World Sharp under Chinsapo Learning Centre is training women and girls free-of-charge to reduce illiteracy around Chinsapo. The development follows after Lilongwe Community Development Officer, Annie Kamwendo, outlined that the district has high illiteracy levels.

The Centre offers adult literacy classes to women and basic primary school education to girls who drop out of school. According to Kamwendo, illiteracy in Lilongwe is registered to be at 38%, a rate that surpasses the 31% national rate.  

“It is sad that the majority of people who are illiterate are women who most times are the ones who conduct small scale businesses,” Kamwendo said.

She said Lilongwe District Council has 584 adult literacy classes on average with an enrollment of about 25 learners. On the other hand, countrymeters.info estimates that 6,906,771 persons or 65.75% of adult population (aged 15 years and above) in Malawi are able to read and write. Accordingly about 3,597,773 adults are illiterate. Literacy rate for adult male population is 72.99% (3,800,635 persons).