Mutharika says a college every district: ‘Education will transform Malawi economy’
President Peter Mutharika has said the goal of developing Malawi’s economy can only be met with the right education system, saying there cannot be growth without skilled labour.
Mutharika said this in Mponela, Dowa on Friday when he presided over regional launch of Community Colleges.
“The whole idea of community technical colleges was born in the spirit of waging war against poverty and to raise living standards of our communities,” said Mutharika.
Government has already opened 11 community colleges, and the President said more will soon open in every district will have its community technical college.
Mutharika said a complete education system must teach the whole human being, that is the mind, the heart and the hand hence the establishment of the Community Technical Colleges as part of a comprehensive education to equip the youth with appropriate skills so that the country becomes a producing and exporting nation.
“These colleges are part of a comprehensive education that teaches us to do things more than know things. It is the education of the people that drives us to move forward with the rest of our youths and our communities. This is a fundamental paradigm shift and a cornerstone of economic transformation,” said Mutharika.
The President further said the program has received overwhelming response and support from international community as a result the country was nominated as a pilot country among only four countries in the world to champion skills development.
He said Malawi as a nation should start living the pillars of progress mentioning patriotism, integrity and hard work emphasizing that hard work is a secret behind every human achievement and national prosperity.
Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa MP said the Community colleges in the country are now 11 in total and offering six courses from Carpentry and Joinery, Brick lying, Welding, Plumbing to Textile Design Tailoring.
He further said there plans of expansion to other courses like Cosmetology that specializes on human beauty to reach public demand of helping more women to become self dependency.
Over 300 Malawian youths have since enrolled for the community colleges in Dedza, Karonga, Nkhotakota, Dowa and Mzimba.—Additional reporting by Mana
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Dzuka Malawi iwe dzuka!
Patriotism?When you shed 99.999999999999% of your teeth abroad!kkkkkkkkk!thanks
Education should begin at primary school level. Without well trained primary school teachers and decent schools fully equipped with the basic learning facilities and materials there is little hope of developing the country. These community technical colleges will be a non-starter without a decent primary education. APM thrives on pipe dreams! He wants the country to run before it can walk.
Matelala ndi makalipentala ali mbwembwembwe m’mizimu ndipo ntchito zimachita kuwasowa. Ndiye awa ntchito zogwira azazipeza kuti? This project just shows lack of foresight. Malawi so-called leaders are just useless.
In this day and age a whole state President visiting welders and tailors with a simple sewing machine. This chap is a primitive local authority. Not Head of State
Kamuzu did this in the 70s.
Patriotism or enslavement? What good will patriotic hard working Malawians gain when all harvest of their sweat is milked and embezzled by a few greedy at the top? Patriotism should start from the executive top and trickle down to the community masses. Institute prudent financial management and accountability for the benefit of all Malawians. Just tell me, how many teachers, nurses or even doctors should have been paid from the money that has been squandered on this whole useless crap of launching community colleges? Really, do we need these useless launching activities? Patriotism, my foot!
The concept is good but do we have enough competent Teachers to teaching in all these Colleges otherwise we need:
(a) To have enough Teachers to be teaching both Theory as well as Practicals on the subjects we are offering.
(b) Enough Workshop equipment and materials for practical lessons for students to be doing the practice on. Most of our current colleges are lacking these equipment and materials.
(c) Accommodation for these Teachers and students.
(d) we should lessons from free primary education which had a lot of challenges.
This is what is called being practical.The problem with many Malawians is that they fear self employment due to laziness
Someone has said skills without capital to start business with will not help. I agree with him. I add that without adequate demand for goods and services to be supplied by the businesses to be started by these artisans nothing much will happen. Peter Mutharika and Henry Mussa need to understand self employment and availability of jobs depends on adequate demand for the goods and services to be supplied.
Establishment of a community college even at every village without a corresponding favourable economic conditions won’t bring anything positive. You can have highly skilled people but if people have no money to buy their products then they will go back to vending.