The Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has hired 24 teachers to provide education services in prisons across the country.
Speaking in Lilongwe during the opening of a two-day training for the newly-hired teachers, CESC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe said the move was aimed at improving quality of education in the prisons and prison reformation.
Kondowe said CSEC has hired the salaried 24 teachers permanently, adding the training will be followed by more initiatives to ensure both access to education and the quality of education improves.He further pledged that the organisation will not just dump the teachers in the prisons but will ensure availability of teaching and learning materials whilst a second phase of the project will involve informal education in trade skills.
Kondowe said education in prisons was crucial for achievement of prison reformatory objectives but said the country’s prisons are facing severe challenges which are also hampering on efforts to improve education within its institutions.
“Prisoners have rights too and these rights are very much guaranteed in our constitution, these rights are indivisible, every person in prison has a right to education. We also appreciate education is a powerful tool for reformation,” added Kondowe.
Under phase one of the project, among the prisons to benefit from the project include Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Kachere, Maula and Mzuzu prisons.
The project is being supported technically by the Centre for Legal Assistance (CELA) a local non-government organization working in promotion of improved prison conditions, among others.
Education department in Malawi Prison Services has since hailed the role education is playing in reformation of inmates saying majority of inmates who participate in the education programme once released are not re offending.
Since the turn to democracy, the country’s prisons under the prison reform programme have seen education being allowed among inmates and several inmates have registered success in national examinations both at primary and secondary school level.
