The MoEST established the Directorate of Open Distance and e-Learning in line with education reform area number 7:

Reform No. 7: Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Directorates of QA, ST, IE and ODeL (Feb. 2021)

MCDE with its HQ in Blantyre and three regional centers in Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Blantyre, is responsible for production of self-learning education resources and offers technical support to all the subsectors of education, including pre-primary, basic, complementary basic education, secondary, Teacher Training and Development, and Higher Education.

The obligation of ODeL Directorate is to create an enabling environment for attaining equality of education opportunity.

It has three divisions mandated to regulate, coordinate, and manage:

• ODeL Resource Development and Support (RDS)
• ODeL Student Management (SM)
• ODeL Program Management and Governance (PMG)

The Directorate has as its implementing arm, the Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE).

• To provide policy and strategic direction for ODeL as an education reform
• To lobby for infrastructure development for ODeL growth and sustainability
• To promote ODeL and student management best practices
• To promote access to education technology
• To promote inclusive ODeL education innovation for devices and teaching and learning opportunities for students and teachers with disabilities

1. Policy and Strategic Direction

• Create an enabling environment for the provision of open, flexible, and technology-enabled education
• Enable the education sector to realize the full potential of ODeL to increase equitable access and enhance quality of education in Malawi
• Promote ODeL as a major education mode for all irrespective of geography or disability

2. ODeL Quality Assurance

With the ODeL Quality Assurance in place, this will help:

• The country to gain and maintain credibility for programmes, institutions and national systems of education
• To prove and improve the quality of an institution's methods and educational products and outcomes
• To establish an institution's good reputation and image

3. Open University of Malawi

The Directorate in liaison with the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) and the Malawi University Development Program (MUDEP) is initiating the establishment of Open University of Malawi to ensure equitable access to quality education at higher education.

4. ODeL Awareness and Advocacy

The Directorate ensures there is increased ODeL awareness and advocacy for adoption, embrace and financing in order to allay the negative perceptions the public has towards ODeL and to support the Ministry in realizing its efforts in the advancement of ODeL in the country.

5. Open Digital Secondary Strategy (ODSS)

The Directorate is developing and implementing an Open Digital Secondary Strategy (ODSS) whose goal is to increase equitable access to quality secondary education by 2028. The ODSS is meant among many other things to:

• Increase access to education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode in secondary schools
• Improve quality of open secondary schools
• Strengthen governance and management of open secondary schools
• Promote digitalization of secondary schools' education
• Improve attainment of secondary education by out-of-school youths and adults

5.1 Education Broadcasting Station

The establishment of the Ministry's education radio station. Broadcasting Interactive Radio lessons has proved to be the most effective and cheaper way of teaching students everywhere and anytime. The Ministry through the Directorate of Open, Distance and e-Learning is establishing an Education Broadcasting Station (EBS) which will broadcast both educational and non-educational programs including commercial and documentaries. When the radio is established, the Ministry will be assured that learning will not stop as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools were forced to close.

5.2 Digitalization of the National Curriculum

To ensure the education content is made available in different formats, the Ministry through DODeL and MCDE has digitalized the primary and secondary curriculum.

• Digitalized 13 Senior Secondary subjects out of 24 (representing 60%)
• Digitalized 13 Junior Secondary subjects (from 46% to 54%)
• Adapted 160 IRI ODL lessons for SNE (Standards 1 to 4 for terms 1 and 2)
• Modified 160 IRI ODL lessons into 400 braille copies
• Developed 1200 IRI ODL lessons for standard 1 to 8
• Developed 144 (72/form) Life skills IRI lessons for Junior Secondary (4% against 0%)
• Developed 360 (60/class for grades 3 to 8) Life skills lessons for primary (from 44% to 55%)
• Improved capacity building – IRI script development skills (trained 20 primary school teachers and 14 TTC Lecturers)
• Developed 220 IPTE Interactive Audial Instructions (50% – 5 subjects out of 10)

• BEFIT: Implementation of the Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT) which is meant to expand a successful EdTech learning environment intervention to cover over 3.5 million children across all 5,770 public primary schools in Malawi. BEFIT is a collaboration among the Government of Malawi, Ministry of Education, the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Malawi, one billion, and Imagine Worldwide.
• Education Broadcasting Station: The Ministry will be launching the Education Broadcasting Station soon. Plans are underway to also establish a Television for Education with curated, high quality audio and video education content available through offline portable devices and online platforms.
• EdTech Hubs: The Directorate has initiated a process to establish education technology and innovation (EdTech) hubs, promoting young and special talent to develop EdTech. These hubs will lead to building local capacity for increased production and availability of devices to teachers and learners.
• Computer Studies/ICT: The Ministry has plans to expand Computer Studies/ICT training to all schools to ensure learners and teachers acquire the requisite digital skills, in line with the National Digital Skills Training Strategy.
• Device Loans: The Directorate continues to lobby with institutions and organisations to find ways of ensuring digital devices are accessible to students through device loans.
• SLACKS: The Ministry plans to introduce Smart Learning and Access Centers of Knowledge and Support (SLACKS) model as part of the Open and Digital Secondary School Strategy.