ADULT EDUCATION, CULTURAL IDENTITY AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN MOZAMBIQUE

Cristovao Anselmo

Abstract

The article is the result of a research study carried out in Zambezia, Mozambique, with 250 students attending adult education. Its objective is to analyze the current situation of the illiteracy-extreme poverty relation within Mozambican society looking for remote and immediate causes. The research aims to ultimately make, a strategic contribution in adult education in terms of practical and operative indication in view of development. Mixed methods research design was used combining qualitative (25 adult students interviewed, five in five schools) and quantitative approaches (250 students submitted to the questionnaire, fifty in each school) in a representative and proportional casual sample from five districts of Zambezia Province. The sample requirement was that students had to be undergoing adult education. The research hypothesis was “The more adult education includes the elements of cultural identity, the more it contributes to the elimination of illiteracy-extreme poverty and favors local development in rural areas in Mozambique”. From the analysis of textual narratives and statistics the hypothesis was confirmed concluding that adult education, linked to cultural identity, brings local development in rural areas, opposing illiteracy-extreme poverty and dependence on foreign financial packages such as Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (APRAP).