Malawi govt struggling to improve literacy –Education Minister
Government says literacy is vital although a majority of Malawians can’t read and write due to various challenges, chiefly resources.
Education minister Eunice Kazembe told the gathering at the 2012 National Literacy Conference on Wednesday, that: “Government’s efforts including the free primary school initiative have done little to improve literacy.”
The teacher-student ratio is enormous and resources such as books and other teaching and learning tools add to the challenge.
This conference provides opportunity for the “country specific framework to help Malawi achieve greater literacy. Several initiatives are being explored to apply appropriate language of instruction”.
About 79% of children aged between 8-9 years cannot read and write. Low performance, lack of basic tools/skills challenge progress.
There is little progress on how learners acquire skills, a challenge to all pilot innovations promoting literacy.
Issues being tackled include teacher training and instructional materials.
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