Ministry hails librarians for enhancing development
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has hailed the Malawi Library Association (Mala) for training library professionals through its one-year library and information science certificate course.
Speaking when he presided over the 2017/18 Mala graduation ceremony on Friday in Lilongwe, the ministry’s director of technical services Godfrey Kafere said librarians play an important role in providing relevant information that guides the pillars of Malawi’s growth and development.
He said: “Achieving milestones in key areas of agriculture, health, education, population, skills development, among others, relies heavily on the provision of reliable and relevant information, a role which is played by librarians.”
Kafere said for the country to develop, there is need to develop the capacity for information managers who would facilitate quality information service.
He applauded Mala for taking steps to come up with standards for various types of libraries available in the country.
On his part, Mala president Gift Kadzamira asked the graduating students to always look ahead and continue with their studies from the certificate level.
She said: “I urge you to continue learning, which makes one to flexibly respond to change and proactively develop confidence that will make you survive in collaborative learning.”
Kadzamira asked the graduates to work together in building better libraries using the skills they have acquired.
From 52 students who enrolled for the course in the 2017/18 academic year, 41 qualified for the certificate, including 20 women.
