Ministry empowers primary school leaders
Ministry of Education, through its Malawi Education Reform Programme (Merp), has empowered primary school leaders from Lilongwe and Salima with leadership skills.
Speaking on Saturday during the opening of a school leadership programme in Mponela, Dowa, Merp coordinator Grace Milner said the training sought to build the leaders’ capacity in managerial skills to effectively improve performance in their schools.
She said: “We want to build the capacity and managerial skills of head teachers, deputy head teachers and female section leaders because when the school leadership is better and that leaders know what to do, it means that the school will also perform well.
“We can achieve better learning outcomes if we have a better school management.”
Milner, who is also the ministry’s director of basic education, said the training programme includes mobilising school resources, building an inclusive culture, improving teacher motivation and rewarding teachers’ performance.
Likuni Boys Primary School head teacher Matthews Magwaza said the training was relevant as most of them were appointed to leadership positions without the skills.
“This leadership programme will help us to run our schools better because we will have more knowledge and skills on how to handle different aspects of our schools,” he said.
The current school leadership programme is the eighth batch covering schools from Lilongwe Rural and Salima District.
It has attracted 855 leaders and registered a higher attendance than the previous batches.
Merp, which is funded by the Malawi Government, the World Bank and the Global Partnership in Education, is targeting 10 200 leaders from the country’s education districts to equip head teachers and their deputies with skills on how to build inclusive cultures in schools as well as creating, managing and using school resources to motivate teachers.
