Inaugurates commercial complex

JAT Construction Group will on Wednesday, September 19, officially open the JAT Centre in Maputo’s ‘Baixa’ central business district (CBD), in what looks set to be one of the most important inaugurations in the Mozambican capital this year.

The JAT Centre is a modern and multifunction, large-scale real estate complex comprising offices, a hotel, apartments, a shopping centre, a health and spa area and ample parking space.

The official opening of the JAT Centre represents for the JAT Group the construction in Maputo of about 300,000 square metres of offices, parking lots and other facilities, and the culmination of nearly 20 years of activity.

The construction of the JAT Centre, hailed as “Maputo’s new CBD” represents an investment of about US$130 million and offers those who work in or visit the area a meeting place characterised by innovation, modernity, convenience, excellence and tranquillity.

The project, which began construction in 2013, features the most modern materials and technologies and provides green spaces to convey a sense of tranquillity to those who visit, work or reside in the CBD.

City Mall – Shopping Centre

With a total area of 11,000 square metres, City Mall offers 56 retail spaces, which will be occupied by banks, a supermarket, health clinics, restaurants and others. Occupancy of more than 80% is already arranged.

Hotel Melia

The Hotel Melia is another competitive differential for Maputo’s new CBD. An internationally recognised hotel brand, the Melia Maputo will feature 172 deluxe rooms, decorated in a modern and sophisticated design, while its Sky Bar, at the top of the building, offers panoramic views of Maputo Bay. The hotel also has two restaurants and three modern and versatile conference rooms.

LuxCorpus – Health Club and Spa

LuxCorpus is the most modern and sophisticated health and beauty club in the country, and one of the best in Africa. Set in an area of 4,500 square metres, LuxCorpus is equipped with the latest and most sophisticated gym equipment for all types of training. Fitness lovers will find the latest cardio equipment, a modern spinning room and two swimming pools. Concern about members’ health is a priority, and the Lux Club offers its clients physical evaluations and nutrition consultations to adapt training regimes to individual needs and objectives.The spa offers various face and skin treatments and an indoor hydrotherapy pool with a therapeutic circuit, sauna and Turkish bath, as well as various massage modalities.

The JAT Residence – Apartments

JAT Residence consists of 84 apartments, with six apartments in a choice of four configurations per floor. The building has spacious corridors and male and female bathrooms for employees on each floor. The building is directly connected to the Melia Hotel, which can provide room service to the apartments.

Office Area

The total 35,000 square metres of office space is divided among three buildings, each with parking space. The office buildings conform to international standards in terms of safety, energy and water saving systems and sustainability.

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.

SUCCESS CLAIMED FOR FACIM

Mozambique’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ragendra de Sousa, claimed that the 54th edition of the Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM), which closed on Sunday was a great success – even though the number of exhibitors and of visitors was much lower than initially forecast.Speaking to reporters on the final day, Sousa stressed the technological innovations on display, and claimed “in an overall assessment, we can say that this Fair was a success which surpassed expectations”.
“This Fair brought innovations”, he said. “Innovation by small and medium enterprises was particularly noteworthy. In many companies, young entrepreneurs are providing leadership. Agricultural potential is well represented”.
But he could hardly fail to notice that many companies simply did not show up. This was particularly the case with the tourism sector. “This sector could have taken much greater advantage of the Fair, but that wasn’t what happened”, he admitted.He said that the economic problems facing many businesses might have deterred their attendance – though he also stressed that Mozambique is resuming a path of economic growth.In fact, many of the figures for this year’s FACIM are disappointing. The organisers, the government’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency (APIEX), had expected 95,000 people to visit the fair – but in reality only 40,000 did so. FACIM is now located in Marracuene district, 30 kilometres north of the capital, and is clearly not seen as a major attraction by most residents of Maputo.  24 countries took part in the Fair, although the initial forecast was 28. The number of individual foreign companies participating was 222, only a third of what had been expected. The organisers expected 1,500 Mozambican companies to exhibit their wares, but only 1,386 did so.APIEX played down these figures, and in contacts with reporters stressed the positive aspects of the Fair, such as technological innovations and the contacts made between Mozambican and foreign companies.