Ondjiva - The southern Cunene Province hosted a training on scholarships from 1st and 2nd of this month, as part of the Girls Empowerment and Learning for All Project (PAT II).
The two days training aimed at improving the management of the scholarship programme in schools and brought together 136 school managers, including primary school headmasters, secondary school focal points and municipal administrations.
At the time, the education department director in Cunene, Domingos de Oliveira, guaranteed that the managers are prepared to monitor the process of awarding scholarships.
He explained that the programme was designed to help Angolan families minimise the costs of buying school materials, reduce dropout rates and stimulate learning levels, with a view to school success.
The official pointed out that 27,430 students in the first cycle of secondary education (7th, 8th and 9th grades) will benefit from scholarships under PAT II in the current academic year.
The province has 334 schools, of which 257 are primary schools, 41 school complexes, 23 colleges, five magisteriums, three high schools and an equal number of technical institutes and two polytechnics.
PAT II is being developed by the Ministry of Education, with funding from the World Bank (WB) totalling USD 250 million.
The Scholarship Programme, which was officially presented in October 2022, is expected to benefit 900,000 public and public-private secondary school students across the country.
PEM/LHE/OHA/MRA/jmc
