By Priscilla Phiri

Lilongwe, Mana: President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says Government through the Ministry of Education is implementing various projects with billions of investments which have already registered tremendous results in the country.

Speaking at the state opening of the 1st Meeting of the 50th session of parliament and the 2023/24 budget meeting on Friday themed “Delivering Economic Transformation and Governance Reform Through Sacrificial Action and Service Excellence”, the President said one key priority in this sector is to achieve compulsory primary education and increase access to education.

“With support from the German Government (KfW) we have constructed 308 classrooms and 120 teachers’ houses teaching practice schools and also completed the rehabilitation of water and sanitation systems at Blantyre, Lilongwe and St. Joseph Teacher Training Colleges,

We have also successfully constructed three fully furnished Teachers’ Training Colleges in Mchinji, Chikwawa and Rumphi districts as well as recruited 1800 teacher trainees to date,” he said.

President Chakwera also said that, the ministry has trained 5, 070 primary school teachers and mobilised 250 million dollars under Malawi Education Reforms Programme (MERP) to help in expanding access, improving quality, and performance of the primary sub sector.

“We have successfully recruited 2200 primary school teachers and hired 7395 primary school auxiliary teachers with 3270 hired in 2021/22 fiscal year and an additional 4125 in this current fiscal year,” the President said.

The ministry of education has also seen the expansion of 60 urban and rural Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) with 30 new rural CDSSs completed and opened last month and is continuing with the construction of eight rural CDSSs which are at an average of 51.2% completion rate.

On tertiary education, the President highlighted the increase in access to tertiary education from 45,809 in 2019 and 55,002 in 2021 to 65,057 in the 2022/23 academic year. He further said construction of the Inkosi ya Makhosi M’mbelwa University will commence in this coming fiscal year.

Government has also seen the completion of the expansion and rehabilitation of University of Malawi School of Economics as well as construction of two administration blocks and teaching complex at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) among many other things in the education sector.

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