Angola

Historical Background

ANGOLA IS the SADC country that was exposed longest to colonial rule. The Portuguese began their incursions in the final decades of the 15th century. Before that date, the history of the area was dominated by the southward migrations of iron-age Bantu speakers from the African ‘armpit’, and the gradual destruction (or assimilation) of the original Khoisan hunter-gatherers living in the forests and along the rivers, especially of central and southern Angola. The establishment of settled Bantu societies took several hundreds of years, with the emergence of distinct ethnic groupings that today divide the population into Ovimbundu (37 percent), Kimbundu (25 percent) and Bakongo (13 percent). The first significant political entity of any power became known, in the 13th century, as the Kingdom of Kongo, which stretched along the coast from present-day Gabon in the north to the river Kwanza in the vicinity of Luanda in the south. The kingdom succeeded in co-existing with the Portuguese for nearly a century before finally losing its independence...Read more.

Primary education lasts for six years and is compulsory for children aged six to nine years. The secondary education system is divided into two cycles of three years each leading to the Habilitaçãos Literárias. There is a parallel technical education system divided into three years of vocational education (after primary school) and four years of middle technical education lasting for four years (after class nine) (International Association of Universities (IAU) World Higher Education Database, 2003).

There is one state university, the Universidade Agostinho Neto.

TYPE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION	NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS
Publicly funded universities	1
Publicly funded HE Institutions and Colleges	2
Privately funded HE Institutions	11
TOTAL	14

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(Angola Press Agency, 2007)

The government has adopted a National Plan of Action on Education for All (EFA). In 1995, extensive legislation was approved, conferring full autonomy to the university, which ceased to be institutionally subjected to orders from the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola/ Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) or the Ministry of Education (Bloom et al., 2006). Angola adopted a Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP) in 2003/4. Education has been identified as one of the top ten priorities (SARUA 2008 – MRCI Report).

HIGHER EDUCATION LEGISLATION	BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Higher Education Law – Management of Higher Education Institutions (Decree No. 3/92) (1991) 81	Allow universities full autonomy in decision-making and encourages establishment of private higher education institutions

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(Bloom, Canning, & Chan, 2006)

List of Statutory Bodies in the Higher Education Sector

Statutory Bodies	Brief description
No information available

Public Expenditure on Education as a % of Gross National Income (GNI)	2.8%
% Education budget allocated to higher education	No data
Loan/Grant scheme in place	No data

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Source: SARUA (2008) – Pillay report

KEY INDICATORS	ANGOLA
R&D Intensity [The ratio of Gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)]	Not available
ISI Output (Number of papers published in the 7500+ journals of the ISI Web of Science)	1990-1995: 44 1996-2001:57 2002-2007: 81

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Source: SARUA (2008) – CREST Report