Around sixteen schools did not hold final exams for the 10th and 12th grades between yesterday and today, as a result of the stoppage of activities by teachers who have been demanding overtime pay for three years, since 2022.

Yesterday, the first day of the exams, thirteen schools registered boycotts. Today, at least three more schools joined the protests.

In Maputo province, the strike affected the secondary schools of Liberdade, Matlhemene; Nkobe; Muhalaze; São Dámaso; Mahlampsene; Colégio Adventista; Siduava; 30 de Janeiro; Filipe Jacinto Nyusi; Malangatana; Bili; Massaca; and Mabilibili.

In the city of Maputo, the Unidade 2 Secondary School.

In Inhambane province, Massinga Secondary School.

According to the president of the National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO), Isac Marrengule, the strike may have affected other schools across the country.

The teachers are demanding not only salaries, but also better working conditions and career progression, so that the students, recognizing the impact of not taking the exams, are sympathetic to the teachers' cause.

Marrengule said that this morning, pupils from Matlhemele Secondary School refused to sit their exams. They then went to Nkobe Secondary School and banned other students from taking their exams. "They entered the classrooms and tore up the evaluation sheets"

The government has not yet contacted ANAPRO and the strike could be extended

The National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO) is at the forefront of the class protests that have already jeopardized the evaluation of the school performance of hundreds of students this year.

The teachers have already held several rounds of negotiations with the government, in particular with the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The case has already been referred to parliament and the Administrative Court.

The government has already come out and said that it was paying the teachers, but the MZNews knows that only two months of overtime were paid for 2022. They were not paid in full in the country.

After several promises to boycott the final exams, in the last round of negotiations, ANAPRO agreed to a strike. Against expectations, since they never kept their promises, the teachers stopped their activities.

To MZNewsIsac Marrengule said that ANAPRO has still not been contacted by the government, which, according to him, has adopted a posture of apathy and arrogance towards the teachers' demands. For him, the Executive's untimeliness demonstrates a lack of interest in resolving the case.

ANAPRO remains open to negotiations, as long as they culminate in the payment of overtime. "Only after we receive what we are owed will we return to the classroom."

When asked if the protests could be extended into the next academic year, the President of ANAPRO clarified that the class has also structured the process of demands in phases and that its extension will depend on the approach of the interested parties.