EQUALS project improves secondary education

Secondary schools in Malawi especially Community Day secondary Schools (CDSSs) are benefiting from Equity with Quality and Learning at Secondary (Equals) project which is being administered through the ministry of education.

The EQUALS project is being implemented in 13 districts with an aim of improving quality education especially Mathematics and science subjects in CDSSs.

Speaking to Malawi News agency Communication Specialist for the project Yvonne Sundu said the project seeks to improve the quality of science education in the country through building better infrastructure, training teachers among others.

“The civil works are our main focus area right now including trainings of head teachers and their deputies in instruction leadership and school management. This has happened to 1402 head teachers and their deputies across Malawi,” she said.

She added that the project has also a sub component that is providing text books to schools so that there should be one to one ratio of books per student.

 “There has been an increase in the Malawi School Certificate of Education pass rate for science subjects in 13 districts being reached with the interventions and we hope that there will be more impact as the project progresses,” she said.

Education expert Dr Steve Sharra commended the good work by EQUALS project saying it is addressing challenges of resources in secondary education.

“There are quite a few projects and programmes government is implementing in order to improve the quality of education in CDSSs. The EQUALS project is one of them and a few others.

“CDSSs enroll more than 70 percent of secondary students in the country, and the majority of the schools are under-resourced in terms of infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, and even qualified teachers and the aforementioned project is helping to address such challenges,” he said.

The Ministry of Education with support from the World Bank is implementing the EQUALS Project in selected districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Kasungu, Salima, Zomba, Balaka, Neno, Mwanza, Chikwawa, Mulanje and Phalombe.