US to invest $90 million to keep Malawi girls in school
The United States government plans to invest USD 90 Million for construction of secondary school classrooms with a goal of keeping girls in school and reducing high HIV prevalence rate among youths in Malawi.
US Ambassador to Malawi Virginia Palmer said this on the sidelines of a national symposium on youth sexual reproductive health rights held in Lilongwe recently.
“The US government will spend this money in the next five years and the amount is enough to transform lives of many children by accommodating them in secondary schools,” Palmer said.
The financial assistance follows the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial task force for adolescent girls and young women education strategy by President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika in December last year.
Palmer said her country is working with the Malawi government in programmes promoting adolescent and girl-child education.
“We want children to complete every level of education so that they can delay marriage, delay sexual debut, graduate and be successful. I believe if Malawi can keep all its children and adolescent girls in secondary and be a model for Africa,” she said adding that this will also help in reducing their risks to HIV infection.
Palmer said it is worrying that the cycle of the infection is involving most young girls who get HIV from older partners and in turn infect their young counterparts when married.
She said programmes like the adolescent and girl-child education can help break the cycle of the epidemic.
Palmer expressed optimism that Malawi will be committed to embark on the whole-of-girl-approach which the US government has started to work on which entails taking care of the needs of the girl in multiple facets.
The National Youth Council of Malawi was the organizer of the national symposium dubbed “Coordination of Adolescents and Youth Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and HIV Programmes in Malawi.”
I think the West, things they do for us despite what they, govt and activists think; I have taught at all levels of education in this country. The problem is not to keep the girls in school but what they do there. The Malawi attitude and philosophy or whatever you may is simply erroneous, outrageous and retrogressive; for example the law is clear; three munthus per seat yet people allow themselves to seat four, why? We don’t want to take responsibilities. Students preparing for exams discuss how to beat the system through likasa and in classrooms they are on Facebook or whats app; even adults in offices are on this whats app. Do you think thats what happens in the rapidly developing countries or the West. Magufuli has it right in his Tanzania and I never held any of his folk complain (have come from the boarder today). When Lecturers are preparing for class some are heard praying for success and students pray b4 wring exams; when rains fail we organise national prayers for the same; simply asking God here a mathematically not true and irrational. Do you mean deserts are a devil creation? The guys who came up with the ideas for social media do not pray for them to succeed, I guess not. Malawians do not report a guy they see destroying road signs, stealing water pipes etc just to maintain good family ties, wana wake wangasuzika in tumbuka (his children may suffer). Do we cue for anything here hence the stampede we all know. Who takes the blame? The Director and to some the president or Lomwes , afiti awakhwimira. The girls or boys when they go to school do they work hard or just overdo everything I have said. The girls these days want it the easier way helped by lecturers, teachers who by western standards are not even fit for anything in the education system because of their lack of integrity. Money at whatever level in Malawian is the problem, atchena is the talk of any of them. There are no equipments and chemicals in labs in schools or college, every day modern machines are being developed but Malawian teachers/lecturers and schoolars are saying are u on the whats upp group for the class? The ideas on these are wrong, call me traditional I want care but I bet being trained by Dr Banda as a small youngman none of my students miss a make up class, fail to know of class cancellation or submit an ssignments late or fail do so without a sound reason. The mindset should by right and is built into them and it does’nt need money to do that. We need labs with equipments and chemicals in the institutions not these rotten ideas of activists and also because that’s not what you are doing there. Not even the 50:50 campaign. No woman American president has been a woman, it’s not a priority, advance if you are capable not because of gender; the unlucky boys are forgotten in this equation. Practicallity and responsibility not useless money should help us in this.