Reported by Mustapha Omolabake Omowumi, Managing Editor | Sele Media Malawi.
MZUZU, Malawi — Mzuzu University has described the Our Rights, Our Lives and Our Future (O3) project as a significant intervention in strengthening the capacity of teachers and school administrators to provide adolescents with accurate, age-appropriate information on sexuality, health and personal wellbeing.
The university says the initiative is helping to equip teachers with practical approaches for delivering life-skills education to secondary school learners, with the broader objective of enabling young people to make informed decisions about their health, relationships, education and future.
Dean of the Faculty of Education at Mzuzu University, Patricia Tenthani Khunga, said the programme is focused on improving the preparedness of teachers and headteachers to address issues affecting adolescents in schools.
Khunga made the remarks in an interview with Zodiak Online, saying the project is designed to strengthen the ability of life-skills teachers to effectively engage adolescents on matters relating to sexuality, health and wellbeing.
According to figures provided by the university, approximately 500 headteachers and teachers have so far received training under the initiative, alongside 1,250 pre-service teachers whose capacity has also been strengthened to support adolescents.
The reported figures underline the emphasis being placed on teachers as an important channel for delivering health and life-skills education to young people in Malawi’s schools.
The initiative is being implemented by Mzuzu University in partnership with UNESCO, with activities focusing on secondary schools within the Northern Education Division.
Moving Beyond Examination Results
Project Coordinator Nerva Zikanyanga said the intervention is intended to broaden the role of education by helping learners develop skills that extend beyond academic performance.
According to Zikanyanga, the project seeks to influence learners’ attitudes so that education is not viewed solely through the lens of passing examinations, but also as a means of developing the knowledge, confidence and decision-making abilities required to navigate life.
The approach reflects a wider understanding of education and adolescent development in which schools are expected to provide learners with both academic knowledge and practical life skills.
For adolescents, questions surrounding health, relationships, personal choices and wellbeing can have direct implications for their ability to remain in school and pursue their educational goals. The O3 programme therefore places emphasis on strengthening the people responsible for delivering relevant information to learners in classroom and school settings.
UNESCO says its O3 programme is designed to support countries in providing quality education for health and wellbeing to adolescents and young people. The programme places particular emphasis on building the knowledge, skills and attitudes young people need to prevent HIV infections, reduce early and unintended pregnancies, address gender-based violence and promote safer learning environments.
Teachers at the Centre of the Intervention
The emphasis on teacher training is central to the programme because educators are among the adults who interact with adolescents most consistently.
Well-prepared teachers can play an important role in ensuring that learners receive information that is accurate, age-appropriate and delivered within an educational framework.
UNESCO’s documentation on the Malawi programme states that good-quality life-skills-based sexuality education should be age- and developmentally appropriate, scientifically accurate, holistic, human-rights-based, inclusive and relevant to the local context and culture.
The organisation also stresses that sexuality education is most effective when it forms part of a wider whole-school approach to health and wellbeing. Such an approach involves supportive school management, safe learning environments, engagement with parents and communities, connections with adolescent-responsive health and social services, and teachers who are properly trained and supported.
This means that the role of teachers goes beyond simply presenting information in the classroom. Educators can also contribute to creating environments where learners are able to seek appropriate guidance, understand their responsibilities and make informed decisions.
The involvement of headteachers is similarly significant because school leadership can determine how health and life-skills programmes are implemented at institutional level.
Mzuzu University’s Strategic Role
The involvement of Mzuzu University is consistent with the structure of the current O3 Malawi programme, under which selected teacher-training institutions are being used as important points for strengthening teacher preparation and professional development.
UNESCO’s current project documentation identifies Mzuzu University and Rumphi Teacher Training College in the northern region among the institutions being used as focus points for teacher training under the programme.
The institutions are intended to serve as hubs for different components of the O3 programme, including in-service teacher training, pre-service teacher preparation, continuous professional development, monitoring and support supervision, community engagement and links with adolescent-friendly health services.
A UNESCO call for implementing partners published in September 2025 also specifically identified Mzuzu University among the teacher-training institutions involved in implementing the College-Hub Model under the O3 Malawi programme.
The arrangement places universities in a position to help bridge the gap between teacher preparation and the realities teachers encounter in schools.
For pre-service teachers, exposure to health and wellbeing education before entering the classroom can provide an opportunity to develop appropriate pedagogical approaches. For teachers already in service, continuous professional development can help strengthen existing skills and improve classroom practice.
A Broader National Education Agenda
The Mzuzu University intervention comes at a time when Malawi is continuing to strengthen the place of health and wellbeing within its education system.
In June 2026, UNESCO reported that Malawi was developing new Health and Well-being Education curriculum materials at upper-primary level, with support from UNESCO and the Royal Norwegian Embassy through the O3 programme.
The curriculum reform initiative is intended to equip learners with knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to navigate challenges including HIV, early pregnancy, mental health concerns, substance abuse and gender-based violence.
The development indicates that health and wellbeing education is increasingly being treated as an integral part of education rather than as an issue separate from classroom learning.
UNESCO’s current O3 Malawi Phase II project is scheduled to run from September 2024 to August 2027, with Norway listed as the contributor. The project has a total budget of approximately US$2.81 million, according to UNESCO’s project database, and covers Malawi nationally, including the Northern Education Division.
The project’s stated objectives include improving education for health and wellbeing, strengthening learning environments and improving learners’ knowledge and skills in health and sexuality education.
Addressing the “Triple Threat”
The focus on adolescent health education also connects with wider concerns identified across the region.
UNESCO has increasingly framed education for health and wellbeing around what it describes as a “triple threat” affecting young people: HIV, early and unintended pregnancy, and gender-based violence.
At a ministerial dialogue held in Livingstone, Zambia, in May 2026, education, health, gender and youth representatives from across sub-Saharan Africa discussed the role of schools in addressing these challenges.
The resulting call for action described the issues not only as health concerns but also as education, development, gender-equality and human-rights challenges.
For Malawi, the implications are particularly relevant to efforts to keep adolescents in school and ensure that learners have the information and support required to make informed decisions.
The provision of accurate health and life-skills information can therefore complement academic education by helping learners understand issues that may affect their attendance, participation and long-term educational prospects.
The Importance of Accurate Information
One of the central elements of the O3 approach is the delivery of accurate information.
For teachers, this requires more than familiarity with the subjects being taught. It also involves understanding how to communicate sensitive information responsibly and in ways that are appropriate to learners’ ages, developmental stages and social environments.
Training can help teachers distinguish between factual health information and misinformation while developing classroom approaches that encourage learners to ask questions and engage with difficult subjects constructively.
This is particularly important in an environment where adolescents may obtain information from multiple sources, including social media, peers and other online platforms.
Schools remain an important setting in which learners can encounter structured and professionally guided information.
UNESCO’s broader O3 programme reports that its first phase reached millions of learners and trained hundreds of thousands of in-service and pre-service teachers across participating countries. The second phase, which began in 2023, is focused on strengthening the delivery of accurate, rights-based education for health and wellbeing, creating safer and more inclusive learning environments, and empowering young people to make decisions and drive positive change in their communities.
Northern Education Division in Focus
The reported implementation of the project in the Northern Education Division gives the intervention a particular regional dimension.
The Northern Education Division serves schools across northern Malawi, making the involvement of a major teacher-training institution such as Mzuzu University strategically relevant to efforts aimed at strengthening the capacity of educators within the region.
The reported training of approximately 500 headteachers and teachers, together with 1,250 pre-service teachers, represents an investment in both the existing teaching workforce and the next generation of educators.
However, the long-term significance of such training will depend not only on the number of people reached but also on how effectively the acquired skills are translated into classroom practice.
Continued professional support, access to appropriate teaching materials, monitoring, supervision and collaboration with health and community services are all important components of sustaining such interventions.
UNESCO’s O3 Malawi framework specifically recognises the importance of combining teacher training with monitoring and support supervision, community engagement and linkages to adolescent-friendly health services.
Building Learner Decision-Making Skills
The comments attributed to Zikanyanga also highlight an important shift in the way life-skills education is understood.
The purpose is not simply to add another subject to an already demanding school curriculum. Instead, the programme seeks to help learners develop practical competencies that can influence decisions they make inside and outside school.
Decision-making, communication, critical thinking and problem-solving are among the transferable skills UNESCO associates with education for health and wellbeing.
Such skills can help learners assess information, understand consequences and seek assistance when faced with challenges.
For schools, the challenge is to ensure that these objectives remain connected to everyday teaching and learning rather than being limited to workshops or isolated activities.
The participation of both headteachers and classroom teachers is therefore significant. School leadership can support an enabling environment, while teachers can translate the programme’s principles into classroom engagement.
The reported progress at Mzuzu University provides another indication of the continuing role of teacher development in Malawi’s efforts to strengthen education for health and wellbeing.
UNESCO’s 2024 regional reporting indicated that the O3 programme had already made substantial progress in Malawi, including the training of thousands of pre-service and in-service teachers in life-skills education and expansion of life-skills education among primary-school learners.
The organisation has also emphasised that universities and teacher-training institutions can serve as important partners in preparing educators to respond to the health, safety and wellbeing needs of learners.
The challenge now is to maintain the momentum through sustained professional development and effective implementation at school level.
For Malawi, the success of programmes such as O3 will ultimately be measured not only by the number of teachers trained but also by whether learners receive consistent, accurate and useful information that contributes to safer and healthier educational experiences.
As Mzuzu University continues its partnership with UNESCO, the focus on strengthening educators could provide an important link between teacher preparation, school leadership and the wider national agenda on adolescent health and wellbeing.
The project’s reported expansion across teachers, headteachers and pre-service educators demonstrates the importance of building capacity throughout the education system.
For adolescents in the Northern Education Division, the intended outcome is clear: access to better-informed educators who can help them understand issues affecting their health, wellbeing and future, while ensuring that education remains about more than examination results alone.
Zodiak Online Reported comments by Mzuzu University Faculty of Education Dean Patricia Tenthani Khunga and O3 Project Coordinator Nerva Zikanyanga concerning teacher training and implementation of the O3 project in the Northern Education Division. The specific interview/report is the primary media source for the figures cited in this report.
UNESCO Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) Programme: UNESCO’s programme overview provides background on the objectives, implementation and regional reach of O3, including its focus on education for health and wellbeing, comprehensive sexuality education and teacher training.
UNESCO O3 Malawi Phase II Project Database: UNESCO’s official project records confirm the ongoing Malawi Phase II project, its 2024–2027 implementation period, funding contribution from Norway and the role of Mzuzu University within the teacher-training model.
UNESCO Malawi Advances Health and Well-being Education Through Curriculum Reform: The June 2026 report provides current national context on Malawi’s development of Health and Well-being Education curriculum materials with support from UNESCO and the O3 programme.
UNESCO Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future: UNESCO’s dedicated O3 programme page outlines the initiative’s objectives, including accurate, rights-based sexuality education, safer schools and improved health and wellbeing among adolescents and young people.
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH): Swiss TPH records its role in the final evaluation of the O3 Zambia and Malawi programmes, providing independent evaluation context for the wider initiative.