By Pemphero Malimba:
The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced a 39 million British Pound (about K90 billion) investment in Malawi’s education sector.
UK Development Minister Anneliese Dodds announced this at Mseru Primary School in Lilongwe yesterday.
Dodds visited the school, where the UK government is supporting the implementation of the national mathematics curriculum reform programme.
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She said the investment, which will span five years, will go towards doubling the number of children with basic mathematics skills by age 10, supporting 1,500 secondary school girls with scholarships and expanding school feeding in vulnerable areas.
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“The UK government will be backing this work for another five years to help you make sure that the programme is sustainable for the future—scaling up to standard 4, developing materials for disabled children so that we can reach seven and half million more children to have great children do basic maths by age 10,” Dodds said.
She described education as key to Malawi’s development.
“We know that education is important for the economy as well as Malawi’s own plans to become self-sufficient. As such, we are determined to keep working together on education,” Dodds said.
She also announced 2.5 million pound additional humanitarian aid ahead of the rainy season.
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“By supporting preparations ahead of time, we hope to reduce the impact on lives and livelihoods for around 295,000 people including the impacts on schooling,” she said.
On her part, Ministry of Education Principal Secretary responsible for basic and secondary education Rachel Chimbwete Phiri commended the UK government for its continued support towards the education sector.
“This is a breakthrough to our curriculum, our education system, because, in terms of numeracy, we have had problems when it comes to attaining skills at that level (standard 1-4). We had challenges in the foundation stage but this is a great reform and this is a momentous occasion that the UK minister was able to see how their help is really getting down to the classroom, to the child, as they are learning every day,” Chimbwete Phiri said.
She said the programme was in line with the Malawi 2063 vision.
Dodds was on the second day of her three-day visit. It ended on Wednesday, when she heads to Zambia.
The National Mathematics Curriculum Reform programme was launched in 2018 following a scooping study that found that the country’s mathematics environment was characterised by limited and limiting expectations.
The programme, which initially targeted standard 1 and 2 learners, has helped to ensure that curricula content suits the Malawian context.
The programme was piloted in over 1,000 schools and has now been scaled up to about 6,000 primary schools with specific classes from standard 1-4.
