Govt decries gender disparities in education
Chief education officer in the Directorate of Teacher Education and development in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Davie Nserebo says gender disparities in education remain a big problem in the country.
Nserebo said this on Friday at Chiradzulu Teachers Training College (TTC) during the closing ceremony of a five-day teachers and lecturers workshop organised by Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi (Fawema) in Chiradzulu.
The week-long workshop was aimed at imparting different teaching skills to teachers and TTC lecturers to ensure that both boys and girls have access to quality education.
Nserebo said experience and statistics show that gender disparities in education result in poor girls’ performance during examinations.
He said: “We are looking at the factors causing this. We are sure that having gone through this training, the lecturers and teachers will implement knowledge and skills they have learnt to ensure that boys and girls in their classes learn the same way.
“We have discussed issues like the need to use gender-responsive language and that teaching and learning materials should depict both males and females in society. We also discussed teaching methodologies, as learners learn differently.”
A facilitator Mary Chalamanda said in a separate interview that the training was a success as participants responded well throughout the workshop.
She said: “They have developed action plans for their respective institutions and these will be monitored by Fawema as well as us facilitators if indeed [they will be] mainstreaming the GRP [gender responsive pedagogy] using their action plan they have developed.”
Fawema information communications technology officer Annette Mainala urged the participants to share the knowledge with their colleagues in their respective institutions.
About 41 teachers and TTC lecturers participated in the workshop and a similar training also happened at Blantyre TCC on the same day.
