Minister of Education Agnes says the challenge of shortage of laboratories affects over 700 Community Secondary Schools across the country.
Nyalonje made the statement yesterday at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
She said government is looking at all requirements that will enable students to learn all science subjects.
According to NyaLonje, government has partnered with Mzuzu University who have developed a Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) virtual laboratory. She said the Ministry wants to adopt the virtual laboratory so that each and students every school should learn virtually thereby addressing the challenge of shortage of laboratories that has affected over 700 Community Secondary Schools across the country.
She also talked about her ministry’s commitment to have qualified teachers in schools and provide houses to teachers.
“On the issue of government policy on building teachers’ houses, our plans are to have more money to address this huge problem because over 50 years now government has been building schools blocks with few teachers houses as such there is a need to put more effort. This issue shows that the challenge is massive because it can take the whole national budget,” She said.
The Minister also noted that the construction of the houses does not only provide accommodation to the teachers but also encourage those who are staying in rural and hard to reach areas to conduct their work accordingly.
On the issue of rains that usually damages schools in parts of the country, NyaLonje said that the Department of Disaster Management (DODMA) will be on the ground to identify the affected institutions so that the ministry can work hand in hand with the department by collecting data about the schools that have been affected by the rains.
On the long-term solution to the problem, the minister said that they want to build good infrastructure that are climate adaptive by making sure that every school has woodlots because schools that have no woodlots are easily blown off.
