The position was expressed this Wednesday by Representative Raul Danda, who was speaking as Prime Minister of the shadow government of UNITA, at a press conference on the socio-economic situation and state of education in Angola.
"It is necessary and important that classes be resumed, yes, but that this be done with the utmost care to preserve the lives of teachers and students", said the Prime Minister of the shadow government of UNITA, adding that the party attaches value and importance to the life and dignity of the human person and "not simply to the observance of the calendar, restarting classes at any cost".
The school year in Angola has been suspended since March, when the first cases of covid-19 in the country began to appear, and to date a total of 197 positive cases have been recorded, resulting in ten deaths and 77 people have recovered.
The politician stressed that the country has schools "without water, functional toilets, without light", considering the situation of national educational establishments "a terrible difficulty".
"We were recently in Kwanza Sul, we went to visit the teacher training school in Porto Amboim, it's a disgrace, people almost walk with their chests open because of the heat, the air conditioning consequently doesn't work, in short, these are disgraceful conditions both for those who are teaching, and for those who are receiving these classes", he described.
Raul Danda argued, given the importance of education, that one must first think of teachers and students "and not push them in any way as if they were going to the stage of death. It can't be".
"We need to ponder, see what the conditions are, even though we Angolans, like any other citizens of the world, have to learn to live with covid-19, but it's not to go anyway, that's why we see other countries that have rushed to take some steps backwards, especially with regard to classes," he said.
Regarding the situation of education in Angola, the subject of the press conference, Raul Danda criticized the low share of the General State Budget (GSB) earmarked for this sector, to the detriment of defence and security.
"The funds allocated to education were 3.4 percent in 2018, 6.46 percent in 2019 and 4.52 percent in 2020, let's see how far we are from the 20 percent recommended," Raul Danda said, alluding to the budget allocated to the sector in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
For UNITA, the solutions for a better quality of education in the country involve structuring education in a convenient way, "not having firemen".
"Let it be thought that a teacher can teach until the sixth grade, give everything (all subjects), there is no one who can give everything, apart from those basic classes, but you don't go to the fifth and sixth grade thinking that there is a fireman teacher who then gives all the classes. You have to correct that", he underlined.
On the other hand, he defended, it is also necessary to value the teacher and look at the conditions of study.
"How are our schools? Are the children able to be there all morning, all afternoon? We have schools equipped so we can have a good physics class, chemistry class?", he asked.
