Parliament challenges government on Community Day Secondary Schools
Parliamentary Committee on Education has decried slow progress made by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in responding to the newly introduced science-based curriculum in secondary schools.
Citing the critical absence of laboratories and libraries in Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs), Vice Chairperson of the Committee, Agnes Nyalonje, said over the weekend that education authorities are doing a great disservice to youths in the country, a majority of whom are concentrated in CDSSs.
She stressed the need for the government to prioritise CDSSs when addressing the numerous challenges that have affected the education sector.
Increasing the education budget alone may not be enough, according to her, if government does not invest in equipping the 900 CDSSs in the country with proper teaching and learning facilities.
“We cannot talk about improving education standards if we neglect community secondary schools. In two years, the first cohort of the new curriculum will be sitting for Malawi School Certificate of Education examinations which will be science-based, hence the need for laboratories and libraries,” Nyalonje said.
Nyalonje said there is also an urgent need to deal with the booming population.
She said the rising population continues to contribute to Malawi’s economic downturn, with a majority of households unable to support their children beyond primary level.
“Malawi’s education base gets narrower beyond primary education and yet tertiary and secondary education is a prerequisite for the country’s economic sustainability. So we better deal with issues of fertility which continue to strain our resources,” she said.
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