Ministry Hails COSOMA for Support of Textbooks to 70 CDSSs

Ministry of Education has hailed the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) for supporting the Ministry with over 70,000 textbooks that will be distributed for free to 70 Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) across the country through a project called School Book Development Project.

The project with funding from KOPINOR-Norway was initiated to promote the creativity of authors and publishers in Malawi five years ago and has helped in the production of 70,630 copies of 16 book titles of secondary education in Agriculture, Chichewa, English, Geography and History.

Speaking during the launch of the project products Wednesday at Mndunje CDSS in Dowa, Director of Administration in the Ministry of Education, James Manyetera said the project is important the ministry because it will help reduce the problem of scarcity of secondary school books.

“This has a very symbolic importance to our ministry considering that the ministry believes in the delivering of quality education which cannot be possible without materials for both the teacher and the learner.

"I am delighted that these textbooks will supplement the core textbooks and will be useful tools for teachers and learners as most reliable source of information which is contextualized and up to date,” said Manyetera.

In her remarks COSOMA’s Executive Director, Dora Makwinja said the project has registered successes worth noting in achieving COSOMAs mandate of promoting and protecting creativity of right holders.

“One way of promoting creativity is by donating books, this encourages people to learn and read which eventually increases number of upcoming writers that joins the industry.

The project has encouraged indigenous players in the industry to embrace the educational book publishing using local authors, editors, book illustrators, designers and printers, in a way strengthening the education system in the country,” said Makwinja.

Speaking earlier, Hans Petter, Deputy CEO of KOPINOR Norway said his organization funded the project with a goal of building capacity and strengthening the publishing industry in Malawi and to demonstrate that it is possible to get high quality and affordable school text books that reflects the locals.

The School Book Development Project since its commencement in 2017 has engaged 101 players in the publishing industry on textbook development, editing, designing and printing.

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(Source: Ministry of Education, Malawi)