By Sarah Mlozoa

As Malawi joins the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of Education on January 24, YFM has established that lack of learning materials and well trained care givers are some of the challenges hampering early childhood education in the country.

For example YFM has learnt that some Community Based Care Centers in the area of Traditional Authority Mlumbe in Zomba District are operating without learning materials such as books, blackboards and pencils.

During the visit the care givers said they have been teaching the children using the old syllabus which is making their work to be more difficult.

Tadala Community Based Care Center (CBCC) in the area of Traditional Authority Mlumbe is one of the centers that are facing challenges.

One of the teachers at the centre Felista Mpokwe said they used to prepare porridge for the children some time back but now they no longer do hence a lot of children are not coming.

One of the parents, Doreen Edwel said with the rains they stopped sending children to the CBCC due to the condition of the classroom.

“It is true the security of the place is not well and during the rainy seasons we usually not send the kids to the CBCC because of the state of the infrastructure they sit on cold floor which is not good for them,” she said.

Some ECD centers in the area including Ulemu were completely closed because care givers were not receiving support from parents and the authorities.

Zomba District Social Welfare Officer Stephano Joseph said most of the parents are sending their kids to the Community Based Care Centers.

He however admitted that there is still gaps as some care givers are not well trained which gives problems.