By Blackson Mkupatira

Dedza, August 23, Mana: Dedza District Council Chief Education Officer, Julius Kamwanza, has hailed Edukans Foundation for a teacher mentorship project the organization is implementing in the in the district, saying it has reduced knowledge gap between teachers that have been in the system for long and those just coming from college.

Kamwanza made the remarks recently when Edukans donated five tablet phones to two secondary schools and three primary schools in the district under the school based blended education mentorship programme being implemented with funding from UNICEF.

He said while long serving teachers have experience, those that are coming from college have new sets of skills and that Edukans is providing a platform where they could share experiences and trends within education circles through mentorship.

"And we have seen great improvements in the 65 schools the organization is working with in the district. There is punctuality and a reduction in school dropout rate among learners, improved pass rate and a good working relationship between teachers," he said.

He appealed to Edukans to consider scaling up the project to target all 254 schools in the district and asked teachers to take good care of the gadgets and to share the knowledge they are gaining from the project with their fellow teachers so that they could move in unison.

Commenting on the matter, Headmaster for Kapesi Primary School Joseph Mtalimanja said the project has been fundamental in enhancing teaching skills and strengthening the relationship between teachers, learners and the community.

On the tablets, the headmaster said many teachers do not have smartphones so they will be using them for searching for relevant information on the internet.

On his part, Edukans Foundation Fundraising and Partnership Officer Daniel N'gona said the mentorship programme is targeting one thousand primary and secondary school teachers in Dedza with the overall goal of improving learning outcomes for students and promoting job satisfaction among teachers.

"Today as a pilot, we are giving five schools tablets so that they could easily access mentorship information online to mentor each other and students," he said, adding that this will improve the quality of education in the district.

The 10-month mentorship project is also being implemented in Salima, Dowa, Lilongwe, Nsanje, Chiladzulu, Thyolo, Machinga and Mangochi.