Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) deputy vice-chancellor Professor Jonathan Makuwira says the institution is committed to empowering women through numerous training.
He said this in an interview on Thursday at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre on the sidelines of a graduation of 11 youths who participated in the Must Vice-Chancellor’s Junior Engineering Academy.
The academy is organised by the African Drone and Data Academy at Must in conjunction with Unicef Malawi. It aims at exposing the youth to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) innovations at an early stage.
Makuwira said: “The desire is to motivate our secondary school students to have university exposure, but specifically in engineering. So, the vice-chancellor’s desire is to see that many of our young girls are exposed to this.”
He said such initiatives are also in tandem with Malawi 2063, which is centred on the youth, therefore, training youths, especially girls, will make them ambassadors of the development strategy
In a separate interview, one of the students who graduated, Happiness Banda, 14, from Kaseghe Girls Secondary School in Chitipa, described the training as important.
“The training inspired me because I never knew more about engineering. I have learnt about aerospace engineering and mechatronics which has motivated me to work hard in school,” she said.
One of the parents, Happy Banda, said such success stories need to be ably represented in the media as they reflect the positive side of a developing country such as Malawi.
