APM seeks Brooklyn support for Malawi education sector

State President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika on Monday met directors of the Brooklyn Institute in United States where among others he lobbied for total support towards Malawi’s education sector.

Brooklyn Institute is one of the leading policy centers focused on universal quality education in the developing world as well as conducting research on education and financing of the sector.

President Mutharika said the support will help his government to continue prioritising relevant, accessible and high-quality education that will propels Malawian youth to a better livelihood.

The President made the plea when he met with the directors in Washington DC where he is on an official visit.

Mutharika said currently his administration is developing a new curriculum whose emphasis is on science and technology, to make education more responsive to the changes the world is going through.

“I must say Malawi is doing well so far, despite the many challenges that exist since we introduced free primary education,” he disclosed.

“We have already opened the Malawi University of Science and Technology-MUST and construction of the Mombera University, an Animal Science training institution is set to begin soon,” he added.

He however said the challenges that hound the education sector stem from the fact that the country introduced free primary education with less thought on classroom and bed space.

“We need now to increase the number of schools, classroom, hostels and especially for girls, we need to facilitate sanitation-friendly hostels which will help keep them in school.”

“These require financing and as government we are looking at ways of how we can find resources to fund these activities, plus staffing for the new schools, Universities and community colleges that we are establishing,” added President Mutharika.

In her remarks, Associate Director of Operations at the Brooklyn Institute Jennifer Gamble said through various researches that their organization conducts; they will look at how Malawi can best mobilize resources to fund its education priorities.

“This year is a year of opportunity as we are looking at what has been achieved in the past years. We will review the progress made and how we can finance future projects,” she said.

“We will help Malawi to see how the government can get finances both from public and private financers and use them effectively,” she added.

The next meeting on global financing for education is scheduled to take place in Norway in July this year, where global leaders, institutions and other stakeholders will meet to discuss the post-2015 education goals and how they can achieve success.

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