By Esther Saka and Catherine Musyani:
In a bid to empower the adult Malawian, the Ministry of Gender, Children Disability and Social Welfare partnered with DVV International with technical and financial assistance from the German government on Thursday July 2 launched a lifelong learning campaign called ‘kuphunzira sikumatha’ in Lilongwe.
Principal Secretary in the ministry, Esmie Kainja said this campaign is a diversion from the earlier form of adult learning called Adult Literacy Education (ALE) which mainly focused on reading and counting monies but this form is more encompassing.
“This lifelong learning called ‘ kuphunzira sikumatha’ is skill based learning like focusing on skills gained environmental issues and climate change, digitization, human rights, gender and many more. With this diversified approach it means that it is a need based learning that will transform lives.
“If you are in business and you need skills in entrepreneurship that will help you in modern world, how to find markets, this learning will help to transform that human being to sustain himself,” she said.
Head of Cooperation of the German Embassy in Malawi Andreas Hartmann echoed the Principal Secretary’s remarks by underscoring the importance of the campaign, saying lifelong learning has become an integral part of international development objectives.
He said: “It is no longer a “nice to have”, but it is something all governments should aim for. Lifelong learning should be the basis of any education system, meaning in practice that all areas of the education system speak to each other and that learning for all ages can be ensured.
“In Malawi, the numbers of adults who have not attended school or who dropped out of school at an early age are still large. It is the responsibility of all of us to address the education needs of this target group meaningfully, especially in a time with rapid changes and constant challenges.”
He added saying that lifelong learning will help to transform families and communities and, ultimately, to the realisation of plans, development goals and visions – at both national and international levels.
“Realizing the importance of this, the German government has pumped in1.3 million Euros (approximately MK2.6 billion) for a period of three years through DVVI to the Government of Malawi to achieve the Social Development Goal (SDG) 13, which is the goal on climate change, which explicitly mentions education, awareness-raising and human capacity-building as part of its targets and means of implementation. Concepts such as lifelong learning and education for sustainable development will be crucial to the adoption of urgent measures to combat climate change and its impacts,” he said.
DVV International is German funded organisation that supports the Malawian Government in enhancing adult learning.
