Education minister applauds Phalombe teachers, officials for coming out tops in 2018 primary exams

Primary school teachers and education officials in Phalombe district have been patted on the back for outstanding performance, which has seen the district scooping position one in the 2018 Primary School Leaving Certificate Examinations (PSLCE), hitting the highest average score of 93 percent of the nationwide results.

Speaking at Nazombe  Primary School in Chiringa, the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Bright Msaka, applauded teachers and education officials in the district for going beyond the call of duty to ensure that pupils in the south eastern border district get the best of education.

According to available statistics, about 2,903 girls and 4,185 boys registered as candidates in the 2018 primary school examinations, out of which 2,817 girls and 4,120 boys eventually sat for the examinations. Out of these, a total of 2, 500 girls passed, representing 88.75 percentage pass rate, and 3, 962 boys passed the examinations representing 96.17 percent.

Reflecting on the achievement, the minister said was the Phalombe primary school results were not a mere fluke but a sign of hard work, dedication and commitment to duty by the teachers and their supervisors.

According to the minister, Phalombe has been consistent with its high performance because the district has embraced good practices of ensuring quality delivery of work at various levels. In 2016, Phalombe was again on position one, while in 2017 it was on position three.

Apart from teaching learners outside normal official time, teachers in the district conduct classes over the weekends and even during holidays, and do frequent assessment of learners and prepare standardized tests.  Furthermore, Primary Education Advisors (PEAs) and the District Education Manager (DEM) have been undertaking strong oversight through frequent supervision of teachers, tracking the curriculum, facilitating trainings of teachers and head teachers in areas such as management and leadership, frequent monitoring  of  schools and fostering cooperation among PEAs  and the DEM.

“This, in my opinion, is going beyond the call of duty, and I wish to once again congratulate you all for your dedication, hard work and excellence”, Msaka said, adding that the Ministry would use Phalombe as a model of good teaching practice to other districts.

The minister also grabbed the opportunity to appreciate the development work being done by Oxfam and its partners Centre for Alternatives for Victimised Women and Children (CAVWOC) and the Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) in complimenting government’s efforts in enhancing delivery of quality education to learners.

With the support from Comic Relief, the groups are working in 120 primary schools, while the European Union and Oxfam Great Britain are supporting 16 Community Day Secondary Schools. Delivered in 8 districts across the country, this combined work is benefitting about 60,000 learners and over 2, 000 front line workers.

These efforts, the Ministry said, are contributing to the aspirations of the National Girls Education Strategy which the Ministry launched in 2014, whose purpose is to provide a guiding framework for quality girls’ education informed by gender and human rights’ perspectives. The strategy aims at advancing girls education by tackling the barriers that girls face in terms of their participation and access to education.

Oxfam country director John Makina called on other organizations to invest more in the promotion of girls’ access to education, retention and completion of primary, secondary and tertiary education. He said more needs to be done to reduce harmful cultural factors and negative norms that affect girls’ education in the communities.

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