As government and other stakeholders are promoting Early Childhood Development (ECD) in the country, Traditional Authority (T/A) Khwethemule from Thyolo district is encouraging the establishment of centres for children aged below five.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Malawi24, T/A Khwethemule said in his area he urged every chief to establish an early childhood development centre so that under five children must be going to school.
Khwethemule told Malawi24 that the idea came when it was learnt that most children in his area were not performing well at primary school.
“I asked every chief in my area to have an early childhood development centre so that we must be catching them (children) while young,” Traditional Authority Khwethemule told Malawi24.
He then stressed that the initiative is proving to be vital since now children are performing well at primary school.
“Now the children are able to read and write some words in Standard One because of the centres unlike in the past when we were facing challenges with them (children),” T/A Khwethemule told Malawi24.
Recently, government of Malawi said it is committed to continue supporting Early Childhood Development (ECD) in the country.
The assurance to continue supporting ECD was made by Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Dr Jean Kalirani during a press briefing after a two day media workshop on ECD in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.
In her remarks, Kalirani said government sees importance of investing in Early Childhood Development (ECD) and that is why it has come up with the ECD policy aimed at prioritizing the area.
Kalirani told the members of the press that the policy will be guiding government and all stakeholders on how best to work on Early Childhood Development for the benefit of children so that they will become great pillars of Malawi’s social economic development.
“The good news is that government has introduced an ECD policy and this policy has gone through the cabinet. We are making sure that the policy should be guiding all the work of ECD in the country,” Dr Kalirani said.
She further said that government is geared to train more caregivers so that they should have vast skills on how to perform their duty in a perfect manner.
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