The Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT) programme has called on local councils to integrate support for tablet-based learning into their development plans and budgets to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy in public primary schools.

Making a presentation at the Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA) 20th Annual General Assembly of Local Government Authorities on Wednesday in Blantyre, BEFIT National Programme Lead Dr Victor Katchika-Jere highlighted the critical role of local authorities in creating an enabling environment for the effective implementation and sustainability of the programme.

Dr Katchika-Jere outlined five key areas of support expected from councils: ensuring that school infrastructure is fit for purpose, allocating resources for maintenance and repairs, strengthening community awareness and participation, safeguarding learning equipment, and improving supervision and monitoring.

He noted that local government support is essential to addressing implementation challenges, including inadequate school infrastructure, the insecurity of installed equipment, and limited support from local stakeholders and governance structures. Councils were therefore encouraged to work with communities and relevant stakeholders to protect investments in digital learning and ensure that schools can deliver the programme effectively.

Blantyre City Mayor Jomo Osman who is also President of MALGA toured the BEFIT exhibition pavilions to learn more about the programme’s work, including its use of technology to strengthen foundational learning.

The engagement highlighted the importance of collaboration between local government authorities and the education sector in translating national education priorities into practical action at school and community level.

BEFIT uses specialised applications on Android tablets to provide supplementary, self-paced literacy and numeracy instruction to learners in Standards 1 to 4. The government owned and led programme aims to equip all 6,040 public primary schools in Malawi with the required technology and support systems by 2029.