Digital Solution for Education in Africa

To address these issues, Malawi’s Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) worked to promote digital basic education in the country. The implemented project created digital learning content and guidelines on the use of multimedia technologies in class. CSEC offered digital media training for teachers and school principals and also for relevant media staff, such as radio executives. In terms of sustain- ability, an online learning platform for teachers was created offering e-resources like e-curriculums, textbooks, recorded lessons, quizzes and tests published on the CSEC website (www.csecmalawi.org ). On the societal level, the project delivered awareness-raising campaigns on radio and television which aimed to inform the public about the importance of online teaching methods. This activity was continued through a follow-up measure in 2023. The cyclone in Malawi further highlighted the importance of digital teaching and learning methods for the protection of education systems. The activities focused on strengthening civil society participation and influence in policy spaces in inclusive digital transformation of the education sector in Malawi. For that, CSEC engaged with strategic stakeholders and raised awareness about the importance of digital education for government, the private sector, development partners and non-governmental organisations. Raising awareness for digital basic education in a COVID-19 context The COVID-19 pandemic caused schools in Malawi to be closed for seven months. To ensure continuous learning, the government of Malawi provided primary- and secondary-level education online, on the radio, and on television. However, the low level of access to these types of media has proven to be a major challenge, with disadvantaged children particularly impacted. In addition, teachers in Malawi were not yet sufficiently trained on the use of learning technology alternatives and they have lacked access to online resources to help students catch-up on work. Malawi Lilongwe Project implemented in this area 105 educators given access to trainings and video/audio lessons 115 education professio- nals trained in ICT in education 4 high-level stake- holder edutech lobby meetings organised 56 learners and 167 education professionals directly reached through the activities 21 schools targeted – 24 – Digital Solutions for Education in Africa