katyavala Bwila University (in Benguela), as well as ISCED’s in Cuanza Sul and Huila. Still within the scope of postgraduate studies, NOTICE No. 2 was presented, from the UNI.AO Program, (Program to support higher education in Angola, financed by the European Union), for the creation and support of postgraduate studies, with financing of 1.2 million Euros.
As a result of this program, said Esperança da Costa, 13 new specialization courses in priority sectors were approved – for which 10 public and private higher education institutions from six provinces (Huíla, Luanda, Malanje, Benguela, Namibe and Cuanza Sul) were selected. ) –, whose contracts were signed in the same solemn act.
Gender equity in higher education According to the Vice-President of the Republic, for the current academic year, special attention will be devoted to gender equity, in higher education, in general, and, particularly, in postgraduate studies. He highlighted that this issue motivated the carrying out of a diagnostic study, through which the elaboration of an Action Plan for equal access for women in higher education and postgraduate studies is underway, aiming to mitigate the factors detrimental to the inclusion of gender to postgraduate training and career progression. In this sense, he said, for the mentioned postgraduate courses, 300 scholarships were made available, with an inclusive nature, with it being mandatory to allocate 50% of these scholarships to women – whose campaign was recently launched by INAGBE.
More than a thousand teachers progressed in their careers
As part of the teaching staff’s demands, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Bragança, revealed that the Government managed to provide career progression for more than a thousand teachers, through exceptional administrative provision, with a prerogative which appears in the 2018 teaching career statute. According to the governor, this was one of the teachers’ fair complaints, as, she said, there was stagnation in the careers of many teachers and which MESCTI managed to overcome. Regarding the debt owed to teaching and non-teaching employees, minister Maria do Rosário Bragança stated that it is also an issue that has not been resolved 100%.
With regard to research funding, he stated that Angola did not have a science funding agency and now has it through the Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development, created in July 2021. Despite the promises of the Teachers’ Union of Higher Education, which called for a new strike for next November, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Bragança, guaranteed that the academic year will not be affected as a result.
