Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has called upon private sector to make their contributions towards investing in education technology in order to improve access as well as quality of education services in the country.
CSEC chairperson Dr. Limbani Nsapato made the calls on Thursday in Lilongwe during private sector engagement focusing on responsive corporate social responsibility through E-tech in Malawi.
According to Nsapato, despite Government’s efforts to ensure that digitalization is implemented in all the schools but there’s still limited access to internet and use of technology in schools due to lack of funds in the ministry of education hence the calls to private sector to bridge the gap.
“As CSEC we have noted that there’s limited access and use of technology in schools and emis study of 2022 showed that only 1.9 percent of the schools are offering lessons in ICT but also only two percent of schools have connection to internet so it means there’s limited access and yet government would like to ensure that we have digitalization that is implemented in all schools”
“Again we have noticed that the ministry of education has limited funding to invest in technology and especially E-tech and we feel that the private sector can bridge and minimize that gap by making their contributions towards investing in education technology in that way we can improve access as well as quality of education services” said Nsapato
Furthermore, Nsapato said since we are in 21st century where Edu-tech us currency, having limited access it means there’s also limitation of capacity of human resource that is needed to ensure social economic development.
He added by appealing to various stakeholders including the private sector to play their rightful role to build the capacity and ensure that there’s more access and build the human power needed to engineer the development that is required in Malawi 2063 and other socio-economic issues.
On her part, Director for Secondary Education Florida Banda said despite challenges but government is working tirelessly to improve access to technology in schools.
Banda said the ministry of education has set up open distance and e-learning directorate which is focusing on issues of Edu-tech as well as establishing laboratories with support from partners that are going to enhance edu-tech in the country.
Banda further advised all partners to invest into education sector through the ministry of education for the monitoring purposes of resources.
“There’s need for us to monitor if the resources that are put in there are used for the intended purposes, what we need to do is to strengthen the coordination between the ministry and partners that are working with us so everybody who goes into education sector is known, we should know the resources that they have invested but at the same time we need to know by the end of the year how much the private sector has invested interms of Edu-tech” she said
Employers Association of Malawi (ECAM) through Director George Khakhi said it’s the duty of the corporate world to ensure that the citizens of the country are educated by pouring support to different initiatives in the education sector such us edu-tech.
The private sector engagement on responsive corporate social responsibility was attended by several organizations including Save the Children, Teachers Union of Malawi, World Vision International, Girls activist youth organization , FAWEMA, Oxfarm, and Action Aid Malawi.
