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400 Malawian schools benefit from Global Citizenship

ICT is vital to education
ICT is vital to education

At least 400 schools in the country are benefiting from Education and English, a project that aims at assisting young learners to become global citizens.

Speaking during the launch of British Council’s new office on Tuesday in Lilongwe, British Council regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Allan Curry, said the project also provides access to information and communication technology (ICT) services to both learners and teachers.

“Underpinning this work is ICT which provides teachers and learners access to a wide range of classroom and professional development content through web-based platforms.

“Over the past four years, we have established some ICT hubs in all regions of Malawi, which provide a model for use of ICT in education, especially for rural areas,” he said.

He also said British Council recognises that the impact of its work would have no significance without a close working relationship with the Ministry of Education.

He said this year, British Council has aligned its Head teacher School Leadership Programme to solve needs identified by district education managers with whom it works.

He added: “This has also included training some district education managers, a representative from Malawi Institute of Education and another from the Department of Inspection and Advisory Services as facilitators.

“Furthermore, British Council will seek to work with the relevant departments in the ministry to support its strategy in English language in schools”.

Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Mcfeil Magwira described ICT as a significant catalyst if the country is to compete effectively in the globalised world.

He, however, said this should not be a reason classroom teaching methods should be dead and buried.

“The global widespread use of technology does call upon an education that utilises ICT. But one has to underline the fact that by using ICT in education, it does not mean that traditional classroom teaching methods are being replaced by technology.

“Technology will never replace great teaching,” said Magwira.—Mana

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