BULAMO and MASO Germany raising Education bar in Salima District, Malawi.

By Fegson Kondwani Phabuli

Malawi Aids Support Organization (MASO) under BULAMO with financial support from MASO Germany has on Wednesday 20^th October 2021 launched Back to School advocacy campaign as part of the implementation of re-admission policy and officially handed over Kachere primary school at Samala Village, Traditional Authority Kalonga in Salima district.

According to Director for BULAMO, Harriet Tembo Phiri, the initiative intends to see more learners including adults going back to school and accessing quality education.

“This program will help girls even adults to go back to school. In addition, the school has at least helped to shorten the distance considering that Primary schools in the area were very far, therefore, resulting in high levels of school dropouts” she said.

Miss Nasreen Khonat, who was the guest of honour at the event, said education is the master key to unlocking the wealth of the nation, however, pleaded to Members of Parliament, District commissioners, religious bodies and all stakeholders to take and promote education very seriously.

“If we educate a girl, we educate a village, a town, a city and our nation, because girls are our future mothers such that if they are educated, it means that their children will follow suit. This will complement efforts of the government and other stakeholders in ensuring that the whole nation is educated” said Khonat.

Director of Education, Youth and Sports in Salima District, Alfred William Hauya, who was also present at the event, called all relevant stakeholders to join Government in promoting education in Malawi.

Hauya emphasized that the campaign is very significant as far as the education sector is concerned.

“This is very important, one of the challenges in as far as education sector is concerned is dropouts, if you ask those people who cannot be able to read or write, they will tell you at one point or the other that they were in their schools and dropped out either in standard 1 or 2 before they mastered the skills of reading and writing, this is leading to an increase of illiteracy, so we are so excited to have this program, those who dropped out of school can go back to school and access education,” said Hauya.

Forward to the handover of Kachere Primary School, Hauya uttered that classroom infrastructure is the priority and it is included in the district’s education plan.

Traditional Authority Maganga through his speech said as custodians of Culture and education, authorities have a great role in promoting education and ensuring that adults are included.

“Today we were part and parcel of handing over the school block to the community, and as Traditional leaders, our role is to make some sort of by-laws to ensure that our women and girls go back to school” Traditional Authority Maganga said.

The event was attended by different stakeholders including Salima District Commissioner, Senior Chiefs, Global Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Salima Central Constituency Member of Parliament Gerald Kapiseni Phiri and MASO Germany ambassadors.

In order to ensure equitable access and gender parity in education, the government reviewed the readmission policy to ensure equitable access to quality education and completion of primary and secondary education cycles.

The reinforcement of the policy will also contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Malawi Aids Support Organization (MASO) under BULAMO is a non-profit organization steering its operations in Salima district.