The 2025 school year officially began on Friday, with the President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo, presiding over the central ceremonies in the Lugela district of Zambezia province.

In the meantime, students are "going to their desks" as the teacher shortage reaches 22,000 to cover current needs.

Despite this gap, which will influence the teacher-student ratio, the Spokesman for the Ministry of Education and Culture, Manuel Simbine, says that all students will be able to have at least one teacher.

The education sector will continue to work with teachers who carried over from last year "because the hiring of teachers is still awaiting the approval of the Social Economic Plan".

"The ideal for us would be to hire 22,000 teachers. That would reduce our ratio of 70 pupils per class to 61.2, which would be very close to the planned ratio of 60 pupils per class," he said, quoted by RM.