Agnes Nyalonje is a Malawian politician who has served as the country's Education Minister since July 2020.
Nyalonje has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Malawi, a postgraduate diploma in personal and development from the University of Edinburgh and a master's degree in literature from the University of Leeds.
Nyalonje was a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of Malawi. She worked as a consultant for the World Bank and as country director of UNAIDS from 2002 to 2004. She was also a technical adviser to the World Health Organization in South Africa.
Nyalonje was elected as the MP for Mzimba North representing the People's Party in 2014.[1] She joined the newly formed UTM Party in October 2018, saying she was seeking to "fight rampant corruption" and overthrow the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.[2] However, she withdrew from participating in the January 2019 primary elections.[3]
Nyalonje was appointed Minister of Education by President Lazarus Chakwera on 8 July 2020.[4] [5] She retained the position in a January 2022 reshuffle.[6] On commencing the role, Nyalonje said her priority was to overhaul the country's "rotten and archaic" education system, which has one of the lowest transition rates in the world,[7] with only 6% of primary school students graduating to secondary school.[8]
Nyalonje oversaw the reopening of schools on 7 September 2020 after their closure in March that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] In February 2022, she launched a Code of Conduct for teachers that seeks to regulate professional conduct across the education sector.[10] In June 2021, Nyalonje was sent out of Parliament for not wearing a school uniform as all other female members had done to mark the Day of the African Child and advocate for female education.[11]
Nyalonje is married to Robert Ridley, who is vice chancellor at Unicaf University Malawi.[12] [13]