Tuesday, May 16, 2006
From Maastricht to Mozambique: Problem Based Learning - A Successful Export Product?
The following article has been distributed during a conference in Maastricht on Globalization, Development and the University of Maastricht:
Tessa Theele, former lecturer at the Department of European and International Law of the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, is currently working at the Law Faculty of the Universidade Católica de Moçambique (UCM) in Nampula (Mozambique). The Junior Advisor PBL posted by the Dutch NGO ICCO arrived in February 2006 and will be staying for 18 months. Besides coaching the local staff in PBL and revising the already existing Bachelor courses she is responsible for the development of the Licenciatura and the Master Programme.
At the time I was working in Maastricht I had already heard about the cooperation between the UM and the UCM so when I came across the job offer of ICCO I did not have to think for a long time to decide – although it was a bit harder to convince Pieter, my partner, who had to give up his job. The former Portuguese colony Mozambique (Nr. 168 out of 177 countries, Human Development Index 2003) is one of the poorest developing countries , the main problems being HIV/AIDS, Malaria, shortage of safe drinking water etc. End of January we arrived in Nampula, the third city of the country, but nonetheless small to our standards and certainly not comparable to Amsterdam or even Maastricht. It is situated on a plateau in the economically isolated Northern region of Mozambique and famous for its beautiful Inselbergs.
Coming from Europe it is hard to imagine what absolute poverty is like, but you learn quickly when you see with your own eyes that most people are exposed to a daily struggle for survival. Our ‘struggle for survival’ merely consisted of getting used to the tropical temperatures, finding a house in which everything works (we even have hot water!), organizing our ‘Mozambican’ daily life which sometimes requires flexibility and patience, speaking Portuguese and starting to work at 7 o’clock in the morning! After three months, our Portuguese gradually improves and we enjoy work and life here although there are downsides as well.
The Universidade Católica has been set up in the Northern part of the country with faculties in Beira (Medicine and Economics), Pemba (Tourism and IT), Cuamba (Agriculture) and Nampula (Law and Education & Communication). Far away from the capital Maputo – that benefits from its proximity to South Africa – the idea behind setting up a University in this region was to contribute to development by educating highly skilled professionals who will stay in the North, thereby solving the brain drain to the South. Nampula province, with a population of 3 410 000, counts only 7 formally qualified judges and 5 public prosecutors. In the whole country there is one Ph.D. in law working at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. Last week a group of our students visited the local prison with 500 to 600 detainees including 10 children. Most of them do not even have space enough to lie on the floor – so they have to sleep in the upright position. Given the lack of prosecutors they generally will have to wait a long time until their case will be heard. To alleviate the shortage of qualified legal professionals the Faculty of Law has identified the introduction of a modern teaching methodology as one of its priorities. This was the start of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Nampula.
PBL was introduced three years ago – the first Bachelors trained according to this method will graduate in August 2006. The method has been introduced to better equip our graduates with the tools necessary in their future work. The quality of education here is very low – this is the reason why the UCM established a year 0 in all the faculties in which students are trained in mathematics, study skills, Portuguese and English. Those students who pass this year are admitted to the first year of the law courses. Since the opening of the Faculty in 1996 a traditional teaching method has been in place whereby legal knowledge is transmitted via lectures. After an intensive preparation period the faculty gradually started to implement a PBL inspired curriculum. Both the old and the new system are effective during the transitional period due to end next year.
When I arrived my colleagues were still busy developing the course Direito Internacional Público, so I could immediately draft some of the tarefas (tasks), in Portuguese... Initially, my main task was to coordinate the development of a Master Programme offered for those Bachelor students that fulfill certain selection criteria. Inspired by the Bologna process in Europe and the English-speaking countries surrounding Mozambique the former Rector of the UCM decided to introduce the Bachelor-Master system thereby abolishing the Licenciatura – a degree inherited from Portugal and still highly valued in Mozambique. Another idea behind introducing this system was to feed the local market as fast as possible with trained professionals so that the country could quickly benefit from their skills. After gaining some working experience they would still have the chance to continue studying. The salary of a Licenciatura graduate is a lot higher than that of a Bachelor. Although the law will be changed in the future at this stage only those legal professionals with a Licenciatura or a Master degree are allowed to perform in the traditional legal professions (judge, prosecutor, lawyer). Therefore, most of our students were not happy with this decision.
Besides providing books for the library and other materials, the Law Faculty of Maastricht was a guide in the process of introducing PBL right from the start. Without books PBL does not work – even less in a developing country in which few books are available and where students can hardly afford to buy them. Most importantly, without support from Maastricht it would not have been possible to introduce PBL. During several missions, experts held workshops for our staff about PBL, the planning and development of courses, evaluations (exams) as well as practical skills. Materials from Maastricht were translated and adapted to the local (legal) situation and so on. Another important side effect of the introduction of PBL was that with this system we did not have to merely rely on experienced lecturers who are scarce in this country. Instead, we could train young graduates to work with PBL.
Tutorial groups in Nampula are in fact very similar to their counterparts in Maastricht: although initially, students were rather shy and would not dare to participate because they were afraid of saying something wrong as they were used to a strong hierarchy between teacher and student, ultimately, their motivation was growing. For some students this is the first experience with studying and looking for information by themselves instead of just learning by heart what the teacher says. And students are getting more self-confident every day.
Mozambique has both a traditional and a formal system of law. In reality, the number of cases dealt with by the traditional community courts – situated in the bairros (poor districts) – with a percentage of 80 outnumbers the cases dealt with in the formal tribunals. The judges of the community courts are lay judges who do not have any formal or academic training and are elected by their community. Although new legislation is being drafted and enacted, the out-dated Portuguese legal system is still largely in place. The future graduates of our faculty will thus have the task to carry out legal reforms, to enforce the public and private sector and thereby meet the actual realities and needs of Mozambique. They already start with it during their University studies.
In a country in which the formal legal system is far from being developed a University has an important role in society. In developing countries this role is however different from its role in the developed world. Although strengthening research capabilities of our students is important, fundamental high quality research is not the first need. Graduates rather have to acquire the necessary skills for their professional activities. The importance of skills trainings within PBL is a good starting point for connecting students with society. The majority of them belongs to the ‘upper class’ of the population and has never been to the poor districts where people try to survive on subsistence level. Two months ago we visited a ‘tribunal’ in one of the bairros of Nampula. In fact it was just a small hut made of clay with one table and three wooden benches. The judges told us that one of their main tasks is to mediate between the conflicting parties until a solution will be found. If they do not succeed the matter will be referred to the formal district court. Most cases deal with family and land issues and it is quite frustrating to hear that women come off worst most of the time. Although according to the formal law she is the lawful heiress when her husband dies, in reality the brothers of her husband will take everything from her, even her kids. Poverty can be cruel sometimes and politics also plays an important role. My Mozambican colleague told me that you never win your case if you belong to the opposition party Renamo. Our law faculty has a project with six of these tribunais comunitários. Students undertake research there and collect information about the different cases, inform the judges on the formal law and distribute legislation. The cooperation turns out to be useful for both sides – they both benefit from each other and hopefully our students can contribute to improving the situation.
My job here is manifold and that’s what makes working here interesting. The cultural setting and the language are challenging but also the different tasks I am responsible for. The existing PBL courses have to be revised and the quality of the tutors must be improved. Some of them do their job well while others could do better. The local staff here still needs guidance and coaching which is not always an easy task, as some of them tend to break engagements. The majority works hard for a very low salary. Some former colleagues were trained here for a year before they accepted a job offer of one of the many NGO’s based in Nampula. This makes capacity building sometimes difficult but who can blame them if they receive a higher salary?
When I came here, my main function was to coordinate the development of a Master in the area of international commercial law. Recently, I made a trip to South Africa where I met around 30 people from three different Law Schools in order to try setting up cooperation with them. The majority of the contents of the Master need foreign support due to the lack of expertise here. Although we receive feedback and advice from Maastricht we find it important to establish relationships with universities in the region and in Portuguese-speaking countries. The visit was an enormous success. People were interested and prepared to support us. I felt happy about the results of the visit and when I wanted to tell the first colleague I met about it, she asked me: “Did you hear about the news? – Our new rector decided this week to re-introduce the Licenciatura in all the faculties.” This means we will first have to develop at least one year of law courses for the Licenciatura before we can start with the more specialized Master Programme. Well, you never get bored here and flexibility is one of the qualities you must have in order to succeed. As far as Problem Based Learning is concerned we are on the right track and continue to drive around the potholes of the dirt road...
by Tessa Theele
Tessa Theele, former lecturer at the Department of European and International Law of the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, is currently working at the Law Faculty of the Universidade Católica de Moçambique (UCM) in Nampula (Mozambique). The Junior Advisor PBL posted by the Dutch NGO ICCO arrived in February 2006 and will be staying for 18 months. Besides coaching the local staff in PBL and revising the already existing Bachelor courses she is responsible for the development of the Licenciatura and the Master Programme.
At the time I was working in Maastricht I had already heard about the cooperation between the UM and the UCM so when I came across the job offer of ICCO I did not have to think for a long time to decide – although it was a bit harder to convince Pieter, my partner, who had to give up his job. The former Portuguese colony Mozambique (Nr. 168 out of 177 countries, Human Development Index 2003) is one of the poorest developing countries , the main problems being HIV/AIDS, Malaria, shortage of safe drinking water etc. End of January we arrived in Nampula, the third city of the country, but nonetheless small to our standards and certainly not comparable to Amsterdam or even Maastricht. It is situated on a plateau in the economically isolated Northern region of Mozambique and famous for its beautiful Inselbergs.
Coming from Europe it is hard to imagine what absolute poverty is like, but you learn quickly when you see with your own eyes that most people are exposed to a daily struggle for survival. Our ‘struggle for survival’ merely consisted of getting used to the tropical temperatures, finding a house in which everything works (we even have hot water!), organizing our ‘Mozambican’ daily life which sometimes requires flexibility and patience, speaking Portuguese and starting to work at 7 o’clock in the morning! After three months, our Portuguese gradually improves and we enjoy work and life here although there are downsides as well.
The Universidade Católica has been set up in the Northern part of the country with faculties in Beira (Medicine and Economics), Pemba (Tourism and IT), Cuamba (Agriculture) and Nampula (Law and Education & Communication). Far away from the capital Maputo – that benefits from its proximity to South Africa – the idea behind setting up a University in this region was to contribute to development by educating highly skilled professionals who will stay in the North, thereby solving the brain drain to the South. Nampula province, with a population of 3 410 000, counts only 7 formally qualified judges and 5 public prosecutors. In the whole country there is one Ph.D. in law working at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. Last week a group of our students visited the local prison with 500 to 600 detainees including 10 children. Most of them do not even have space enough to lie on the floor – so they have to sleep in the upright position. Given the lack of prosecutors they generally will have to wait a long time until their case will be heard. To alleviate the shortage of qualified legal professionals the Faculty of Law has identified the introduction of a modern teaching methodology as one of its priorities. This was the start of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Nampula.
PBL was introduced three years ago – the first Bachelors trained according to this method will graduate in August 2006. The method has been introduced to better equip our graduates with the tools necessary in their future work. The quality of education here is very low – this is the reason why the UCM established a year 0 in all the faculties in which students are trained in mathematics, study skills, Portuguese and English. Those students who pass this year are admitted to the first year of the law courses. Since the opening of the Faculty in 1996 a traditional teaching method has been in place whereby legal knowledge is transmitted via lectures. After an intensive preparation period the faculty gradually started to implement a PBL inspired curriculum. Both the old and the new system are effective during the transitional period due to end next year.
When I arrived my colleagues were still busy developing the course Direito Internacional Público, so I could immediately draft some of the tarefas (tasks), in Portuguese... Initially, my main task was to coordinate the development of a Master Programme offered for those Bachelor students that fulfill certain selection criteria. Inspired by the Bologna process in Europe and the English-speaking countries surrounding Mozambique the former Rector of the UCM decided to introduce the Bachelor-Master system thereby abolishing the Licenciatura – a degree inherited from Portugal and still highly valued in Mozambique. Another idea behind introducing this system was to feed the local market as fast as possible with trained professionals so that the country could quickly benefit from their skills. After gaining some working experience they would still have the chance to continue studying. The salary of a Licenciatura graduate is a lot higher than that of a Bachelor. Although the law will be changed in the future at this stage only those legal professionals with a Licenciatura or a Master degree are allowed to perform in the traditional legal professions (judge, prosecutor, lawyer). Therefore, most of our students were not happy with this decision.
Besides providing books for the library and other materials, the Law Faculty of Maastricht was a guide in the process of introducing PBL right from the start. Without books PBL does not work – even less in a developing country in which few books are available and where students can hardly afford to buy them. Most importantly, without support from Maastricht it would not have been possible to introduce PBL. During several missions, experts held workshops for our staff about PBL, the planning and development of courses, evaluations (exams) as well as practical skills. Materials from Maastricht were translated and adapted to the local (legal) situation and so on. Another important side effect of the introduction of PBL was that with this system we did not have to merely rely on experienced lecturers who are scarce in this country. Instead, we could train young graduates to work with PBL.
Tutorial groups in Nampula are in fact very similar to their counterparts in Maastricht: although initially, students were rather shy and would not dare to participate because they were afraid of saying something wrong as they were used to a strong hierarchy between teacher and student, ultimately, their motivation was growing. For some students this is the first experience with studying and looking for information by themselves instead of just learning by heart what the teacher says. And students are getting more self-confident every day.
Mozambique has both a traditional and a formal system of law. In reality, the number of cases dealt with by the traditional community courts – situated in the bairros (poor districts) – with a percentage of 80 outnumbers the cases dealt with in the formal tribunals. The judges of the community courts are lay judges who do not have any formal or academic training and are elected by their community. Although new legislation is being drafted and enacted, the out-dated Portuguese legal system is still largely in place. The future graduates of our faculty will thus have the task to carry out legal reforms, to enforce the public and private sector and thereby meet the actual realities and needs of Mozambique. They already start with it during their University studies.
In a country in which the formal legal system is far from being developed a University has an important role in society. In developing countries this role is however different from its role in the developed world. Although strengthening research capabilities of our students is important, fundamental high quality research is not the first need. Graduates rather have to acquire the necessary skills for their professional activities. The importance of skills trainings within PBL is a good starting point for connecting students with society. The majority of them belongs to the ‘upper class’ of the population and has never been to the poor districts where people try to survive on subsistence level. Two months ago we visited a ‘tribunal’ in one of the bairros of Nampula. In fact it was just a small hut made of clay with one table and three wooden benches. The judges told us that one of their main tasks is to mediate between the conflicting parties until a solution will be found. If they do not succeed the matter will be referred to the formal district court. Most cases deal with family and land issues and it is quite frustrating to hear that women come off worst most of the time. Although according to the formal law she is the lawful heiress when her husband dies, in reality the brothers of her husband will take everything from her, even her kids. Poverty can be cruel sometimes and politics also plays an important role. My Mozambican colleague told me that you never win your case if you belong to the opposition party Renamo. Our law faculty has a project with six of these tribunais comunitários. Students undertake research there and collect information about the different cases, inform the judges on the formal law and distribute legislation. The cooperation turns out to be useful for both sides – they both benefit from each other and hopefully our students can contribute to improving the situation.
My job here is manifold and that’s what makes working here interesting. The cultural setting and the language are challenging but also the different tasks I am responsible for. The existing PBL courses have to be revised and the quality of the tutors must be improved. Some of them do their job well while others could do better. The local staff here still needs guidance and coaching which is not always an easy task, as some of them tend to break engagements. The majority works hard for a very low salary. Some former colleagues were trained here for a year before they accepted a job offer of one of the many NGO’s based in Nampula. This makes capacity building sometimes difficult but who can blame them if they receive a higher salary?
When I came here, my main function was to coordinate the development of a Master in the area of international commercial law. Recently, I made a trip to South Africa where I met around 30 people from three different Law Schools in order to try setting up cooperation with them. The majority of the contents of the Master need foreign support due to the lack of expertise here. Although we receive feedback and advice from Maastricht we find it important to establish relationships with universities in the region and in Portuguese-speaking countries. The visit was an enormous success. People were interested and prepared to support us. I felt happy about the results of the visit and when I wanted to tell the first colleague I met about it, she asked me: “Did you hear about the news? – Our new rector decided this week to re-introduce the Licenciatura in all the faculties.” This means we will first have to develop at least one year of law courses for the Licenciatura before we can start with the more specialized Master Programme. Well, you never get bored here and flexibility is one of the qualities you must have in order to succeed. As far as Problem Based Learning is concerned we are on the right track and continue to drive around the potholes of the dirt road...
by Tessa Theele
