Mozambique: Classes taught in local languages

Students located a hundred kilometers north of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, are part of a cultural revolution.

These children are not learning in Portuguese, the official language of Mozambique, but in changana, one of the 42 local languages of the country.

The initiative is being implemented on children ages six to seven and aims to facilitate the first years of learning.

In Mozambique, Portuguese was adopted after colonization and is the general language of education.

Yet, according to the Ministry of Education, 90% of the 1.3 million children who enter school each year only speak the local language.

And the results are evident. Last year, the Maputo government launched a reform that extends primary education in local languages to the age 10, before moving on to all Portuguese.