Edukans Foundation committed to promoting basic education in Malawi

Edukans Foundation, a Dutch organization that focuses on the promotion of basic education, says it is committed to complementing the Malawi government’s efforts aimed at promoting the quality of basic education via a range of innovations such as training of teachers in leadership, active teaching and learning methodologies.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of an exchange program between the Dutch and Malawian teachers called The World Teacher recently in Lilongwe, Edukans Foundation country representative Limbani Nsapato described innovations, resourcefulness and passion as pillars of improving the quality of basic education in Malawi.

“As Edukans Foundation, we echo our commitment to complement the Malawi government’s efforts aimed at improving the quality of basic education in Malawi. The World Teacher exchange program of the Edukans is one of the initiatives that is instrumental to empowering teachers with leadership skills to overcome challenges facing their schools and school-going children,” said Nsapato.

The closing ceremony of the World Teacher program saw 116 teachers from Netherlands and Malawi receiving certificates for participating in the innovative program. In Lilongwe, the pilot programme has been implemented in six Star programmed schools of Kalumbu, Mchuchu, Mtenthera, Nkhoma, Sonkhwe and Mwatibu.

The World Teacher program was implemented through Education Expertise Development Foundation (EEDF), which is currently implementing the Edukans Foundation-supported Star-School Program in over 20 schools across the country. Among other notable components of the Star School program are the promotion of Active Teaching and Learning methodologies, and Gender Responsive Pedagogy (GRP).

“The idea of active learning and teaching is to remodel the teaching and learning proficiency to ensure that it is attractive, cheerful and learner-centered while ensuring that the learning environment is conducive. Basically, our programme seeks to improve the teaching and learning environment so that it enhances the learners’ ability to think critically, grasp and apply knowledge and skills in a real-life situation,” said Robert Mponela, EEDF director.

According to the leader of the World Teacher program of Edukans, trainer Arie De Bruin, Critical Friends is another concept introduced within the Star School program to promote leadership skills aimed at solving problems such as absenteeism which are faced by many schools.

Head teacher of Sonkhwe Primary School Lemison Solomon in Lilongwe rural said the concept of the Critical Friends has helped his school to come up with new strategies such as roll calls, door-to-door campaign and teacher-parent dialogues to curb absenteeism among learners.

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