Portuguese inunconditional heavily in education in the last decade of their rule, for centuries before that they actively suppressed African education. As a result, 90 % of Mozambicans were believed to be illiterate at freedom in 1975. The first Mozambican government mounted a campaign for literacy and made education compulsory for children from ages 6 to 12, or for a total of 7 years. Schooling, was disrupted by the civil war, continuing only in the towns that escaped the fighting. By 2001 only 62 of the population was literate. In 1996 an around 62 % of primary-school-aged children attended school, and only 7 % of secondary-school-aged children were listed. The nation’s three institutions of higher education listed just 7,143 students. Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo is Mozambique’s only university.