Chakwera’s administration commits to achieve compulsory primary education

Pathetic state of Malawi education system

* Rehabilitation of water and sanitation systems have been completed at Blantyre, Lilongwe, and St. Joseph Teacher Training Colleges

* 308 classrooms and 120 teachers’ houses have been constructed in teaching practice schools

* Recruited 1,800 teacher trainees to date; trained 5,070 primary school teachers

* Mobilized US$250 million under the Malawi Education Reform Programme

* To help in expanding access, improving quality and performance of the primary sub-sector

By Duncan Mlanjira

In Friday’s State of the National Address (SONA), President Lazarus Chakwera said one of his Administration’s priority commitments in education is to achieve compulsory primary education — as as such, they are implementing various projects with billions of investments as follows:

* With support from the German Government (KfW), rehabilitation of water and sanitation systems have been completed at Blantyre, Lilongwe, and St. Joseph Teacher Training Colleges, and 308 classrooms and 120 teachers’ houses have been constructed in teaching practice schools;

* Successfully constructed three fully furnished Teacher Training Colleges in Mchinji, Chikwawa, and Rumphi districts, and recruited 1,800 teacher trainees to date;

* Trained 5,070 primary school teachers, mobilized US$250 million under the Malawi Education Reform Programme to help in expanding access, improving quality and performance of the primary sub-sector.

“As of today, we have successfully recruited 2,200 primary school teachers and have hired 7,395 primary school auxiliary teachers, with 3,270 being hired in the 2021/2022 fiscal year and an additional 4,125 hired in the current fiscal year.

“Notwithstanding, aside from teacher training and recruitment, the areas of public service delivery we must prioritize in the provision of primary education are school blocks, school desks, and school materials, and we will make the necessary sacrifices to ensure this is the basic standard of service every child receives in school.”

At secondary level, “the milestones” include:

* Expansion of 30 urban Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) in the 2021/2022 fiscal year, under the secondary education expansion for development (SEED) project in which 30 new rural CDSSs were completed and opened last month.

* To continue with the construction of 8 rural CDSSs which are at an average of 51.2% completion rate, while the construction of 51 rural CDSSs will commence in the 2023/24 fiscal year.

* Continuing with the agenda to construct 34 secondary schools of excellence, and construction works for schools in six locations will commence in the 2023/24 fiscal year.

Tertiary level

* Completion of the expansion and rehabilitation of the school of economics at the University of Malawi, including the construction of a 350-seater lecture theater and a 100-seater computer laboratory;

* The construction of the new administration block and teaching complex at LUANAR has also been completed;

* The rehabilitation of two campus hostels and the expansion and upgrading of Domasi College of Education have also been completed;

* Going forward, accelerating the construction of the technical education building at MUBAS, and the administration block at KUHeS, with an expected completion date of 2025;

* Secured funding for the Kamuzu High-Tech University Teaching Hospital, and the industrial park at MUST is at 65% completion;

* Increasing access to tertiary education from 45,809 in 2019 and 55,002 in 2021 to 65,057 in the 2022/2023 academic year, representing a 21.9% increase;

* To continue on this trajectory to achieve our goal of increasing enrolment to 85,000 by 2030;

* In the coming fiscal year, Madam Speaker, we are finally commencing the construction of the Inkosi Ya Makhosi M’mbelwa University.

In the energy sector, Chakwera said the top priority is the provision of reliable electricity for Malawians but “while we were on course in this effort throughout 2021, we suffered a major setback this past year when a third of our power supply was destroyed by tropical storms”.

“We have been working to rectify the situation, and though the deadline to restore the Kapichira Power Plant by the end of the last quarter of 2022 was missed due to concerns for the environment, I am happy to announce that our engineers are on target to restore partial generation of power from the plant by the end of this quarter.

“Meanwhile, the Mozambique-Malawi Interconnector Project, which will allow us to import and export power to the Southern African Power Pool, is now finally underway, with construction having begun in November 2022.

“Even more encouraging is the fact that in June 2022, we commissioned the 20 megawatts Golomoti Power Station with battery energy storage system (BESS). We also secured a US$25 million financing agreement to enable Golomoti Solar to capitalise this investment in solar power generation, as well as similar agreements with Elsewedy and AMEA Power.

“Similarly, the construction of the 21 megawatts Serengeti Solar Power Station in Nkhotakota is near completion and will be commissioned in the coming weeks.

“More broadly, we are increasing access to electricity through in-house wiring for 30,325 low-income households and free electricity connection for 32,325 under Ndawala Initiative through the Rural Electrification Fund.

“We are also increasing access to electricity through grid connection of 180,000 ESCOM customers under the World Bank-funded Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP), to be completed next year, as well as the construction of 16 mini-grids under MEAP, MAREP — the UNDP supported access to clean and renewable energy (ACRE) project, which will connect 200,000 off-grid customers by next year as well.”

On Homeland Security, the President said the top priorities are the improvement of public service delivery by the Malawi Police Service, the Malawi Prison Service, and the Department of Immigration.

“In the year under review, my Administration has recruited and trained 2,974 police officers, of whom 1,737 are male and 1,237 are female. Additionally, 1,500 police constables and 1,984 police officers underwent various national and international trainings to upgrade their skills in modern policing standards, and in the new fiscal year, we are providing resources to enable them recruit and train additional police personnel.”

He also announced that they would be improving the conditions of Malawi prisons, announcing that in the past year, the government constructed new prison holding cells at Mpyupyu and Mzuzu Prisons, sanitation facilities in existing prisons, and began the process towards the construction of a 4,000 capacity Chitedze Maximum Prison in Lilongwe.

“And in the new fiscal year, we are reviewing and bringing forward the Prison Services Bill to create the parole system that will usher in a more fair system for releasing prisoners before they complete their sentences.

In Immigration, he reported progress made in improving service delivery, that include:

* Decentralization of passport services to districts in order to bring the service closer to the general public — being done in Salima, Kasungu, Chikwawa and Mzimba in the new fiscal year;

* Upgrading of passport issuance system and integrating it with the National Registration Bureau;

* Introduction of e-passport system through which 75,400 e-passports have since been issued;

* Refurbishment of the passport offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Mangochi;

* Installation of a passport laboratory at Kamuzu and Chileka International Airports;

* Installation of e-permit processing system in the Blantyre Immigration office, which will also be installed in the other regions in the new fiscal year;

* Streamlining of visa application process to make it easier for people to travel to Malawi.

“On a sad note, Madam Speaker, Malawians were horrified with news in October following the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of close to 30 men.

“There have also been numerous reports of smuggling of goods across the borders, such as legumes, maize and beverages. There is no denying that the porousness of our borders is a threat to our national security, and so my Administration has resolved to strengthen and digitize our border control systems to protect the good we have within our borders and stop the ills that lurk without.”