By Sam Majamanda, MANA
Students at the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) will soon start attending classes online as a way of observing the Covid-19 stay at home order, the university’s administration has disclosed.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Publicity and Marketing Officer for the University, Luke Bisani said currently the university is working on modalities to ensure accessibility and sustainability of the initiative.
According to Bisani, the university came up with the initiative in consideration of students’ career plans as well as efforts they have been putting in education that are currently at the verge of being affected due to the closure of school in observance of social distancing.
“We want to give our students an opportunity to continue with their lessons while at home because we know that some of them have career objectives that are time bound. As such the closure of the campus due to novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak is definitely going to disrupt their plans,” said Bisani.
He further said according to their plans, lessons are expected to be administered via google classroom and video conferences between lecturers and students among other modes.
A recent survey done by the university among students, aimed at establishing students’ capability to participate in e-learning found that 90 percent of the students would be capable of participating in online classes.
Asked about government’s stand on e-learning, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Chikondi Chimala said government was trying its best to make e-learning affordable and accessible in the country in order for education not to suffer in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Minister of Education, Science and Technology, William Susuwele Banda officially launched the online e-learning initiative in an event where mobile network operators in the country, TNM and Airtel and the government entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will see the service providers facilitating internet accessibility to students in the country.
Among other things, the MOU will see the mobile operators providing affordable internet rates to e-learning platforms so that students should not suffer financial hardships in their education.
