Ministry empowers primary school heads
Ministry of Education director for teacher education and development Zizwa Msukuma says government is geared to impart leadership skills to primary school heads and deputies to improve performance.
He said this on Saturday during the opening of a 10-day leadership training of 414 head teachers, deputies and section heads from Karonga District.
“The training seeks to strengthen the capacity of school leaders that include head teachers and their deputies, female sectional heads and primary education advisers to address school and zone management gaps as most of them assumed their positions without formal leadership training.” said Msukuma.
He said the training focused on four modules of creating a positive and inclusive culture towards vulnerable children, including girls, supporting improved morale and performance of teachers and supervising the construction of low-cost classrooms to ensure compliance with climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
Ngara Primary School head teacher Vetta Chilongo said the training was an eye-opener.
“The training modules are easy to understand and we hope to acquire knowledge to transform our school’s performance and promote inclusive cultures towards vulnerable children, including girls,” she said.
Fulirwa Zone primary education adviser Kenan Kabango said the training was fruitful as every school and zone requires competent and skillful leaders to perform well.
He said: “If we talk of Malawi 2063 development agenda, we talk of enablers that can help to create inclusive wealth and a self-reliant nation. And if we are to achieve that, we have to begin with our education system whose leaders are knowledgeable.”
With funding from the World Bank, the ministry is implementing a School Leadership Programme under Malawi Education Reform Programme (Merp) to equip head teachers with skills on how to build inclusive cultures in schools, creating, managing and using school resources to motivate teachers.
Merp replaced Malawi Education Sector in 2021 after it had trained 1 900 leaders and their deputies while Merp seeks to train 10 200 leaders across the country.
Last week, the ministry also engaged head teachers from the Central Region.
