Turkish schools are at the forefront of quality education in Mozambique as they are in hundreds countries across the globe.
There’s no intention of closing them down as Recep Tayyip Erdogan requested when he visited Maputo last month.
The Turkish premier maintain the schools are terrorist cells run by exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen whom he maintains mounted a coup against him last year.
The colourful, secular Willow International School in Maputo looks nothing like a terrorist cell.
The 630 pupils are indeed currently playing politics.
They’re about to elect their head boy and head girl.
But as pupils go, their preoccupation is preparing for the Cambridge exams.
Their parents, who pay about R45 000 a year to keep them here, fully support this.
Abdul Carimo Sau says there’s no chance of closing schools that are befitting so many children.
“Those schools have been in Mozanbique a long time and are doing people a lot of good. We don’t want what is happening other countries to be brought here,” he says.
His message to President Erdogan is simple: don’t try to export your political problems to Mozambique.