By Kondanani Chilimunthaka
President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says his administration is committed to sustaining allocation to the education sector by 15 to 20 percent of national expenditure by year 2030.
Chakwera made the remarks on Monday, September 19, 2022 at the United Nations (UN) Transforming Education Summit hosted by the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres at the UN Headquarters in New York
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“My government affirms its support for the new Global Compact on education financing,” said Chakwera.
“This includes increasing tax to GDP ratio by 5 percentage points to 21.4 percent through progressive tax reforms by 2030 and to sustain allocation of at least 15 to 20 percent of national expenditure, and at least 4 to 6 percent of GDP, for domestic financing of education.”
He told the summit that Malawi reconfigured the school calendar to enable learners to catch up on days lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced remedial lessons and intensified back to school campaigns for school dropouts.
“We are also set to establish a national education radio station, as well as a digitalized secondary school curriculum for increased access to education and now many of our higher education institutions are developing their online education capabilities,” he said.
The President said education will be mandatory from early childhood to secondary level in Malawi to achieve a 100 percent primary and secondary completion rate in a safe learning environment by 2030.
He added that Malawi will construct and adequately equip more secondary schools and teacher’s houses, improve primary school teacher’s welfare and training to a diploma or degree level.
Chakwera is in New York for the 77th UNGA summit.
