He noted with concern that the district is lagging behind on girl child education citing disparities.

“You cannot talk about development without talking about girl child education. We believe that the girl child forms the nation.

“Government emphasizes on educating the girl child because when you educate a girl child you educate the whole nation,” lamented Senior Chief Tengani.

He underscored the need for communities to ensure the girl child goes to school and completes education.

“We heard from the Primary Education Advisor (PEA) for this area that we are not doing well. You will see so many girls in standard one but when you go up the ladders the number goes down.

“There are schools that have less than 10 girls in class which is not a good situation. As a district we are not doing well and on the scale of literacy we are also lagging behind at national level,” lamented Senior Chief Tengani.

He spoke recently in the area of Traditional Authority Mbenje at Mbenje Civic Education Hub activity.

Mbenje PEA Monday Njanje implored communities to change their mindset and start valuing girl child education

“We have to change our way of thinking. We need girls who are educated if the country is to register remarkable progress as far as the Malawi 2063 development agenda is concerned,” said Njanje.

Lawrence Useni, Deputy Director Responsible for Civic Education under the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, also believes mindset change can make a difference in bridging the gaps.

“We have a civic education hub, a committee responsible for civic educating the public on various issues in this area. It unearthed that a number of girls are dropping out of school before they reach standard 8.

“They are discouraging parents from marrying off their children and these are the efforts we are employing as a Ministry,” said Useni.

He added that chiefs have their role in ensuring that girls stay in school citing punishments. “So, before that it is important to sensitize the communities on the evils of marrying off children.

“We want to see equal numbers, a 50-50 situation. We want an equal number of boys and girls completing tertiary education as opposed to these discrepancies,” said Useni.