Luanda – The Vice-President of Angola Esperança da Costa on Thursday said the government will pay special attention to gender equity in the Higher Education sector by making available 300 postgraduate inclusive scholarships, with an obligation to allocate 50 percent of them to women.
Speaking at the opening of the Higher Education Academic Year 2023/2024, the Vice-President said a diagnostic study is currently being conducted,through which an Action Plan for equal access for women in Higher Education and postgraduate will be outlined, with the aim of mitigating factors hindering gender inclusion, postgraduate training and career progression.
According to the Vice-President, the training of teachers for the levels of education prior to higher education has been an object of greater attention by the government, through the materialization of the Legal Regime for the Training of Kindergarten Educators and Primary and Secondary School Teachers approved in October 2020 by Presidential Decree.
To this end, Esperança da Costa said, financial support will be made available to improve the infrastructure of some Higher Education Institutions Huila, Uíge, Huambo and the Bengo Higher Education Pedagogical School, with the aim to improve the curricula of the courses, especially in digital skills, with teacher training, without leaving the process of curriculum harmonization.
The Vice-President stressed that the integration of digital technologies is one of the government's top priorities for the national education system.
Esperança da Costa said digitalization will make distance learning possible In the Higher Education subsystem through the usage of e-learning tools; supply of digital textbooks, creation of online libraries and the use of digital platforms for admissions, enrollment, grades and other administrative tasks.
The Vice-president explained that this year the National Institute for the Evaluation, Accreditation and Recognition of Higher Education Studies (INAAREES) began the higher education evaluation process, starting with the self-evaluation of undergraduate courses and then the external evaluation of courses in the medical and health sciences.
As a result of the self-evaluation process carried out in the first half of this year, the Vice-president said that at least 600 of the total of 1,356 legally created courses had been evaluated in 84 higher education institutions from the total number of 101 legal higher education institutions.
"With the completion of the Luanda Science and Technology Park, scheduled for 2025, our young people will benefit, among other things, from infrastructure, laboratories and offices to support startups, research and development activities," the Vice-President said.
The Vice-President addressed words of appreciation to the teachers, to whom she acknowledged "the hard work they do to train young people".
"We will continue to support and invest in the main pillars of development to ensure a prosperous and innovative Angola for future generations," Costa said. DC/SC/ADR/AMP
