Community for technical education in schools

Some people in Mzimba District have asked Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) to introduce technical subjects in the country’s education curriculum.

The contributions follow ongoing consultations to review the country’s education curriculum for pre-primary school, primary, secondary and teacher training colleges.

Last week, MIE held consultation meetings with stakeholders in the district to solicit their input.

In random interviews on Monday, some said the country’s education curriculum was biased towards theoretical subjects.

Esnart Banda of Luwerezi said most children just learn to pass examinations.

“We need to devise a curriculum that will include technical education,” she said.

On his part, Alexander Phiri said students should start learning textile designing at primary and secondary schools.

“With the levels of unemployment in Malawi, we need to start offering technical subjects on tailoring and bricklaying,” he said.

In his contribution, Lawrent Chalira said pupils in primary school should start learning about non-communicable diseases.

Annette Chikuse, a teacher at Mzimba Secondary School, said apart from the need to offer technical education, she feels students are learning a lot of subjects.

“As a teacher, I feel students in secondary are learning a lot of subjects. Imagine some learn up to 14. We need to reduce the subjects by combining some. For example, chemistry and physics can revert to physical science and life skills and social studies can become one subject,” she said.

In an interview, MIE public relations officer Moses Mailos said the consultations seek to get views on what people feel is right to go into the curriculum.

He said people’s views will be incorporated when developing the new curriculum.

“There is also need to align the curriculum with the country’s long-term development strategy, Malawi 2063,” said Mailos.