BLANTYRE(MaraviPost)—Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has hailed government for putting on hold the implementation of compulsory science subjects in secondary schools.
Speaking to Malawi News Agency, Csec executive director Benedicto Kondowe said that the decision has shown that government listens and takes into account what other stakeholders say on issues of public interest.
“I’m happy with what government has done. This shows that government takes into account what stakeholders say on matters of public interest,” he said.
Kondowe said much as the idea was good, it was ill-timed as most of the schools did not have adequate laboratory materials.
He has since called upon government to start mobilizing resources for the schools especially Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) which he said do not have adequate laboratory equipment.
“Let me urge government not to sleep between now and whenever this (the new curriculum) will start. It should start upgrading schools so that when time comes for this to be implemented, there should be more problems,” said Kondowe.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology last weekend announced that the new curriculum has been put on hold due to what it said are logistical problems.
However, Maravi Post has also found that the compulsory science education will meet another challenge of qualified staff especially in CDSSs which are located in rural areas as most of the education graduates are reluctant to teach in the rural areas.
As the 2014/2015 academic year began on Monday, a snap survey in some CDSSs in Neno and Mwanza revealed that education graduates who have just been posted to teach in those schools have not yet reported for duties.
In July, Malawi government recruited secondary school teachers who finished their studies in 2012 and 2013 in different institutions and almost 65% of them were posted to CDSSs with an aim of improving the education standards in the rural areas.
