Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the opening ceremony of a secondary school in Moamba, Mozambique on 5.9.2002

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In the UN Millennium Declaration, all countries undertook to promote international peace and security. A central goal of the Declaration is to free humankind from extreme poverty and squalor.

Programmes aimed at eradicating or reducing poverty have for years been drawing attention to such sub-factors in human wellbeing as health, education and nutrition. Finland has likewise regarded the eradication or reduction of poverty as one of the central goals in her development cooperation.

Finland and her long-term cooperation partners have had the aim of concentrating assistance on a few sectorial programmes within the remits of three ministries; in Mozambique we have been participating in programmes run by the agriculture, health and education ministries.

Our cooperation with the Mozambican authorities has been fruitful. We are convinced of the Mozambicans' own will to develop and their wish to strengthen content-related and administrative competence in these sectors. This, in turn, will strengthen political stability, democracy and human rights in Mozambique and enable economic growth to continue.

Although a civil war was still raging in Mozambique in the beginning of the last decade, the development of education was seen here as holding a key position in the promotion of the country's stability. Mozambique signed up to the Dakar "Education for All" framework for action in 1990. Already then, the Government of Mozambique made a commitment to do everything in its power to ensure that as many Mozambicans as possible - children and adults - would be able to avail themselves of this right.

I want to congratulate the Government and Education Ministry of Mozambique as well as all the school authorities on the good results that they have achieved. One sign of that is this school. The building work was interrupted by the war, but has now been completed with Finnish help. The school can operate to full capacity. The young people of Moamba now have the opportunity to continue their studies in their own district all the way up to the tenth class. This gives them an improved chance of building a better future.

I hope the future plans for this school will be realised and that the next stage of its development makes it an institution which prepares pupils for university. That would mean a further improvement in regional equality.

Finland has been involved in supporting education in Mozambique since 1990, when a project to assist agricultural training was launched in Maputo province. With the assistance of the PASE project launched in 1997, support has been provided for building elementary schools, training teachers, institutional development and education research. Preparations for the follow-up phase of the project are in progress. Its emphasis will be on supporting implementation of the strategic plan along the same lines as at present.

Tragic news from Mozambique shocked us Finns on the 25th of May this year when 200 people lost their lives in a train crash and 170 were injured. The tragedy affected also this new school, because one teacher and six pupils were among those who lost their lives. I express my condolences to the bereaved families and the staff and pupils of the school.

It gives me great pleasure to open this new institution of learning. I want to thank everyone who helped build it and wish the pupils, teachers and management the best of luck and success.