The Raw Truth About Cambridge Certificate!

Last week, at the "exposé" about the fiscal jungle (or paradise) in the private sector of Education in Mozambique, I promised to bring the contours of the curricular "mafia" in force as well. The revelation still lacked a fieldwork, to avoid mentioning schools in concrete without giving them the sovereign opportunity of the contradictory. He did not want to point his accusing finger at them. This fieldwork was being done. Two of the leading private schools that teach primary and pre-university education in Matola and Maputo, charging for astronomical fees, have confirmed my suspicion built after desk research: they do not teach on the basis of a specific foreign curriculum, as they claim in their pamphlets .

Of the universe of schools that report using foreign curriculum, the only truly certified are our International, American, Portuguese and French. All others are missing. My research work is not over. But today, September 13 (and tomorrow), Minister Conceita Sortane (Education and Human Development) meets with all private and private schools operating in Maputo. One of the central issues of the debate will be this curriculum. The Ministry accused the ring and now wants to act. The event will be auscultated. It is expected that a roadmap will be established later to correct a number of problems (this teaching is said to be a foreign bazaar, in addition to selling cat for hare and discouraging the budgets of middle-class families, schools holidays in different periods, in total disharmony).

But then what is the truth? The truth is that Cambridge Certificate is not a curriculum. Everyone knows that Cambridge is a British town where one of the oldest universities in the United Kingdom is located. In this institution a center called Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) was established. ICN offers international qualifications in more than 160 countries. These include Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge International AS and A Level and Cambridge Pre-U. There is no replicable Cambridge curriculum in other countries. Everything this CIE does has to do with examinations; in fact it only produces and certifies examination matrices. In the UK, general education uses a single curriculum, British. Only the UK curriculum for primary education has 221 pages.

A curriculum is not just a set of learning topics; it will have to contain much more, namely the goals for each level, that is, what it is that the students are expected to learn and the conditions to achieve that desiderato. The conditions involve trained teachers, libraries and laboratories. Most of the private schools in Maputo that claim to use a foreign curriculum do not meet these conditions. Claiming to use Cambridge Certificate is not exactly a lie. The problem is that the schools do not properly explain what this Cambridge Certificate is; that is, they do not explain that what they do throughout the year is nothing less than preparing a student for an exam. One thing you can do in four weeks.

The same goes for the notorious International Baccaurelate (IB). Nor is it a curriculum, as many Mozambicans believe. It is also and just an examination matrix. The IB is used in some European countries to ensure that a student who has completed secondary education is able to enter tertiary education. It is a transitional process between the two stages, a kind of propaedeutic examination. So you can only prepare a student to be tested with IB standards if IB is attending the equivalent of our eleventh and twelfth grades. To say that students below these levels are studying based on the "IB curriculum" is a liar.

Other schools in Maputo claim to use the "South African curriculum". This is also incorrect. There is no such South African curriculum. RAS has 9 provinces and each one its curriculum. The only thing in common among the 9 provinces is the teaching of English and Afrikaans. The meeting today and tomorrow under the moderation of Minister Conceita Sortane promises. The big problem may not be the quality of teaching in some of these elite establishments. Its quality surpasses in many cases the quality of our public education. The problem is they sell cat by hare. Charging exorbitant amounts for things they do not do. Now it's about putting the rattle on the cat.