Government to develop legislation to make primary school education compulsory

By Duncan Mlanjira

President Lazarus Chakwera says the Government is committed to ensuring that every child goes to school, stays in school, and finishes school and one way to achieve this is by passing legislation and developing guidelines for implementing the Tonse Alliance manifesto promise to make primary school education compulsory.

Chakwera said this in his first State of Nation Address (SONA) made in Parliament on Friday, saying he believes that education is a catalyst for national development, so long as it is accessible and has quality.

“As the world forges ahead into the future, we cannot afford to leave any child behind,” he said. “I am aware that many of the children in our country have no good school near them to attend.

“For that reason, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure that all schools have modern classroom blocks, teaching and learning materials and, most importantly, qualified teachers.

“To push us towards this goal, we will speed up the completion of all new primary schools and classroom blocks.”

This, he said, includes 14 urban primary schools and over 500 classrooms currently under construction, whose progress is at 60 percent; 13 Community Day Schools at 35 percent and 100 laboratories and libraries nationwide whose progress is at 50 percent.

Also on board are 100 girls’ hostels and many secondary schools under the Secondary Education Expansion Development (SEED) Project.

“Regarding secondary schools in general, our manifesto promised to bring back the Junior Certificate Examinations, and now that we are here, it will be done.

“Also promised was the removal of the Quota system, and I want to assure all Malawians that while the previous Administration made sure that its Quota system was gone, my Administration will make sure that it is dead.”

In the area of tertiary education, Chakwera said the government is assessing funding proposals for the construction of Inkosi Mbelwa University for the study of animal science, as well as the establishment of Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences.

“Meanwhile, my Administration will increase enrolment in universities from 36,000 in the 2019/20 academic year to nearly 48,000 in the 2020/21 academic year.

“The construction of three Teacher Training Colleges for training primary school teachers in Mchinji, Rumphi, and Chikwawa will also be done in the coming year, alongside Domasi College of Education with support from JICA.

“The training of teachers will also include 200 Special Needs Teachers at Machinga TTC. More broadly, though, I am thrilled to announce that my Administration is on course to open all COVID-19 compliant schools next week.”