Educator to use Doctoral Qualification to Improve Education in Malawi
Providing quality education to the youth of Malawi is what motivated graduate Dr Jacqueline Chazema to strengthen her academic profile by studying for a doctoral degree.
In her current position as the Deputy Director of the Guidance, Counselling and Youth Development Centre for Africa (GCYDCA) Chazema plays a critical role in ensuring that African girls and boys of school-going age attain a quality of life free from preventable social problems such as poverty, disease, sexual abuse or violence through guidance, counselling and youth development services.
Her Doctor of Philosophy qualification will enhance her capacity to deliver as the link between the GCYDCA and the colleges and universities in Africa and beyond.
‘The qualification is rewarding and has an added value to my contributions towards the achievement of high quality education in Malawi and Africa. As a Lecturer at the College of Education, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, the qualification means being qualified to teach at any level within the college and within the University of Malawi, an effort worth contributing towards the achievement of quality education in Malawi,’ said Chazema.
As issues around HIV and AIDS and the teacher education system keep expanding, so does Chezema’s research interests in the subject. She has been involved in identifying strategies that would help the Malawi teacher training colleges in creating an atmosphere of openness for the teaching of HIV and AIDS in Malawi since 1996.
Her dissertation titled: “Managing Systems Change in the Malawi Teacher Education System in the Context of HIV and AIDS”, focused on providing a better understanding of how the Malawian teacher education system could best embrace and manage HIV and AIDS Education and how best the system can be shaped through a responsive systems reform process.
The findings of the study revealed that the Malawian teacher education system has not succeeded in managing change in the context of the pandemic, which might explain why the nation continues to grapple with the pandemic after 29 years of its existence and highlighted the importance of managing change in the teacher education system in the context of the disease as one sure way of contributing towards this effort.
‘The qualification is rewarding as there is nothing to make a person happier than realising they can also develop a model for their nation - a model that will change things and make change happen effectively. The importance of my effort to develop a model for informing a reform process in embracing the HIV and AIDS pandemic in the teacher education system in Malawi cannot be overemphasised. The realisation of a dream is also innately rewarding,’ explained Chazema.
Chazema’s supervisors Professor Kriben Pillay and Professor Garth Allen expressed immense pride in her achievement. It was through Allen’s commitment and dedication that Chazema joined the then Leadership Centre as a doctoral student.
‘When I first met Chazema in Malawi in 2010 she struck me as a very modest but committed student who was intent on achieving her goal. She worked diligently to produce the end result,’ said Pillay.
Thandiwe Jumo