Malawi’s political parties commit to CSEC Citizen education agenda 2024
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Some major political parties a head of May 21 tripartite elections on Wednesday committed themselves to Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Citizen education agenda 2024, a document that contains Malawians’ aspirations for education in the country.
Education Agenda espouses the citizenry policy options and alternatives in the area of education.
The paper highlights what needs to be done as well as setting the long-term education vision.
The document examines the pre-existing policies, strategies and laws and their adequancies and inadequacies to the shared education vision for Malawi.
The agenda takes into consideration the MGDS III, ESP and other national instruments which set the following, as priority areas in education: Access and Equity; Quality and Relevance and Management and Governance.
Political parties that have committed to the agenda including Malawi Congress Party (MCP), UTM Party, United Democratic Front (UDF) as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) failed to show as usual for national issue interests.
Launching the document in the capital Lilongwe, Executive Secretary of the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC),David Nungu observed that the coalition recognizes the great role that education plays in development of the peoples.
Nungu added that success in the health sector is dependent on levels of education.
“Failure in smallholder farmers adopting modern farming technologies and other extension services is attributed to the education levels of the people. Slow growth in the private sector is attributed to education; as it is argued that the education system in Malawi fails to cultivate innovative and entrepreneurial minds. Improving the education sector in Malawi has far-reaching positive impacts on the other sectors of economic growth and human development.
“Representative of the Political parties here in, the call is clear My Education, My Vote! We want to live up to the National Education Plan’s vision, which is “to enhance the role of education as a catalyst for socio-economic development”!
He adds; “An educated and skilled citizenry will live healthier and longer; will be more peaceful and unifying; will be more transparent and accountable; will be more engaging in fighting social ills such as corruption; will be more participative in democracy; will be more resilient to climate change; will be more economically- empowered and self-reliant as well as respectful of other people’s rights and responsibilities!”.
CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe said the agenda takes into consideration the MGDS III, ESP and other national instruments which set the following, as priority areas in education: Access and Equity; Quality and Relevance and Management and Governance.
“The document contains Malawians’ aspirations for the upcoming government to invest and deliver inclusive and sustainable, quality and equitable education and life long learning for all Malawians.
“The paper asks political party that wins elections to make sure that there is early Childhood Development Centres everywhere, no to Children learning under the tree, no to students failing education because of resource constraints, to students having no opportunities for technical and vocation education, no to inequitable access to higher education in Malawi”, urges Kondowe
In her remarks, UTM Party representative Dr. Jessie Kabwila assures the nation of total commitment towards the implementation of the agenda once voted into power saying the paper carries her party’s manifesto extracts.
Why the Education Agenda Now?
Education has an unsurmountable potential in fostering economic growth and human development in general. The May 2019 Presidential, Parliamentary and Ward Councilor Elections present a great opportunity to influence the next government to prioritize education in Malawi. This is in line with section 12 (1) of the Constitution which states that:
all legal and political authority of the State derives from the people of Malawi and shall be exercised in accordance with this Constitution solely to serve and protect their interests;
all persons responsible for the exercise of powers of State do so on trust and shall only exercise such power to the extent of their lawful authority and in accordance with their responsibilities to the people of Malawi;
the authority to exercise power of State is conditional upon the sustained trust of the people of Malawi and that trust can only be maintained through open, accountable and transparent Government and informed democratic choice;
From the above, we believe that it is time that Malawians must set their own destiny. We also believe that political parties vying for leadership positions must buy into the people’s aspirations as their employers.
Therefore, CSEC calls that stakeholders and the political parties forming the next government should take head of the issues raised in the Education Agenda.