Soyo – The construction of new higher education institutions in the municipalities of Mbanza Kongo and Soyo, in the province of Zaire, will begin in the coming days, the Secretary of State for Higher Education, Eugênio Adolfo Alves da Silva, announced Saturday.
The official made this announcement when speaking to the press in the city of Soyo, on the sidelines of the diploma awarding ceremony for 465 recent graduates from the local Polytechnic Institute.
Eugênio da Silva explained that processes are underway to identify financing and hire the companies that will be responsible for building the two university campuses promised by the Government about two years ago.
“The start of the two projects is scheduled for soon, as soon as some administrative procedures are completed”, he assured.
It should be noted that the municipality of Mbanza Kongo currently has the Higher School of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, with 16 classrooms, while Soyo has the Higher Polytechnic Institute (ISP), with 12 classrooms.
As part of the restructuring program for public higher education institutions underway in the country, the two institutions gained administrative and financial autonomy after being separated from the public University 11 de Novembro, based in Cabinda Province.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State said that the quality of higher education offered in the country is acceptable, stressing that this finding is the result of the monitoring and supervision that has been carried out by the ministry at the level of all related institutions.
He said that around 30,000 new graduates were launched into the job market throughout the country in the 2023/2024 academic year.
Of the number of finalists from the Soyo ISP, 252 are male and 213 are female, who completed the four-year degree in Mathematics Teaching, School Management, Primary Education, Computer Engineering, Industrial Organization and Maintenance Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
This the second edition of the diploma and certificate awarding ceremony to finalists, since the institution was separated from the public 11 de Novembro University based in Cabinda and the 9th in its history.
In turn, the vice-governor of Zaire for the political, social and economic sector, Afonso Nzolamesa, said that the launching of new graduates in the workplace must be seen as a responsibility of the academic community to contribute to the resolution of multiple phenomena that still harm society.
“The academy must prepare professionals capable of responding to the social, cultural, political, economic, environmental and other problems that the dynamics of today’s world impose on us”, he stressed.
He argued that the quality of professionals should be assessed not only in terms of the assimilation of scientific and academic content, but in its broader sense, as a process of socialization and transmission of positive values from generation to generation.
At the same ceremony, certificates were awarded to 40 teachers from the same institution, who completed their postgraduate studies in pedagogical aggregation at the Agostinho Neto University in Luanda capital city. PMV/JL/MRA/DOJ
