Early childhood quality worries Save the Children

Save the Children International says early childhood development (ECD), quality of teaching and learning remain core challenges in the country.

The organisation’s senior manager (education) Lexon Ndalama said despite the political will that has so far been demonstrated, much more needs to be done to upgrade the situation.

“There is need to pay more attention to ECD to ensure that children are learning in better environments. Learning environments for most community-based childcare centres [CBCCs] is bad,” Ndalama said in an interview.

He also observed that lack of adequate training for volunteers and support to CBCCs continue to muffle ECD improvement.

Currently, just about 30 percent of Malawian children have access to ECD services, with nearly 100 percent of the human resources in CBCCs working on voluntary basis.

Save the Children International has been implementing a four-year United States Agency for International Development (Usaid)-funded capacity support for ECD and Psychosocial Support (C-SEP) in Zomba, Blantyre and Chiradzulu.

Among other benefits, children who participate in ECD have proved to score highly in primary school than those who do not.

Through knowledge and skills gained during capacity building sessions, their health has changed through the nutritious food which they receive while at CBCCs.

Beneficiaries of the C-SEP project included children aged zero to 18 years.