A report from Monday's meeting on the review of performance by the government and foreign partners providing direct support to the state budget, noted that "access to primary education has continued to improve, and the net school attendance rate has reached 87 percent" - higher than the 85 percent national target. The net attendance rate for girls was 84 percent, also above the 82 percent target.
 
According to the report, the main challenge for education "is to improve quality and to achieve that, an increase in teaching hours is essential." This would mean eliminating the current system whereby many schools operate three shifts a day, and ensuring that children enter school at age six, rather than years later.
 
The document called for the construction of more schools "to reduce the distances between school and the children's homes, particularly in the countryside." But of the 1,467 new classrooms planned for 2006, only 26 were completed. The rest are still under construction, due largely to the late disbursement of funds.
 
On health, the report pointed to a significant increase in the provision of the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive Mozambicans. Over the year the number of people that received anti-retrovirals rose from 27,000 to 44,100, with the treatment available in 70 per cent of the country's 128 districts.
 
But despite the political commitment to the fight against AIDS, "government funding in the HIV/AIDS area remains low," the document noted.
 
The allocation of state resources to the National AIDS Council (CNCS) declined for the third year running, with 90 percent of CNCS funding coming from foreign sources, it said, adding that of the US$28.2 million allocated to the CNCS in 2006, only 16.6 million (59 percent) was spent.
 
While the number of health units providing anti-retroviral treatment against mother-to-child HIV transmission rose from 82 in 2005 to 222 in 2006, the number of pregnant women benefiting from the treatment remained small. Only 12,150 women received the prophylaxis (eight percent of those in need), resulting in some 30,000 children being born with HIV in 2006.
 
The document also noted an increase in maternal mortality and a reduction in the percentage of births at health units. 1 May 2007 - PANA
 
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