Investing in Technology Assisted Learning (TAL) has been described as vital tool in achieving human capital development capital if properly implemented in the education sector.
Minister of Education Agnes NyaLonje said in Lilongwe on Wednesday during the launch of the Malawi Priorities Project (MPP): A Cost Benefit Analysis for Policy Prioritisation that investing in TAL, especially at the foundation level, has a lot of returns.
MPP is a research based collaborative project implemented by the National Planning Commission (NPC) with technical assistance from the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and the Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC) to identify and promote the most effective interventions that addresses Malawi’s developmental aspirations.
The project seeks to provide government with a systematic process to prioritise the most effective policy solutions to maximise social, environmental and economic benefits on every Kwacha invested.
NyaLonje said it is for that reason that there is need for targeted interventions such as TAL that would lead to gains on every resource spent.
“The research says there is potential in investing in TAL as we will achieve more on every Kwacha that we spend. As such, we are encouraged to stick to the plan that is based on evidence we stand a chance of achieving genuine development in the education system,” she said.
She said through the analysis, government has an opportunity to use evidence of what works and what benefits it would offer when making decisions and choices for policy directions hence giving government potential to implement interventions that have the most benefits.
“The analysis gives us an informed choice of what to do and how best it will work. It has strengthened Ministry of Education’s choices of things which need resources and fixing to move positively with education by helping to determine what to do and that which has the most multiplier effect,” she said.
NPC Projects Coordinator for MPP, Salim Ahmed Mapila said one of the key enablers of the Malawi 2063 is human capital development and one of the ways that the country can achieve that is by being innovative focusing on the foundation parts of the education system especially from Standards one to five.
“One of the best innovative ways is to digitalise our education system. That innovativeness is really a great push towards giving us the necessary human capital that we need to achieve our long term development agenda,” he said.
Mapila hailed Ministry of Education for moving ahead by implementing the TAL innovation.
It is expected that the digital innovation will be launched throughout the country by November, 2023.
