Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima has today launched Forum for African Women Educationists Malawi (FAWEMA) strategic plan for 2024-2028 and the Mastercard Found Phase II project at an event held on Friday at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Speaking at the event, the minister expressed her excitement over the launch describing the initiative as a champion for young people's empowerment. She therefore urged leaders to challenge themselves and play a vital role in empowering and preparing the young people for the future as a better Malawi can only be built by investing in young people through skills development.

The minister also stated that the initiatives allign very well with the principal strategy for development in Malawi, the MW2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. She also said the youths are the central in the equation of successful implementation of the country's vision as they form the largest part of the Malawi's population.

"We cannot build a better Malawi without deliberately investing in building a strong skills-base from our young people, including the underprivileged and those with disabilities as well as the refugees among us. As a people, we need to support FAWEMA`s efforts to give hope and a future to these young and dynamic minds," she said.

Wirima was also excited with the fact that the project has come immediately after this year's Ministry of Education Joint Sector Review (JSR) and that among others it has Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as it's priority area.

By supporting girls in STEM at tertiary level as way of increasing the gender parity Index from 0.065 to 0.9 by the year 2030, the initiative is said to have already started responding to some of the recommendations made during the just ended JSR.

In her concluding remarks, the minister applauded FAWE, FAWEMA and the Mastercard Foundation for their commitment to supporting the efforts of the Government

By Mphatso Nkuonera, PRO

Ministry of Education has officially launched Batch 17 of the School Leadership Training Programme (SLP) today at the Malawi Sun Hotel in Blantyre, gathering 187 school leaders from across the country to enhance their skills and improve educational outcomes.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Principal Secretary Responsible for Basic Education, Dr. Rachel Chimbwete Phiri emphasised the importance of this training within the framework of the Malawi Education Reform Programme (MERP).

"The main objective of MERP is to improve the learning environment for students in lower primary across all government schools," she stated.

This batch of training aims to support a general objective of training 10,200 school leaders from all 34 education districts in Malawi, encompassing 7,800 headteachers and deputy headteachers, 2,000 female section heads, and 400 primary education advisors and inspectors.

Since the implementation of the SLP in November 2022, under the partnership of the Ministry of Education, the School of Education of the University of Malawi, and the Malawi Institute of Education, a total of 10,165 school leaders have already completed the programme across 16 batches. These numbers include 7,613 headteachers and deputy headteachers, which leaves a shortfall of 187 that this batch aims to address.

Conversely, the programme exceeded its target for female section heads, with 2,279 trained instead of the planned 2,000.

To foster gender equity in leadership roles, the Ministry has ensured that the majority of participants in Batch 17 are female headteachers and deputy headteachers, representing various education districts, including Chitipa, Karonga, Mzimba South and North, Nkhata Bay, Blantyre Urban and Rural, Chikwawa, Mwanza, and Nsanje.

Training sessions are being conducted across several locations: Malawi Sun Hotel, AAUCHA. Training sessions are being conducted across several locations: Malawi Sun Hotel, AAUCHA Lodge in Mzuzu, Tulipoka Lodge in Chitipa, and St Kizito Conference Centre in Chitipa.

Chimbwete outlined key objectives of the SLP, which include: promoting positive and inclusive school cultures for vulnerable children, improving teachers' morale and performance .#Education IsKey.

The Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima on Monday, 28th October 2024, officially opened the Technical and Advisory Meeting(TAM) of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE II) Project. The Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) is a series of World Bank-funded projects, through loans and grants, that aim at building the capacity of Africa’s higher education institutions in priority areas of the economy including Agriculture, Health, Industry, Education, among others. The focus is on postgraduate education and applied research that address critical gaps in human capital and innovation in science and technology.

The first phase of the project (ACE I) was launched in 2014 in West and Central Africa, while the second phase (ACE II) was launched in 2016 in Eastern and Southern Africa. This phase was extended in 2022 when the World Bank gave additional funding to Malawi and Mozambique on request from His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi. Under this project Malawi has established six(6) ACEs - three(3) at LUANAR and one(1) each at KUHeS, MZUNI and UNIMA as follows:

1. Aquaculture and Fisheries Science Center of Excellence (AQUAFISH) at LUANAR;
2. African Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Policy Analysis (APA) at LUANAR;
3. Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agriculture Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (TACE)
4. African Centre of Excellence in Public Health and Herbal Medicine (ACEPHEM) at KUHeS;
5. African Centre of Excellence in Underutilized and Neglected Biodiversity (ACENUB) at MZUNI; and
6. Centre for Resilient Agri-food Systems (CRAFS) at UNIMA.

Every year, the Inter-University Council for East and Southern Africa (IUCEA) who are the project's Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) organize TAM meetings rotated in the host countries to review the ACE II project and identify strategies to enhance project performance and impact. TAM was last held in Malawi in 2019.

TAM will run for three days from 28th to 30th October, 2024.

The high level meeting has drawn participants from Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius, USA, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, just to mention but a few.

As the World Teachers' Day Commemoration is underway at Bingu International Conference Center (BICC), the Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima is now awarding certificates to the best primary and secondary teachers and teacher educators from all districts across the country.

A total of 204 primary and secondary teachers and 28 teacher educators have been awarded at this occasion.

With support from Plan Malawi, every awardee from the category of the Best of the Best will receive a sum of three hundred thousand (K300,000) as the prize being outstanding in the year.

Speaking prior to the award presentation ceremony, Foster Mkandawire who represented the Plan International Malawi's Director, Mwaphi Mlumbi said the organisation has so much interest to invest in education. He therefore applauded teachers whom he said they act as parents because nowadays students spend more time at school than at home.

Diffrent from the past year, when the organisation was only awarding best female teachers, Mkandawire said this year's ceremony has corrected it's mistake and has now accomodated male teachers too and promised to continue awarding these teachers in the upcoming years.

Eventually, the minister announced a new initiative in which November has been named the National Education Month an annual event on Malawi’s national calendar that will be dedicated to celebrating achievements, addressing challenges, and fostering dialogue around the future of education in Malawi.