K394bn needed for digital education

 Ministry of Education says it needs K394 billion to fully implement digitisation to expand access to education nationwide.

Speaking yesterday at Mponela in Dowa

 where Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec), in partnership with other civil society organisations, held a budget engagement meeting with members of Parliament (MPs), the ministry’s director of Science, Technology and Innovation Chomora Mikeka said government planned to scale up digital education so that it covers all schools and benefits more learners.

He said Malawi needs to catch up with what other countries are doing in the use of technology in the education sector.

Mikeka said : “ It is important to do so because we want to have expanded access to education so that everyone else is being reached out to have opportunity for education.

“This will be useful even in the times of pandemics as we have seen, but also climatic tragedies as we are seeing with Tropical Storm Ana, Damuco and Gombe.”

He said digital laboratories and libraries would be set up and that equipment such as computers, smartphones, tablets and others would also be bought to enable learners use digital platforms.

Government is promoting the education technology (Ed-Tech) as one of the measures to expand access to education, improve its quality and promote use of technology in the country.

The process started in 2021 and is being implemented in phases.

Mikeka said to fully implement the programme, Malawi Government would need K394 billion.

He admitted that raising the amount would not be easy and that there will be need for joint efforts to meet the target.

“To kick-start the plans, the ministry needs K2 billion, but government has only allocated K581million. The programme is planned to be implemented in phases and it was rolled out in 2021,” he said.

Parliamentary Committee on Education chairperson Brainax Kaise said digital education was key to promoting quality education Malawi; hence, the need to promote it.

He said the committee would help lobby for funding to ensure that digital education is implemented.

Csec programes manager Kisa Kumwenda hailed MPs for showing commitment to lobby for funding for the project.

“Education is key to development and must be supported,” he said