Luanda — The Minister of Higher Education, Albano Ferreira, said on Friday that cooperation with international institutions in the fields of technology and innovation is essential for the development and diversification of the economy and the increase of national production.

The minister made the statement to the press at the end of the audiences granted by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, to personalities of educational institutions in the United States, Brazil, Italy and Africa.

According to the minister, Angola will engage and take advantage of the opportunities offered by leading universities in the fields of technology and artificial intelligence, adding that the country wants to collaborate with the Italian university in the fields of educational sciences, industrialization and mechanization of agricultural production.

Luísa Grillo, minister of Education, on her turn, spoke of the need to invest more in basic education, stressing that in January of this year, the school lunch program was approved, one of the instruments to combat school dropouts.

The minister pointed out the need to strengthen the measures necessary for children in primary school to study and complete the educational cycles at the right age, but with the quality necessary for them to finish secondary school.

According to the minister, in the last census the dropout rate was around 17%, mainly between the 5th and 9th grades, which is why this group deserves more attention.FMA/ART/DAN/AMP