Watch: Instant Network Schools, Mozambique – a teacher’s story

Antônia has lived in Nampula, Mozambique, all her life. She always dreamed of becoming a teacher.

“Education is rare in my country. It is not easy to get access to it,” Antônia says. “That is what motivated me to join a teaching course.”

A mother of five, Antônia started her teacher training through evening courses, raising her family in the day. She graduated in 2010, securing a teaching role at an elementary school. But Antônia had already set her sights on the next step in her career: she wanted to become a high school teacher. Antônia enrolled on another evening course and continued her training.

Four years later, Antônia qualified and accepted a new role at a high school in the city, where she teaches Information Communication Technology (ICT) to students in the 11^th and 12^th grades. But limited resources at the school created new challenges.

“When I started, we could only teach with our own computers. The school did not have its own equipment. Imagine a class with 70 students, working with a single computer. It was a challenge. It was hard to teach.”

In June 2021, Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, expanded their Instant Network Schools programme to Nampula, bringing new technology and connectivity to the school.

At the heart of the programme is a ‘school in a box’ designed to transform traditional classrooms into multimedia hubs for learning. The box includes tablets for students, a laptop for the teacher, internet connectivity, a projector, speaker, solar charging and a library of digital educational resources transform existing classrooms into multimedia hubs for learning.

Here, Antônia describes the impact of Instant Network Schools for her colleagues and students:

Along with another Instant Network School in Mozambique, located in the Maratane Refugee Settlement, the programme is supporting over 11,500 students, and over 250 teachers in the country.