AECDM launches school readiness initiative project in Nkhotakota

Malawi: The Malawi Association for Early Childhood Development has launched a school readiness initiative project in Nkhotakota.

Natasha Chingwalu, AECDM Project Manager, stated after presenting the project content to the District Executive Committee (DEC), that the project aims to prepare children before they begin primary school education by utilising modern technology such as kiosks.

"We are working with the Community Based Care Child Centers (CBCC) here in Nkhotakota to prepare the children, the five-year-olds, for primary school education," she said.

“We have a kiosk component, which is similar to a tablet with a lot of things inside it. One of the things that they will use is a for-child assessment so that when the children go to standard 1 they are developmentally on track, you know at the CBCCs they don't sit for exams and this assessment is what the caregivers will use to assess the children, there is also a know-how course on how they are going to teach the children, and there are also.”

"One of the things that this tablet will help with is a know-how course," Chingwalu explained.

"As you know, one of the problems is having untrained caregivers, so the know-how course will help to cut some training costs."

District Social Welfare Officer McDonald Mpichi praised the project, saying it will help increase the intake of early childhood services.

He said: "We are very fortunate to have the project in Nkhotakota because for a long time we have had problems running ECDs, so I hope that the project will help in building the capacity of the community management committees on how they can manage and run ECD centres and also teach the caregivers on how they can prepare children for primary school education."

The two-year, 150 million kwacha project aims to reach 14 000 children in 60 CBCCs from Traditional Authorities Kanyenda, Mphonde, and Malengachanzi. The first phase of the project was carried out in Blantyre and Salima, with the second focusing on Nkhotakota and Kasungu.