By Evance Chisiano

Blantyre, October 5, Mana: Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Friday donated 15 HP brand computers to Blantyre Teachers College whose computer lab had three computers against 540 students.

Receiving the new computers, Head of Language Department, Charles Office thanked MACRA for donating the computers saying this was a timely gesture when the college was in dire need of computers.

“We only had three computers in our lab against 540 students. Our present curriculum emphasizes computer use,” he said, adding that the situation denied many students the opportunity to computer literacy which is key in the modern teaching profession,” he said.

The donation of computers to Blantyre Teachers Traning College (TTC) was the last in the series of donations after similar donations to ten TTCs that included, Phalombe, Karonga, Machinga, Chiradzulu and St. Joseph in Dedza.

President of the Students Representative Council at Blantyre TTC, Prince Kwabwere also thanked MACRA for the computer donation and pledged that students will take good care of the computers considering that the college had an acute shortage of computers at the expense of students' ICT knowledge.

He however called on other organizations to donate more to satisfy the need for computers at the college.

“We thank MACRA for providing us with the computers. We however appeal for other organizations to come in because demand for ICT knowledge is still there,” he added.

A second-year student, Martin Chikumba recalled that it was difficult to use the three computers that were in the computer laboratory such that most students were denied an opportunity to acquire computer knowledge.

“Things will now improve with this donation. Let us graduate with computer knowledge because some primary schools have computer gadgets and it will be unfortunate if we go to such schools while computer illiterate,” he added.

MACRA Procurement Officer, Alfred Chibwana said Connect a TTC initiative was part of MACRA’s commitment to roll out ICT in education institutions.

The Connect a TTC initiative was implemented with support from Universal Service Fund which enabled the communication regulatory authority to donate 150 computers to 10 teachers' training centres across Malawi.

“Computer knowledge among the teacher training college students will now be transferred to primary schools,” he said and disclosed that Blantyre TTC was the last teacher's college to receive computers through the Connect a TTC project.

On January 18 2024, Minister of Information and Digitalization, Moses Kunkuyu presided over the donation of 15 computers to Phalombe Teachers College as part of the Connect a TTC initiative.