The European Union (EU), in partnership with the Government of Malawi, has rolled out Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for teachers in Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) initiative under phase 2.
This is in line with the Improving Secondary Education in Malawi (ISEM) programme and the development coincides with World Teachers’ Day, which falls today.
Through the CPD initiative, teachers are being equipped with modern teaching methods, apart from having access to updated educational materials and a chance to share best practices.
“The initiative is not only about improving the quality of education but also about empowering teachers to become agents of change within their communities,” the EU says in a statement released yesterday.
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It indicates that, so far, the initiative has developed 1,621 trainers’ notebooks, trained 72 trainer of trainers and 1,947 teachers.
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The EU further indicates that the programme has established 32 mentors from national and divisional levels as part of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning teams to support trainers, leaders and teachers in developing and implementing CPD systems at cluster and school level.
One of the beneficiaries of the CPD, Mbalanda Zulu, who is the head teacher at Chankhomi CDSS in Rumphi District, described the training as timely.
“We need more of this not just at cluster level [but other levels, too]. Knowledge is not static and we, as teachers, need to keep reeducating ourselves so that we are at par with the evolving world,” Zulu said.
EU has been promoting the development of a Teacher and School Leader Competency Framework, which is premised on supporting teachers and school leaders in identifying their strengths and areas for development by describing expected performance at different stages of their career.
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Recently, Teachers Union of Malawi President Willie Malimba urged the government to prioritise the welfare of teachers.
He cited the provision of textbooks as one of the areas that require immediate attention.
“This [lack of textbooks] is a serious issue because, in some schools, five years have elapsed before teachers and learners have received textbooks,” he said.
