By Chisomo Phiri
Chirimba Community Day Secondary (CDSS) and Luchenza Secondary School have on Monday been announced inaugural winners of the 2023 ICT Specialists Teachers Association of Malawi (ISTAM) Computer Studies Quiz competition held at Lilongwe Technical College.
Chirimba CDSS outclassed 19 other schools in junior category (Form 1), while Luchenza Secondary scooped position one in the senior category (Form 3) in a tightly contested quiz competition.
On the other hand, Dzenza Secondary School and Ekwendeni Girls Secondary School finished second and third in the junior category, respectively.
Malindi Secondary School and Ekwendeni Girls Secondary equally finished second and third in the senior category, respectively.
Speaking to journalists, ISTAM President Masemo Kinyota Banda said the competition was aimed at improving the performance of students and prepare them for tertiary education.
“The future of ICT will be brilliant if we carry everyone along and if we work together as a team, we will make a great improvement and eventually Malawi might the next USA or any country in terms of manufacturing,” said Banda.
On his part, Director of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Ministry of Education, Professor Chomora Mikeka stressed the need for concerned efforts and resource mobilization to enhance and scale up the learning and teaching of ICT concepts at primary and secondary schools to create young innovators from the grassroots.
Mikeka said government wants to accelerate the country’s transition to an upper middle-income by creating a vibrant knowledge-based digital economy by, among others, equipping academic institutions with world class ICT laboratories.
Malawi is one of the developing countries trying to tap into the benefits of the digital world.
Despite its limited resources, the country is reaping the benefits of modern ICT in different sectors, including but not limited to health, education, finance and agriculture, though with glitches.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the country’s economy, and such players in the sector are trying to take advantage of different ICT tools to improve farming, which makes up for the ways of earning a living for almost 80% of the 18 million-plus population.
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