By Prince Banda
Lilongwe, Mana: Kiswahili language has revealed a viable window of employment amongst Malawians with the anticipated adoption of the language by the Ministry of Education as an examinable subject in the country’s education syllabus.
The development is expected to recruit a number of Malawians who upon undergoing special classes in Kiswahili and attain their certificates, will be employed and trusted with duties as tutors or instructors of the language in various schools across the country.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in Tanzania who was present during this year’s Education Sector Joint Review Meeting at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe, Professor Carolyn Nombo said her government was keen to support Malawi in adopting Kiswahili as an official language and has already made a donation of books to aid teaching and learning of Kiswahili in Malawi.
“Our donation of 1,200 books to the Ministry of Education meant for teaching and learning Kiswahili can simply explain how best my government is dedicated to supporting Malawi to fully adopt Kiswahili as an official language,” she emphasized.
Nombo said Tanzania has already entered an agreement with the Ministry of Education in Malawi to provide professional delegates in the quest for implementing and enhancing the teaching of Kiswahili in the country.
She said the agreement would spare the first cohort for Kiswahili classes as the recruits would not be asked to make any contributions as tuition fee to attend the classes and the graduates from this cohort will join them in popularizing Kiswahili language in schools.
“The first class will be free of charge in terms of tuition fee and the graduates will be deployed in various schools across Malawi as tutors to see through the full adoption of Kiswahili language as any other subjects in Malawi’s education curriculum,” Nombo disclosed.
Minister of Education, Agnes NyaLonje hailed the dedication shown by Tanzanian government in supporting her Ministry to accomplish its quest for Kiswahili language in the country’s education curriculum.
NyaLonje said that what Tanzania has just done in Malawi was a true reflection that education apart from imparting people with all sorts of knowledge that matter, ought to do more.
“Education is more than just equipping people with knowledge, it can be a unifying figure just as what Tanzania has shown Malawi by shouldering some of the contributions towards our quest for Kiswahili in our curriculum,
The fact that Kiswahili is a new development in our curriculum, there will be a need for human resources to see through its implementation in schools across the country hence people will be employed so that civic responsibility among Malawians can be fostered,” the Minister said.
Introduction of Kiswahili in Malawi’s curriculum is one of the interventions government has put in place along with foundation learning programmes, empowerment of children with education special needs as well as girl child empowerment to capture the country’s aspirations in education sector as encapsulated in Malawi 2063.
