Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called upon the Government of Malawi to start implementing commitments made by President Lazarus Chakwera to transform the education sector in Malawi..
Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) and its partners made the call in Lilongwe during a policy dialogue meeting.
The CSOs called upon the Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Education to make sure they start implementation of the commitments made by President Lazarus Chakwera at UNGA to transform the education sector in Malawi.
Speaking after the meeting CSEC Programs Manager, Kisa Kumwenda said the Government of Malawi usually make commitments whenever they go to summits but Malawians do not know the commitments and also the implementation of the commitments made.
“There are some commitments like issues of investment. The President has committed that he is going to invest in education sector to be in line with the Malawi2063 vision between 15 to 20 percent of the national budget as well 4 to 6 percent of GDP.
“There is also a commitment that he is going to educate 100 percent of Malawians for the first 12 years that is 8 years in primary school and 4 in Secondary school. This is a huge commitment and a huge desire, and there is also a commitment to invest more in edu-tech.
“This is the desire that we want as a country but we don’t want to end at a commitment. We want to see the actualization of those commitments. We are tired as a Nation to have commitments on paper and without nothing on the ground. As a country and as CSOs together with everybody who is part of the meeting we want to hold Government accountable to the commitments that they have committed to the country,” said Kumwenda.
According to Kumwenda, Malawi needs to strengthen the education system and address issues of supervision and issues of monitoring which are systematic.
“As a country we have got a lot of policies, we have got a lot of strategies. We know as Malawians we can achieve something great but what do we do when we start implementing, do we monitor, do we invest in the implementation? Do we invest adequate funding in the right priorities? Do we deal with issues of corruption, siphoning of the funds that was meant to go towards education?” added Kumwenda.
In his remarks, director of open distance and e-learning in the Ministry of Education Dr. Joshua Valeta, said there are five commitments made by the President at the transforming education summit and as a Ministry they have come with a system approach to transform education.
He added that they are also coming up with digital education strategy and out of that they have a number of plans that are going to help to move forward.
“A very unique strategy is what we call a five-stand education foundation strategy which is a way of showing that we are committed to renew focus on improving foundation skills in the country considering that at the moment learning poverty is very high at 90 percent which means that only 10 Percent of our 10 year olds are able to read with understandable comprehension.
“So that’s what we are embarking on and this is not coming from the blues because as a Ministry one of the 8 reforms that we have been championing is evidence informed policy and decision making. So, the strategies that we are developing for transforming education in the country are informed by evidence,” explained Valeta.
