Children in Salima District in Malawi have expressed concern over the inadequacy of teaching and learning materials in public schools, stressing that the problem disadvantages underprivileged learners who cannot afford a private school.

The children made the lamentation at the end of their week-long Salima District Children’s Parliament held from September 9-13, 2024.

A consortium of child rights-centred organizations, including Save the Children International (SCI), World Vision International (WVI), Kindle Orphan Outreach, facilitated the children’s parliamentary session with financial support from the SIDA Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Capacity Strengthening Programme.

This year’s Salima District Children’s Parliament brought together children from all the 12 Traditional Authorities in the district who identified several issues that affect them in their communities.

Among the numerous issues which came out, the House discussed five (5) motions, which included inadequate school learning and teaching materials, inadequate school infrastructure, environmental degradation, child marriages and teenage pregnancies, and poor bridges.

Speaking in an interview after the conclusion of the deliberations on Friday, the Speaker of Salima Children’s Parliament, Gift Phiri, said while they do appreciate the effort of Government of Malawi and development partners in supporting learners with school teaching and learning materials, they wished these efforts could be tripled to meet the demand for such resources.

“We are greatly concerned that the materials are not enough. That’s why we are asking the government and developing partners to buy and send more learning and teaching resources to all schools in Salima District Council to address the problem,” said Gift.

He further pleaded with the Ministry of Education to devise a deliberate policy of ensuring that whenever learning and teaching materials are being distributed, they should always include the ones for the special needs students.

Young Gift also called upon traditional leaders and school management committees to come up with punitive measures for anyone found stealing and vandalising learning and teaching materials.

The children’s parley also expressed concern with continued destruction of the environment through human activities such as charcoal burning, deforestation, poaching, harmful bushfires, which are contributing to serious climate change and food insecurity in the district.

The children asked traditional leaders and the government to take serious measures to correct the situation “before it is too late”.

Principal Secretary (PS) responsible for Administration and Finance in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Nwazi Mnthambala, described this year’s children parliament as a powerful demonstration of duty-bearers’ commitment to promote child rights and an embodiment of the national vision to build a society where every child is heard, valued, and empowered to contribute to the development of the nation.

Mnthambala therefore thanked the children for raising up critical issues that affect them in their daily lives.

“I am inspired by the passion, creativity, and dedication you have shown in addressing the pressing issues affecting your lives and the Nation as a whole. This governance structure was established as a platform for your voice and as a space to express your concerns, hopes, and dreams. The Children Parliament is a vital component of our democracy as it ensures that your perspectives shape our nations development. Secondly, this August House serves as a bridge between the children and the decision-makers and it is therefore our responsibility to ensure that their concerns are effectively communicated and addressed,” she said.

Mnthambala assured the children that her ministry will continue to play a pivotal role in facilitating coordination to ensure that all relevant parties including communities, parents, traditional leaders, and faith-based institutions are working towards common goals.

She disclosed that the ministry, with support from Save the Children, World Vision. and Plan Malawi, is in the process of developing a manual for children’s parliament to help councils to effectively conduct children’s parliament meetings with minimal technical support from the central level.

“As duty bearers let us create an environment where children feel supported and empowered to speak out issues that matter to them. This should include raising awareness about the importance of child participation and encouraging more stakeholders to get involved in supporting this initiative,” she said.

In his remarks, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Community and Social Welfare, Savel Kafwafwa, said the children’s parliament has been one of the eye openers to National Assembly.

Kafwafwa said the children’s parliament provides elected members of Parliament (MPs) an opportunity to hear the children’s voices directly.

“And over the years, we have actually seen ourselves as the older parliamentarians or the main parliament. We have taken these resolutions as one of the subjects of discussion, and it has helped to shape some of the policies that the government has been implementing. Actually, one of the issues that was coming out in the children’s parliament in the past was the issues of bursaries. And, you know, as a committee, we took that seriously, and we ended up having the CDF to have an allocation now of about 5% to be allocated towards bursaries, it was out of such kind of outcries from the Children’s Parliament, and now, with the resolutions which have been reached today, we’ll take that on board as well, so that as we meet as a committee and then as parliament, we submit all these reports and also engage the relevant stakeholders on the issue of sustainability of the children’s parliament,” he said.

“We have already proposed to say, either through Parliament or through District Council, the government should put special funds just to take charge that the government should now be having a special budget protected specifically for children’s parliament, whether it will be channeled through a council or through the actual parliament. But in all the frameworks, the structures that have been formed, we want them to be there in the coming future, because in the past, schools used to have debate clubs, and we want to use such kind of avenues whereby we need more children to be involved in these voices. So what we will continue to advocate for as a parliamentary committee is to make sure that the government should start allocating money specifically for conducting children’s parliament. We can’t just leave that to the supporting partners alone, because now we have learnt a lot and we have seen it is a very good platform, and we want you to start owning it as a country,” he added.

Meanwhile, SCI Senior Area Operations and Humanitarian Manager, Steve Kamtimaleka, expressed satisfaction with the outcomes of the children’s parliament.

“We are quite impressed and happy with the issues that are coming out. In fact, that’s why we, part and parcel of the stakeholders that are providing this platform, that these issues should come out. And the whole idea is that these issues have to be presented to various duty bearers so that we can sort them out,” said Kamtimaleka.