By Lesnat Kenan

Lilongwe February 10, Mana: Republic of Germany through Voluntary Service Overseas Malawi (VSO) under Unlocking Talent (UT) project has handed over digital equipment (tablets) to the Ministry of Education with the aim of discovering and transforming education through education technology.

Speaking on Saturday during the handover ceremony of tablets and iPads for digital learning at Kasiya Primary School in Lilongwe, German ambassador to Malawi Ute Konig said the Unlocking Talent project has a role to empower children in Malawi to build literacy and numeracy skills needed to achieve their full potential in education.

"The project has helped a lot of primary school learners in Malawi as many learners are now able to learn through technology. We have reached over 170,000 primary school learners to access literacy and numeracy learning through tablets and ipads “. she added.

Konig said the UT E-learning for primary education project was implemented by VSO Malawi in 2019 and has been working with the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the German government funded by the kreditanstalt fur wiederaufbau (KFW) with over 30 billion Malawi kwacha used to make this possible.

 In her remarks Minister of Education, Madalitso Wirima said the UT project is a demonstration of the Malawi government's commitment towards digitalization of education system particularly at a foundation level with the aim of accelerating the attainment of learning outcomes among learners in numeracy and literacy.

"Through this project, government alongside the development partners including VSO wanted to prove that indeed the use of technology can accelerate the attainment of learning outcomes especially in primary schools". Said Wirima.

She added that German government through the UT project has helped the Ministry in delivery of quality and inclusive education in 338 schools from 15 districts in Malawi.

Wirima added that the UT project has also helped government in terms of infrastructure development by constructing 178 learning centers for primary schools blocks in 15 districts in Malawi.

 She expressed optimism that by 2029 primary school learners across Malawi will be able to learn using digital equipment.

In his remarks VSO Programme Implementations Lead, Moffat Njati appealed to government to ensure that adequate number of teachers are trained and that the community is involved in the management of the centers.

Unlocking Talent project aims at igniting children's potential in literacy and numeracy and has the vision of reaching 3.5 million children by 2029.