By Wezzie Gausi:
When Tereza Moyo, 75, started running Tidzuke Women Organisation in Mchinji District, her intention was to address problems that widows and women in general were facing.
“These [the problems] included abuse, in the form of gender-based violence, and the exclusion of widows and women in general from area development activities in Kochilira area.
“My intention was to equip widows and women in general with skills that would enable them to become economically self-reliant. We, therefore, provided them with business and other skills,” Moyo points out.
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Little did she know that other segments of the society, especially children aged five years and below, were facing equally daunting challenges.
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“For instance, children were enrolling in primary schools without first being introduced to early childhood development (ECD) centres, a development that was negatively affecting education outcomes at primary and secondary school levels. Actually, the development was negatively affecting education outcomes at tertiary education level, too,” Moyo emphasises.
No wonder, she did not think twice but open her place to each and every child when she heard about the Ministry of Gender’s plans to open an ECD centre in the area.
This old woman, who already had a huge responsibility on her shoulders, went a step further; opening the centre and offering services at no cost to children.
Every day, she educates young ones in classes, preparing them for whatever the future may throw at them.
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“This is because I believe that supporting children benefits the whole community. In fact, an ECD centre is exactly what our community needed, hence I immediately applied for the job and, finally, got an opportunity to do something about the problem.
“I, among other things, facilitated training on child development for caregivers, teaching them about how we can support children to learn new things. This is exactly how we established this ECD centre,” Moyo indicates.
However, the path was not as smooth as previously anticipated.
“For instance, I encountered resistance from some community members who believed in taking their children to farms instead of the ECD centre. It took some persuasion for them to appreciate the importance of sending children aged between three and five years to ECD centres.
“As I am speaking to you, we have about 100 children that come to attend ECD classes here. Apart from teaching them, we provide porridge after lessons in our quest to woo more children to the centre. For your information, whatever service we provide here is provided free of charge,” she posits.
The centre has five caregivers, three of whom are unskilled.
Moyo feels for the caregivers.
“It is sad that these caregivers are working on voluntary basis despite that my centre is well registered under the Ministry of Gender,” Moyo points out.
She appeals to the government to consider training the remaining three caregivers in the next cohort.
Moyo also implored the authorities to consider giving the caregivers honorarium as one way of motivating them.
The good thing is that one of the caregivers at the centre, Patricia Chiphaninji, has, like Moyo, already developed passion for the children she serves.
“I love my job because I know that children we train stand a better chance of excelling in their studies when enrolled in primary school,” Chiphaninji explains.
She, however, says their job is replete with obstacles.
“For instance, only two of us [caregivers] here went through ECD training. Of course, we were told to be training our colleagues but, honestly, the remaining team needs to learn from expert trainers.
“And, again, there is a need to introduce a financial incentive, in the form of honorarium, to caregivers so that they can be in a position to support themselves financially,” a visibly concerned Chiphaninji says.
Whatever problems they face, the caregivers do not allow them [problems] to stand in the way of service delivery, such that Mchinji District Deputy ECD Coordinator Rodrick Galatiya is impressed with the role ECD centres are playing in shaping little ones.
“We know that caregivers and ECD centres are facing problems. Funds permitting, such problems will be addressed,” Galatiya explains.
He adds that his office is aware that most children in districts are learning under trees, a problem attributed to lack of requisite structures.
Galatiya is, nevertheless, hopeful on future prospects of the children.
“We believe that, through services being offered at ECD centres, illiteracy levels will be reduced in future. Already, children that went to ECD centres are performing better in school than those that did not. Among other things, they are less shy than other children.
They make contact with teachers and with each other easier than is the case with those that did not attend ECD classes. As such, learning is less challenging for them, a development that produces positive education outcomes,” Galatiya indicates.
Malawi has an ECD management policy that guides stakeholders on the issue of providing quality services.
However, Bwenzi la Mwana Foundation Executive Director Amos Chibwana observes that challenges proliferate in the ECD sector because government officials sometimes do not take heed of policy guidelines.
“For instance, most caregivers remain untrained, despite that we have requisite guidelines in place. Again, the issue of remunerating caregivers is often thrown under the carpet.
“On our part, we have been advocating for the training of caregivers because unskilled caregivers provide half-baked information to children. What is making them take this long to train them can best be explained by government officials,” Chibwana says.
“Unfortunately, rural areas suffer the most and this means children there continue to be disadvantaged,” he adds.
On his part, Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Deputy Director for Child Affairs Justin Hamela acknowledges that most community-based childcare centres (CBSSs) swim in problems.
Apparently, he says, cases of untrained caregivers and of those that work as volunteers abound.
He is quick to say the policy recognises these challenges.
“That is why, in the new policy, stakeholders are looking at issues such as professionalising ECD services and ensuring that ECD educators are on the payroll— apart from ensuring that volunteers are getting honoraria.
“The [ongoing] Local Government functional review has taken some of our proposals into consideration to ensure that we have ECD educators on the government payroll. This will, however, be a gradual process. The reason the ministry is taking this direction is the realisation that the first few years of any child are critical, in terms of brain, social, emotional and all facets of development. This is what determines the life of any adult. As such, ECD is the foundational for learning,” Hamela claims.
Line minister Jean Sendeza cannot agree more.
“The government is committed to the development of children’s skills, starting from ECD level. As such, we have been putting in place proper measures to ensure that our goals are achieved,” Sendeza says.
For the year 2023-24, Mchinji had about 39,706 children attending ECD education.
It also had 1,351 caregivers, out of whom only 543 are trained.
These caregivers work in 507 ECD centres, of which 454 are public and 53 are privately owned.
The 2024-25 projection for the district is to have 42,706 children attending ECD centres.
The country has over and around 36,000 caregivers, only half of whom have been trained.
Through the World Bank, under the Investing in Early Years for Growth and Productivity initiative, close to 3,000 caregivers have been trained and will continue to be trained, with the government expected to construct 150 model CBCCs to improve quality and ease access to such centres.
To put an icing on the cake, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include, unlike Millennium Development Goals, an ECD goal. Specifically, SDG 4 promotes lifelong learning, which is based on the realisation that early stimulation increases the duration of schooling, school performance and adult income.
