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Education keen on upgrading schools

Minister of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) Emmanuel Fabiano says his ministry is committed to improving education standards in the country by providing modern school buildings and facilities.

Fabiano said this during a question-and-answer session in Parliament on Friday, just before the House concluded a nine-week Budget Session in Lilongwe.

Fabiano: That list is not final
Fabiano: That list is not final

He was responding to a question from Lilongwe North-East member of Parliament (MP) Maxwell Thyolera (Malawi Congress Party–MCP) who asked the minister to furnish the House with a list of community day secondary schools (CDSSs) set for upgrading in the country.

The minister said there are eight schools to be upgraded as an on-going process.

Fabiano said the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Union (EU) are currently undertaking mapping out exercises before they also help the government in improving the country’s education infrastructure.

“That list is not final… When development funding organisations, or development partners, come, they select the ones [schools] they want to support from that pool. Therefore, it is not a fixed list, but it can give you the direction of where we are going [strategy-wise],” Fabiano stated.

The minister also put to ease Mchinji North-East MP Alex Chitete (MCP), who had confessed to being “confused” by the ministry’s inter-changeably-used terminologies of upgrading and providing school blocks.

Explained Fabiano: “Upgrading is provision of additional physical resources. Sometimes, it is barely rehabilitation and different development partners will decide the level of  upgrading that they want to provide.”

MoEST Deputy Minister Vincent Ghambi assured Lilongwe Kumachenga MP Marko Ching’onga (Independent) that his request for a new community day secondary school at Pheleni was granted because the new facility will serve five other primary schools surrounding Pheleni itself.

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