Angola prepares for 2026/2027 school year amid infrastructure concerns

Angola's Ministry of Education is set to officially open the 2026/2027 academic year with a ceremony in Huambo province. Under the theme ‘50 Years of Literacy, Education, and Transformation in Angola’, the event aims to reaffirm commitments to improving teaching quality, increasing school access, and strengthening pedagogical conditions nationwide.

However, the opposition party UNITA has raised significant concerns regarding the state of the national education system. UNITA's shadow prime minister, Raul Tati, reported that approximately 19,000 students are forced to study under trees due to infrastructure deficits. The party estimates that Angola requires between 2,000 and 8,000 additional schools to accommodate the 4.5 million children and youth currently outside the formal education system.

Additional challenges cited by the opposition include a shortage of teachers, with a projected need for 60,000 to 78,000 more educators, and precarious conditions in roughly 25% of the country's 7,700 public schools. Furthermore, teachers have expressed dissatisfaction regarding salary adjustments, raising the possibility of strikes that could disrupt the start of the new school year.