President Peter Mutharika on Wednesday inaugurated the new K4.6 billion ($8 million) Chiradzulu Teacher Training College (TTC) with a commitment to raise the profile of the teaching profession and provide quality education to children.
The President said children were the most precious treasure of the country’s future; hence, it was significant to remember the foundations set for them.
Mutharika dedicated the new TTC to children “so that we may care for it as we care for our children”.
The project was funded by United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) with support from the Unicef Switzerland National Committee.
Said the President: “Today, a more perfect vision is completed. It highly honours me to come here fulfilling dreams of the people.”
He said it was also his government’s wish to ensure that teachers in the country enjoy their profession just like how engineers and lawyers, among others, do.
The President said his government has embarked on training more teachers to ensure that the country’s current teacher:pupil ratio, which stands at 1:78, is reduced to 1:60 by 2017.
Minister of Education, Science and Technology Emmanuel Fabiano observed that education starts at primary school and that it was important that the country’s teachers are qualified enough and work with desire and dedication as per demands of their work.
He also decried the tendency by some people who join the teaching profession for money other than a calling, arguing such teachers do not work with conviction, a development that, he said, results in compromised quality of produced pupils.
Unicef deputy country representative David Christopher said the construction of the TTC was a strategic investment in the future of the country.
Currently, the college, whose construction finished two months ago, houses 300 new trainee teachers, but will eventually house over 540 when it gets to full capacity.
