By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, May 27, Mana: Minister of Agriculture Sam Dalitso Kawale has asked people in Dowa to own projects to ensure sustainability.

He was speaking on Monday at Chibanzi Community Day Secondary in Dowa after he launched construction works of an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) lab at the school.

The lab is one of the 75 smart labs the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is constructing across the country, 73 in CDSS's, one in a national secondary and one in a primary school.

"Sustainability of every project heavily relies on community ownership of that project. If a community requests something and we have provided that project or service, it is imperative that they have to be fully involved in that project.

We have seen in other scenarios the community abandoning a project, even failing to make small maintenances as a community, waiting for the one who provided that project to maintain it. There is no way we as a nation can develop like that.

"That is why we encourage chiefs, citizens, parents, students to take care and take ownership of projects like these so they may be sustained," he said.

Kawale said access to ICT services will help students at the school to access quality education within their localities, and open various linkages to the global world for both learners and the community.

He then urged learners to avoid spending time on the internet on useless things but use it for their career and personal development.

The labs are being constructed under MACRA's Universal Service Fund through the Connect a School project.

MACRA IT Manager Gabriel Alli said as Malawi 2063 agenda envisions all Malawians to have access to ICT services, young people must also be empowered technologically.

"Through these labs, learners will have access to computer, online lessons, coding, programming, research and other things which is an important step in the digitalization vision of Malawi.

And for the community, they will be able to access the internet at a radius of 100 meters which they can use for their socio-economic activities," he said.

In his remarks, Head-teacher for the school, Lawrence Samuel Mtembe thanked the minister who is also parliamentarian for Dowa north east for spearheading the construction of the lab at the school.

"This lab is vital to us because unlike other nearby schools, our infrastructure here is old and we lose a lot of students to other schools, but this development will attract many learners to this school.

But most importantly, the lab will help our learners access important information and help teachers in various ways like keeping records, as such improving the quality of education here. We promise to take good care of the construction resources and lab equipment," he said.

Senior Chief Nsakambewa representative thanked government for the lab but asked for staff houses at the school observing that many teachers at the school reside far from the school due to lack of school teachers’ houses. This he said was a challenge in provision of quality education.