CRECCOM says Malawi women involvement vital in early literacy

Using women in the community to enhance early learning is a viable strategy in upping literacy levels in the country, Creative Centre for Community Mobilization (CRECCOM) has said.

According to CRECCOM executive director George Jobe trained mother groups can reach out better to fellow women through “door to door campaign and person to person communications because women are hardworking, dedicated and they do not give up easily.”

Jobe said his organization in collaboration with the Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) will implement village reading centers to be run by mothers in Chiradzulu district.

The project, Strengthening Early Grade Reading in Malawi (Segrem) is with funding from USAID and will target children from Standard One to Four.

“It will use village reading centers to keep children busy with school activities,” said Jobe.

So far, Segrem has conducted capacity building training sessions for mother groups in the district for smooth implementation of the project.

According to Clara Malikula, one of the mothers, they “will enlighten parents and guardians on the importance of education, especially for the girl child.”

She added: “We will work with village headmen and other stakeholders so that those who do not comply with the bylaws of sending children to school must be punished.”

A 2010 study in Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) indicated that 69 percent of Standard Four learners could not answer a question correctly because of inability to read.

SEGREM project which will run for three years and is being implemented in Dedza, Mchinji and Chiradzulu districts.

It targets 519 primary schools and their communities in the three districts and is expected to reach out to 329,860 Standard One to Four learners.

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