LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-In order to transform education in Malawi and improve learning outcomes to at least 79 per cent by the year 2030, the Ministry of Education has developed a ” 5 Strand Education Foundations Strategy”.
“Through this strategy we will provide relevant support to teachers of standards 1-4, improve training and deployment of teachers, redesign curriculum and improve its resourcing, and expand school feeding coverage to all schools. We will also digitalize education for access, quality, efficiency and resilience,” she articulated.
To implement this Strategy, building on the National Reading Programme (NRP), funded by the United States Government (through USAID), and the National Numeracy Programme (NNP), funded by the UK Government (through FCDO), Malawi has embarked on a 6-year spotlight inititaive called the Building Education Foundations through Innivation and Technology (BEFIT) Programme (2023-2029).
Through BEFIT teachers will be equipped with digital and innovative support skills and learners will learn at their own speed through tablets (One-Tab) with a well-researched, global award winning software, in addition to techer-led lessons. Tablets will be supplied to all primary schools across the country.
Addressing virtually an international audience at the first-ever, 2023 Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX23) summit, at the Freetown International Conference Center in Freetown, Sierra-Leone, Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima said the 5-Strand Education Foundations Strategy is a game changer for Malawi; a country committed to transforming education to build the critical mass of human capital necessary to drive the Malawi 2063 development agenda.
“We believe that if we pursued the 5 Strand Education Foundation Strategy, including the spotlight BEFIT program, learning outcomes will be improved to at least 79 per cent in line with our Malawi 2063 first ten-year implementation plan, MIP1 (2021-2030),” she said.
Wirima said that the early grade learners using the One-Tab gained four months of literacy and three months of numeracy ahead of non-users within a school year, and this is a significant improvement.
The minister further called on all partners willing to genuinely help in transforming education in Malawi to join the coalition in order to effectively implement the strategy which also includes teacher preparation and support, and curriculum re-designing which is currently under way.
She further thanked Imagine Worldwide, One billion and VSO who are leading partners in the education program, with initial funding from the JBJ Foundation.
At the end, a FLEX23 Ministerial Communiqué was signed, which emphasizes on translating into action the commitments to foundational learning made at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) during the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly held in 2022, and the recommendations of the 2022 UNESCO “Born To Learn” report.
