Overview and challenges of universalization and quality of primary education

a study of the Beira logistics corridor in Mozambique

Abstract

An asymmetrical and non-universalized basic education system can represent a significant obstacle to the development of a given region, constantly determined by incomplete public policies. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics, overview, and challenges of basic education in the Beira logistics corridor, in Mozambique. The integrated analysis perspective was based on two pillars of development provided by Oprițescu (2012): namely infrastructure and basic education. The research was qualitatively oriented, based on primary data from three semi-structured interviews with provincial public managers of basic education. The analysis included a methodological adaptation, aiming to assess the relationship between the respondents’ answers, based on the determinations of Bauer and Gaskell (2017), considering the different patterns of answers regarding relevance, convergence, synchronicity, and isolation (the latter was added by the article authors). As results, certain specificities are highlighted, linked to infrastructural, pedagogical, quality, and universalization of basic education coverage factors. Thus, the Beira logistic corridor, which stimulates the social and economic development of the communities in its surroundings, was considered a more integrated environment in terms of flow, economic dynamics, and city networks. However, the effects on the education system contradict this conclusion.