By Fostina Mkandawire

Salima, May 22, Mana: Malawi Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has been commended for its efforts to promoting access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) through construction of computer laboratories at three Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) in Salima District.

Speaking during a ground breaking ceremony at Lungumadzi Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in the area of Senior Chief Kambwiri on Monday, Headmaster for the School, Louis Chafa said that the computer lab would enhance studies at the school taking into consideration that the world has gone digital.

He said learners were showing willingness to learn computer studies which the school could not afford to offer them due to different pertinent needs that the school had, therefore the coming in of MACRA was timely and would enhance education.

"This will be a motivation to learners because they will have access to internet where they can be studying and searching for information which will assist in enhancing their studies," Chafa said.

MACRA's Deputy Director of Consumers Affairs, Kelious Mlenga said through the project, 75 schools; including 73 CDSSs, one national government secondary school, and one pilot primary school are expected to benefit from the project.

"Nobody should be left behind, we want digital inclusion to be embedded in the country's education sector, we also want access to ICT to be realized at a young age, so that as the children are growing they should be well conversant with ICT," he said.

Mlenga said taking into consideration that every fundamental development depends on ICT and pertinent to align universal access to ICT with Malawi 2063.

"A good economy or education system depends on ICT which is the backbone of all the development avenues in the world, rural connectivity to ICT will promote inclusion of learners at schools situated in hard to reach areas like Lungumadzi CDSS," he said.

Member of Parliament for Salima South East, Mike Mwawa has hailed MACRA for considering Lungumadzi CDSS as one among three schools in the district to benefit from the initiative.

He urged the constructors to follow stipulated timeline of the construction period and architectural plan of the facility so that it should be of high standard.

MACRA is constructing computer laboratories through Connect-A-School' project under the Universal Service Fund (USF), to a tune of a total of K 150 million on the construction of ICT computer laboratories, to which the labs shall be connected to the Internet.