Government in caregivers data collection

Ministry of Gender Children Disability and Social Welfare has embarked on a data collection drive to ascertain the number of caregivers in the country as government plans to include them on its payroll take shape.

Minister responsible, Patricia Kaliati was speaking in an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Tuesday.

“Our officers are going around checking on how many care givers we have on the ground. We are engaging with the minister of finance on the number of care givers we have and they are going to look into it on how much every care giver is going to be getting,” said Kaliati.

Kaliati further said the ministry is working tirelessly making sure they collect watertight data so that all care givers working in Early Childhood Development centers (ECDs) are recorded for possible inclusion on the payroll.

Commenting on the development, Executive Director of the Association of Early Childhood Development in Malawi (AECD) Clement Silungwe commended government for efforts to include caregivers on government payroll in the 2021-2022 national budget.

“ECD Centers are the foundation of education although they are not given much attention. Primary schools will have vibrant children from ECD centers as caregivers will now be motivated to work hard,” explained Silungwe.

He further asked the government to make this an ongoing process and not a once off event to motivate the caregivers in ECD centers.

“Government should continue giving out this honorarium to the caregivers not only this financial year but even in the preceding years,” said Silungwe.

The government increased the budget allocation to ECDs from K803 million in the 2019/2020 budget to K3 billion in the 2021/2022 budget.