Ensuring inclusive and equitable education has been pointed out as an important step towards achieving sustainable development goal number 4 (SDG4).
Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) said this on Friday in Lilongwe during a policy forum where different organisations on education sector gathered to map the way forward on the issue of education towards achieving SDG4.
Speaking after the meeting, CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe said the organisation recognises that quality education requires conducive learning environment which includes adequate learning materials, adequate teachers and inclusion of persons with disability.
“As CSOs we have big a role to play by ensuring that government is fulfilling its responsibilities through supporting and complementing with the government and also advising on concrete impressive measures as well as popularising the SDG4 by conducting awareness campaign on the same,” he said.
Kondowe added that some issues like quota system need to be considered to ensure that education is being accessed by the girl child.
During the meeting, different stakeholders from district education offices presented some of the initiatives that have been done towards achieving SDG4.
One of the representative from Mangochi district mentioned unbalanced allocation of teachers and sexual practices by teachers as some of the factors hindering the progress of achieving the SDG4.
He also said that despite Mangochi having 216 public primary schools, only a few students show interest of learning as others drop out of school due to fishing and labour export to other countries such as South Africa.
He therefore recommended that some of the policies need to be reviewed to ensure that education is accessed by all.
