Concerned with how Covid-19 has affected the education sector, stakeholders say there is a need to come up with a strategy to rebuild the system.
The donor community, government and the NGO sector observed a joint sector review meeting in Lilongwe.
The joint sector review meeting is part of the stakeholders’ efforts to rebuild an education system shattered by COVID 19.
Since the global pandemic hit the world two years ago, the education sector is one of those areas that has suffered the brunt of the disease.
Minister of Education Agnes NyaLonje admitted that the sector is still facing numerous challenges that have been compounded by Covid-19.
She said out of 4.9 million students 400 thousand students did not turn up due to covid 19. The minister said as a ministry they are doing everything possible to trace them back and avoid the recurrence of the problem.
She however said some of the problems are cross-cutting and need a multi-sectoral approach.
“We can attribute some of the challenges to the outbreak of Covid-19 but as a ministry, we are doing everything possible to deal with the problems,” NyaLonje said.
Held under the theme ‘building back education systems and leaving no one behind in the Covid 19 recovery process’, the meeting brought together key players in the donor community, government and the NGO sector.
Executive director of the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Benedicto Kondowe said to motivate teachers to remain focused amidst Covid 19, government and development partners must consider issues of housing and hardship allowances in their projects.
Kondowe said attention should also be paid to special needs education.
“Some of the things that we have highlighted include the construction of teachers houses and hardship allowance to teachers living in rural areas.
“The issue of neglecting students with special needs has been coming out every year but no proper solution has been reached, ” Kondowe said.