Foreword
Ensuring every citizen’s right to access to information from a diverse range of news and information media, as highlighted in the Mozambican Constitution, requires first and foremost well educated, professional human resources covering both journalistic and management capacities. Building technical and institutional capacity is to a large extend the result of the level of the human resources available, stressing again the core importance of education, training and exposure in the relevant areas.
The UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project, charged with the overall objective of “Strengthening Democracy and Governance through Development of the Media in Mozambique” therefore among its core activities has the organisation of a range of training courses for journalists, editors and media managers; at the same time as it is working to secure access to technical production equipment for print media outside of Maputo; to assist communities in establishing community radio stations through support to training, equipment and running costs; and to ensure an extended reach of Radio Mozambique through provision of powerful transmitters.
Besides from these objectives, the project is meant to stimulate a discussion and development strategy in the area of Education of Journalists. While short-term training courses and a diverse range of on-the-job training activities have been the Mozambican response to the lack of adequately trained journalists at the time of independence in 1975, the development of a strong formal, basic education of journalists has not yet been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The present report, prepared for the Media Development Project by a team of two consultants, is as such meant to inform and inspire a national debate, leading towards the clarification of the status of a School of Journalism in the national, educational system alongside other educational and training offers directed to the Media Sector.
While the report presents an overview of on the one hand the education and training needs of the Media Sector, and on the other the education and training institutions’ responses to these needs available today, it pin-points a number of issues to be dealt with ranging from the clarification of the roles and status of the different schools and offers, over development of curriculum and adequate staff resources, access to equipment and materials and on to the need for the development of a national communication strategy as a framework for it all.
This study represents the findings and views of the consultants, and does not necessarily reflect the policy of UNESCO. Still, we are pleased to present this contribution to Media Development in Mozambique, which is highly needed. Better educated journalists will be one important building block towards a stronger, more independent, diverse and pluralist media.
Birgitte Jallov
Chief Technical Adviser
UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project
Review of Journalism and Communication
Education and Training in
Mozambique
Report:
Prepared for UNESCO/UNDP
Media Development Project
MAPUTO
By
Professor Matt Mogekwu
University of North West
Mmabatho, South Africa
In Collaboration with
Eduardo Namburete
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Maputo
2000
INDEX
Acknowledgement .................................................................................... 1
List of Appendices ..................................................................................... 2
List of Abbreviations .................................................................................. 3
Executive Summary ................................................................................... 4
Introduction ............................................................................................... 8
Media Situation (Synopsis) ........................................................................ 11
Media Sector Needs ................................................................................... 13
Journalism and Communication Education Institutions in Mozambique 33
School of Journalism .................................................................................. 35
Instituto Superior Politechnico e Universitario ........................................... 51
Catholic University Nampula ...................................................................... 55
Universideade Eduardo Mondlane .............................................................. 58
Instituto de Communicacao Social ............................................................. 60
Radio Mozambique .................................................................................... 61
Nordic - SADC Journalism Centre ............................................................... 64
Core Findings .......................................................................................... 66
Proposed Solutions .................................................................................... 71
General Recommendations ......................................................................... 86
Concluding Remarks ................................................................................ 90
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank, sincerely, the UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project in Mozambique for sponsoring this study and giving me the opportunity to be part of it.
The Chief Technical Advisor, Birgitte Jallov, and her team have been particularly helpful in facilitating this exercise all the way through.
Special thanks go to the editors and other media managers for their cooperation and forthrightness during interviews and discussions. Interaction with them provided very useful materials.
The directors of the various training institutions (School of Journalism, ISPU and the Catholic University) were also very helpful.
Thanks in particular to Father Arlindo Pinto for all his assistance during our trip to Nampula. It made our job there much easier.
I am most grateful to the Honourable Minister for Higher Education Dr Lidia Maria Arthur Brito, and the Director of the National Information Office, Mr Arlindo Lopes for making time out of their very crowded schedule to share their thoughts with us.
Finally, I wish to register my profound gratitude to my colleague and the National Consultant for this exercise, Mr Eduardo Namburete for his invaluable assistance and input.
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LIST OF APPENDICES
1. Terms of Reference
2. List of Stakeholders and Editors
3. Summaries of Discussions and Interviews with Groups and Individuals
4. School of Journalism Brochure
5. School of Journalism Staff List
6. ACCE Model Curriculum for non-degree programmes
6.(a) School of Journalism Submission to IPDC
7. ISPU Brochure
8. Catholic University Brochure
9. Union of Journalism Document
10. ACCE Model Curriculum for Degree Programme
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1. ACCE: African Council for Communication Education.
2. ICS: Instituto de Comunicação Social
3. IPDC: International Programme for the Development of Communication
4. ISPU: Instituto Superior Politechnico e Universitario
5. JICA: Japanese International Cooperation Agency
6. NSJC: Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre
7. RM: Radio Mozambique
8. TVM: Televisão de Mocambique
9. UEM: Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
10. UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
11. UNDP: United Nations Development Programme
12. USIS: United State Information Service
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
OBJECTIVE
This review is to assess journalism and communication education and training in Mozambique, identify areas of need and necessary changes and recommend short, medium and long term measures for dealing with the needs and implementing the necessary changes. The review is also to include the assessment of the suitability of the different journalism training institutions in the country in the training of the kind of journalists that Mozambique needs especially as it further pursues the establishment of free, independent and pluralistic media. The review is also to provide strategies for ensuring geographic and gender balance in the journalism student body.
METHODOLOGY
To achieve the above objective, several meetings were held with media stakeholders- from the educational, professional and management sections of the media sector, editors of the different media organizations in the country and other specially identified individuals whose perspectives were seen as crucial to the appreciation and understanding of the media environment in Mozambique.
The curricula of all the institutions involved in journalism education and training were collected and assessed, and available human resources were identified and evaluated. These institutions were physically visited and their facilities for training inspected. At each institution extensive discussions were held with the director, staff and, where possible, students.
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Visitations were also made to some media organizations that represented both public and private media.
Special discussions were held with two senior government functionaries - the Minister for Higher Education and the Director of the Department of Information - to have some official/government perspective on the state of journalism in the country.
The body of the report gives details of the outcome of the several discussions and interview, the institutions visited and the materials collected and assessed. At the end of the exercise, a small group of representative stakeholder was briefed on preliminary findings and recommendations.
LIMITATIONS
Given the time frame of the study, it was not possible to discuss with as many persons as we would have wished to. Students, in particular, who are a very important factor in this review, were on holidays throughout the time of this study and all efforts to meet with alumni of the School of Journalism were futile as none of them could be reached.
A few of the students spoken to at the school did not appear to us to be representative of the student population.
It was also not possible to visit all the community radio stations (which we would have liked to do) because of time constraint.
Lastly, this study would have benefited tremendously if there was a consumer survey as part of the exercise to supply a very important perspective on the needs of the media sector. Such a study would have needed more time than was allowed in the time frame of the exercise.
CORE FINDINGS
The major findings from this review include the following:-
1. The standard of journalism in the country is perceived as low.
2. The low standard of journalism has been blamed on poor training.
3. The major (and oldest) institution for the training of journalists in the country is seriously inadequate in terms of curricula, facilities and human resources. It needs serious restructuring and overhaul.
4. The new institutions that have started journalism education and training in the country have poorly articulated programmes. These need to be reviewed as soon as possible.
5. Media practitioners need a lot of retraining to meet some of the immediate needs of the sector. This should be done as a matter of urgency.
6. Journalism education in particular and the whole development of journalism in general, should be accorded some priority in the national scheme of things.
7. The country needs a national focus that will guide and direct the training of journalists and the overall development of the journalism and communication landscape.
RECOMMENDATIONS
This review has come up with recommendations in three major areas:
1. In the short term, special courses should be organized for practising journalists to improve their journalistic skills as their lack of formal education and training has constituted a handicap for most of them in functioning as critical gatherers and disseminators of information about events and issues and analysts of, and commentators on such events and issues.
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2. In the medium term, a complete restructuring of the School of Journalism should be carried out in terms of its curriculum, the facilities available to the institution for training purposes, human resource development as well as the status of the institution.
Similarly, the other institutions of higher learning that are involved in journalism education and training must have their programmes reviewed before they begin to produce graduates.
New curricula in all institutions must be a product of the outcomes of needs assessment carried out in conjunction with media stakeholders.
To further train and upgrade practising journalists, formal education programmes should be organized for them on a work-release basis under an arrangement with any of the institutions of higher learning. With this arrangement they can have a formal education in journalism (which most of them lack) and earn a degree while still keeping their jobs.
These and other measures are recommended to improve the quality of journalism and expand the human resource base for the industry.
3. In the long term, it has been recommended that the nation comes up with a national communication policy that would help define (national) communication goals and ways of reaching the goals. A communication policy helps govern the communication life of a nation, by providing a comprehensive framework of guidelines to direct the activities of the media and other constituent sectors of the communication environment. It is a product of national consensus and therefore involves the coming together of stakeholders from all sectors of the communication environment in a series of seminars, workshops, debates and conferences to give their different perspectives on what the country’s communication goals should be.
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This would help each component of the media sector determine and pursue its
responsibilities towards the general upliftment of the sector.
INTRODUCTION
As part of its mission to assist in the strengthening of the human and technical capacities of the media in Mozambique, the UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project has identified the need to assess the journalism and communication training capacity of the country. This involves the review of the training programmes at all institutions offering journalism education and training in the country to identify their strengths and shortcomings in the area of curriculum, equipment and human resources and come up with suggestions and strategies for improving the overall training environment. The review team comprised of Matt Mogekwu as team leader and Eduardo Namburete as national consultant who also acted as interpreter.
The terms of reference for this review (see Appendix 1) include a preparation of a set of clear recommendations for upgrading journalism and communication education and training in Mozambique. This is to be done first by identifying the needs of the sector for human capacity building at varying levels and then carrying out an assessment of the ongoing education and training.
With particular reference to the Schools, the review is to:
(a) Assess the suitability of the different journalism training institutions in the socio-political context into which they are placed to cater for the formal and other education of professional journalists in Mozambique;
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(b) Assess in each of the institutions the organizational set-up, including management structure, ownership, funding, teaching resources and other relevant aspects;
(c) Assess the appropriateness of the curriculum of the school vis-a-vis the target group and the need of the media sector, as well as the equipment and any other area that contributes to the effectiveness of the school.
In the course of the assessments, the review is to identify the different roles which the existing institutions could play within a national journalism and communication education and training strategy. Furthermore, the review is to identify ways of ensuring a representative student body in terms of geographic and gender balance, including suggested mechanisms for ensuring it.
At the end of the review the consultant was to present a preliminary report to a selected group of stakeholders who would make their input before the final report is submitted.
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METHODOLOGY
The collection of data for this review exercise involved a series of meetings, discussions, in-depth interviews, travels and visitations, consultations and study of documents.
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At the start of the exercise, initial meetings were held with staff of the UNESCO/UNDP Media Development Project in Maputo for initial briefings on the exercise. Basic information on the conduct of the exercise was made available as were documents with some useful data. These included the report on the Media Pluralism Landscape study prepared for the Project in 1999, the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique, and the Draft Project Document (Phase II) on media Development in Mozambique.