Jica trains Lilongwe teachers in computer repairing skills

A Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) volunteer Takaaki Shiraishi on Wednesday trained teachers from 10 secondary schools  in Lilongwe in basic computer repairing.

He said he conducted the day-long training after noting that lack of the computer repairing skills was forcing many secondary schools to dump their computers when they develop minor faults. 

The course was on how to fix minor computer hardware problems and setting up a computer study classroom.

Shiraishi said: “Most schools have computers but these were not in use due to minor issues thereby depriving learners the opportunity to learn information and communication technology [ICT].

“In a digitalised world these days, the citizenry needs to access computers easily for various development programmes.”

He noted that there are many Malawians, especially students, interested in computers, whose main challenge is having access to the gadgets.

One of the participants, Mathias Chipojola from Lilongwe Girls Secondary School, admitted that the school has had many broken computers with faults he believed were minor.

“Now I think I can fix some of them,” he said, adding that 15 out of 28 computers at his school are functional. For several years, Jica, through its Overseas Cooperation Volunteers’ Programme, has been dispatching volunteers to secondary schools in Malawi to work as ICT instructors