The Minister of Education Science and Technology, Dr William Susuwele Banda on Monday officially opened a two day Education Joint Sector Review (JSR) meeting at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

In his remarks, Susuwele admitted that education sector is still characterized by inadequate infrastructure, teachers as well as teaching and learning materials in most schools in the country.

He said this has being made worse in the face of growing young population demanding for education services.

Banda said the Ministry needs to respond to the demands of these children since they are the future development leaders in the country.

He said JSR should provide an opportunity to plan and share responsibilities together to minimize wastage of resources and duplication of efforts.

“Let us, be as strategic and objective as we can be, so we register maximum improvements in years to come. We know what has worked before; let us build on these good practices. We know what has failed and we need to build on the lessons learnt to find better solution to our challenges,” he added.

The Minister said the education sector remains the highly funded sector and it ought to maximize this opportunity to serve the country better.

Banda disclosed that Education Joint Sector Fund is now operational and urged more partners to join.

He assured all partners that the Ministry was determined to provide education which is of quality and relevant to Malawian child.

Head of Department for International Development (DFID) in Malawi, David Beer hailed government for allocating the largest share of the national budget to the education sector.

He said the move has shown government’s commitment to education and the funds need to be spent efficiently in order to translate the investment into results.

Secretary for Education, Justin Said said the Ministry has achieved great milestone under the year under review.

He said some of the achievements include timely provision of teaching and learning materials, recruitment and promotion of primary and secondary school teachers, filling of vacant position in most institutions, construction of classrooms and other related facilities in schools.

The 2019 Education Joint Sector Review theme is “Education management and accountability to improve learning outcomes for all.”