The Public Administration Higher Institute (ISAP) presented in Maputo this Thursday a proposal for the curricula of the courses.
Candida Moiana, a lecturer and member of the team that designed the curricula proposals, pointed out the need for the state, as a promoter of development, to be modernised in terms of human and technological resources in order to respond to the challenges of the fight against poverty.
Statistics from the Ministry of State Administration show that there are currently 110,000 workers in the state apparatus, but more than 80 per cent of them have no more than secondary education (and a good number never progressed beyond primary education). Only four per cent of state employees have higher education, and most of these live in Maputo.
More than 52 per cent of officials in key management positions do not have the necessary qualifications for their jobs.
About 77 per cent of state employees do not work in the capital, but are to be found in the provincial capitals, the districts and the localities. Of them, just one per cent have higher education, and only 14 per cent have completed their secondary ecucation.
A national training system has been designed to overcome these weaknesses, but to date it has only been offering mid-level courses.
According to ISAP director Arlindo Lobo, the selection of candidates for the degree courses should be based on merit. The various institutions in the state apparatus will be called upon to identify priorities in terms of training, and to indicate which workers should attend those courses, since the idea is to empower the institutions, not individuals.
"The selection criteria are conditioned by another factor, namely our ability to respond, since we are a young institution, with constraints in terms of infrastructures, which forces us to put limits on the numbers who can attend each course", said Lobo.
For his part, former minister of state administration Jose Oscar Monteiro, who was invited to the meeting to present the proposed curricula, in his capacity as a founder member of ISAP, said that the course content should also include district administration, given that the government has defined the district as the key pole of development.
The courses are to offer subjects such as economics and development, sociology of development, management of projects in the public sector, communication and leadership techniques, administrative law, public finance, psychology of organizations, management and leadership techniques, and strategic planning, among others.
SOURCE: AIM
