By Patricia Kapulula
LILONGWE-(MANA)-Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima says Malawi has not done well in foundational learning leading to numeracy and literacy poverty.
She was speaking in Lilongwe on Wednesday during the launch of the Foundation Learning Steering Committee.
Wirima said it worrisome to note that 90 percent of early grade learners from Standards One to Four cannot read with comprehension and are not doing well in Mathematics.
The minister, therefore, said in order to achieve an inclusively self-reliant nation by 2063, quality learning and strong student outcomes are key.
“This will reduce dropout rate and will greatly improve on quality. What we produce from basic education feeds better into secondary and tertiary education hence the need to put more effort in foundational learning,” she said.
Meanwhile, Government has developed five pillars that will work towards reducing learning poverty from the current 87 percent to 21 percent and ensure that 80 percent of learners can read fluently and with meaning by Standard Four.
The five pillars are: provision of best support to Standards One to Four teachers and introduction of Early Childhood Learning (ECD) in all primary schools; improve training and deployment of teachers; redesign the national curriculum and improve its resourcing; expand school feeding programme coverage from 35 percent to 100 percent and digitise education for access, quality, efficiency and resilience.
According to Kambauwa the digital element has been incorporated to make sure that children are able to learn using other learning methods.
United States (US) Ambassador to Malawi, David Young concurred with Kambauwa Wirima saying there is a literacy and numeracy pandemic in Malawi which needs to be addressed for boys and girls future.
He said US Government strongly believes in the importance of investing in early learning
The US Government through the US Agency for Development (USAID) has, since 2016, invested K118 billion to support the implementation of the National Reading Programme (NRP) in 5,800 public schools across the country.
“US government works on early childhood literacy and reading and this why we are supporting NRP. We have made great strides as, after just one year of our partnership with NRP, the number of Standard One learners who are able to read and write doubled,” he said.
United Kingdom (UK) High Commissioner to Malawi, Sophia Willitts-King described the committee as important saying it will offer people a chance to not only go to school but also learn and have skills which they need in their lives.
Education Expert, Limbani Nsapato described the Committee as important given the learning crisis in the country.
However, he said it will not be very easy to achieve all the five pillars particularly on digitalisation because of internet access, electricity and gadgets challenges.
“Maybe it will benefit more children in urban areas but it is a challenge in rural areas. As NGOs we will conduct monitoring so that the support reaches out to the needy in the rural areas,” he said.
Ministry of Education is promoting foundational learning in order to improve education gains at all levels so that it is aligned to the Malawi 2063.