World Bank: Speed Up Procurement of Malawi’s School Materials

World Bank Vice President responsible for human development, Joy Phumaphi, on Monday emphasized the need for Malawi to speed up the procurement of school materials for the smooth implementation of the country’s direct support to schools (DSS) project.

The government borrowed nearly US$42 million from the bank to run the project for a period of five years.

DSS is a World Bank project whereby all government primary schools get an average of $US200 for the procurement of teaching and learning materials. The figure varies depending on the schools enrollment.

Speaking during the organization learning exercise on the improvement of the project in Lilongwe, she said the implementation of the project depended on the way schools managed the project.

She observed that through the DSS, Malawi had made tremendous achievements in the enrollment of pupils in the country’s primary schools.

“Malawi has made tremendous progress over the years in bringing children back to school,” she said, before appealing to school managers to work together in order to achieve results on the project.

Education, Science and Technology Ministry Director of Basic Education, McKnight Kalanda, said there was a need for partnerships in order to effectively implement the project.

“My appeal to teachers, school management committee and parents- teachers associations is for you to work together in the implementation of the project so that it yields results,” Kalanda said.

The DSS project is in its third phase since its inception in 2006, and it has over 5, 000 primary schools countrywide under its wraps.