Whose voices are missing: Reframing Mozambique’s ‘learning crisis’
Many years ago, as a little boy, my son would often ask: “Please tell me a different story, Mãe.
许多年前，当我还是个小男孩时，我的儿子经常会问：“请告诉我一个不同的故事，Mãe。
I’ve heard that one before.” Little did I know this simple request would come to frame my work not just as an author, but also as an education practitioner and researcher bridging grassroots innovation and systems change in Mozambique.
我以前听过这个。”我几乎不知道这个简单的要求不仅会成为我作为一名作家的工作框架，而且也会成为一名教育实践者和研究人员在莫桑比克架起基层创新和制度变革的桥梁。
The last national literacy assessment officially published in Mozambique revealed that only 5 in 100 students could read at the expected level after three years of schooling (INDE 2017).
莫桑比克官方发布的最新全国读写能力评估显示，经过三年的学校教育后，每 100 名学生中只有 5 人能够达到预期水平的阅读能力（INDE 2017）。
Whether exploring narrative practices with children or co-designing Mozambique’s national in-school mentorship program , I’ve witnessed this reality across the country: Many students finish primary school, and some even secondary school, unable to read or write.
无论是与孩子们一起探索叙事实践，还是共同设计莫桑比克的国家校内辅导计划，我都在全国各地目睹了这样的现实：许多学生读完小学，有些甚至读完中学，却无法读写。
It would seem an entire generation is doomed to fail.
似乎整整一代人都注定要失败。
Or so the story goes.
故事大概就是这样。
But when I step outside the school grounds, I see a different picture, one that is vibrant and filled with hope: youth caring for younger siblings and helping them with homework or preparing for national exams; adolescent girls selling badjia or braiding hair to support their families; young boys crafting toys out of rags, tins, and flip-flops; children in markets counting change off the top of their heads.
但当我走出校园时，我看到的是一幅不同的景象，一幅生机勃勃、充满希望的景象：青年们关心弟弟妹妹，帮助他们做作业或准备国考；青春期女孩卖坏家或编辫子来养家糊口；小男孩用破布、罐头和人字拖制作玩具；市场里的孩子们数着变化。
Two boys from Cabaceira village, in Nampula Province, take to the sea to launch their self-made dhow boats.
来自楠普拉省卡巴塞拉村的两个男孩正在出海驾驶他们自制的单桅帆船。
(Photo: C.
（照片：C.
Pereira Pinto, August 2026)
佩雷拉·平托，2026 年 8 月）
So how is formal education not tapping into these much-needed 21st-century skills, like empathetic leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, or negotiation?
那么，正规教育为何没有充分利用 21 世纪急需的技能，例如同理心领导力、批判性思维、解决问题、创业精神或谈判能力呢？
Because the national assessment practice tends to privilege standardized measures , often reducing progress to externally defined metrics such as the number of words a child can read per minute.
因为国家评估实践倾向于优先考虑标准化措施，通常会减少外部定义指标的进展，例如孩子每分钟可以阅读的字数。
Mozambique’s national primary curriculum acknowledges the mismatch between schooling and children’s lived realities and establishes bilingual education and a local curriculum component to bridge that gap.
莫桑比克的国家小学课程承认学校教育与儿童生活现实之间的不匹配，并建立双语教育和当地课程组成部分来弥补这一差距。
Yet mother-tongue instruction uses the same metric: how many letters can a child decode before the timer hits 60 seconds?
然而母语教学使用相同的指标：在计时器到达 60 秒之前，孩子可以解码多少个字母？
Reading and writing are, of course, fundamental skills that all children have a basic right to.
当然，阅读和写作是所有儿童都享有的基本技能。
But the dominant narrative that emerges from standardized assessments tells of a ‘learning crisis’ , suggesting that children, teachers and governments are all failing and perpetuating a North-South power dynamic that stereotypes countries in Southern Africa as falling behind.
但标准化评估中出现的主流叙述讲述了一场“学习危机”，表明儿童、教师和政府都在失败，并使南北权力动态持续存在，这种对南部非洲国家的刻板印象是落后的国家。
From a Global South perspective, the narrative needs to change and so do the metrics.
从全球南方的角度来看，叙事需要改变，指标也需要改变。
Through Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, we learned about the danger of a single story.
通过 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie，我们了解了单一故事的危险性。
My son would agree.
我儿子会同意的。
Education in Mozambique “needs a new lens,” says Y.
Y. 说，莫桑比克的教育“需要一个新的视角”。
as she holds up an artisanal dive mask at her home in Ilha de Moçambique, Nampula Province.
她在楠普拉省莫桑比克岛的家中举着手工制作的潜水面罩。
(Photo: C.
（照片：C.
Pereira Pinto, July 2026)
佩雷拉·平托，2026 年 7 月）
If there’s something I’ve learned from many years of facilitating impact story workshops with young women leaders at Girl MOVE Academy , it’s that no two stories are alike; each voice brings a unique contribution.
多年来，我在 Girl MOVE 学院与年轻女性领袖举办影响力故事研讨会，如果说我学到了什么的话，那就是没有两个故事是相同的。每个声音都会带来独特的贡献。
So, what I’m calling for isn’t a new narrative, but a space where multiple narratives can coexist and shape one another.
所以，我所呼吁的不是一种新的叙事，而是一种多种叙事可以共存并相互塑造的空间。
And it starts with a simple question: whose voices are missing from the global conversation on foundational learning?
它从一个简单的问题开始：关于基础学习的全球对话中缺少了谁的声音？
Despite their historically central roles in raising children, shaping values, and passing knowledge from one generation to the next, women’s perspectives have rarely been included in the global education debate.
尽管女性在抚养孩子、塑造价值观和将知识代代相传方面历来发挥着核心作用，但女性的观点很少被纳入全球教育辩论中。
Decisions about what counts as learning are mostly informed by institutional, technical, and external forms of expertise , while those most intimately involved in raising children are seldom consulted.
关于什么算作学习的决定主要取决于机构、技术和外部形式的专业知识，而很少咨询那些最密切参与抚养孩子的人。
Successive reforms in Mozambique (2004-2020) have introduced changes to curriculum, language policy, and teacher practice, but they have yet to address whose knowledge should inform the who, how, and what for of education—in and beyond school.
莫桑比克的连续改革（2004-2020）对课程、语言政策和教师实践进行了改革，但尚未解决谁的知识应该告诉谁、如何以及在学校内外接受教育的问题。
Understanding how women define thriving and perceive the wider ecologies of learning offers an opportunity to expand whose knowledge matters and what counts as evidence in shaping educational policy.
了解女性如何定义蓬勃发展以及如何看待更广泛的学习生态，这提供了一个机会来扩展谁的知识很重要，以及什么可以作为制定教育政策的证据。
Otherwise, reforms risk being disconnected from the values, aspirations, relationships, and knowledge systems that children recognize as their own.
否则，改革就有可能脱离儿童所认同的价值观、愿望、关系和知识体系。
As an Echidna Scholar, I plan to explore how women in rural and peri-urban areas of Mozambique understand what girls and boys need to know, do, feel, and become in order to thrive, and how these understandings might inform culturally rooted, gender-transformative, and relational approaches to foundational learning.
作为针鼹学者，我计划探索莫桑比克农村和城郊地区的妇女如何理解女孩和男孩需要知道什么、做什么、感受什么和成为什么样的人才能茁壮成长，以及这些理解如何为基础学习提供基于文化、性别变革和关系性的方法。
Through in-depth conversations, artifact-based elicitation, and visual mapping, I hope to bring women’s voices to the forefront of global education policy and integrate locally grounded understandings of what it means for girls and boys to grow, thrive, and contribute.
通过深入对话、基于工件的启发和视觉映射，我希望将女性的声音带到全球教育政策的最前沿，并整合当地对女孩和男孩成长、繁荣和贡献的理解。
The deeply relational fabric of Mozambican society speaks to community and belonging.
莫桑比克社会的深厚关系结构体现了社区和归属感。
As I continue working to embed voice, agency and relational pedagogy within education systems, my hope is for a more comprehensive, rooted model for foundational learning to emerge through a collaborative intercultural approach—one that mirrors children’s lived realities and builds on abundance rather than crisis.
当我继续努力将声音、能动性和关系教学法嵌入教育系统时，我希望通过跨文化协作方法形成更全面、扎根的基础学习模型，该模型反映儿童的生活现实，并建立在丰富而不是危机的基础上。
My son asked me for a different story.
我儿子问我一个不同的故事。
Today, I would respond: “Dearest Filho, maybe it’s not about a new story—maybe it’s about making room for more.
今天，我会回应：“亲爱的小子，也许这不是一个新故事，也许是为更多故事腾出空间。
Will you tell me yours?”
你能告诉我你的吗？
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