A call has gone out to government to step up efforts towards investing in Open, Distance, and e-learning (ODeL) if the country is to realise its economic growth in the education sector.

USAID Acting Deputy Mission Director Christine Ververka made the plea yesterday during a two-day national ODeL symposium currently underway in Lilongwe.

Ververka said that despite continued support from the US government and other stakeholders in the sector, authorities need to up their attempts by increasing access to education through online learning.

She said: “The significant investments in education are meant to provide foundation learning to Malaŵi’s youth.

“We wanna make sure that all Malaŵians are strong leaders and that they get the skills they need to positively contribute to Malaŵi’s continued economic growth.”

She added that government needs to venture into serious innovation and partnerships that will ensure smooth internet connection.

“There are so many innovations and partnerships that exist right now and actually make connectivity not necessarily to access ODeL,” said Ververka.

Net Enrolment Rate for the country’s primary education is at 88 percent.

On her part responsible minister for education Madalitso Kambawuwa Wirima admitted that the country has been lagging on ODeL and that there is need to focus on several key areas and enablers.

“We have embarked on the National Scaling-up of the tablet-based learning to improve attainment of learning outcomes, which currently is very low at 13 percent.

“However, to achieve National scale over the next 6 years demands that we all collaborate and pool our financial, human and technological resources together to achieve what has potential to become the first-ever successful edtech mainstreaming programme at national scale in the region,” Kambawuwa Wirima told the gathering.

Malawi’s chapter of distance education is traced way back to the post-independence era, following the establishment of the Malawi Correspondence College (MCC) in 1965 which later transformed into the Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE).

Discussions during the symposium have centered around the theme of, “An Innovative Technological and Knowledge-based ODeL ecosystem, key to Human Capital Development”.