Most children start formal education at primary school at the age of six. The primary school takes 8 years from standard 1 to 8 at the end of which pupils write the Primary School Leaving Certificate examinations.
These are jointly set, conducted and marked by the Ministry of Education and the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB). Students have to pass and get selected if they are to attend secondary school education in a government secondary school.The introduction of Free Primary Education in Malawi has seen a large increase in the number of pupils going to primary school but this increase in access has also brought major infrastructure problems and a big decline in quality.
To help manage the many primary schools in Malawi, the Ministry of Education has created Education Divisions which group primary schools into smaller groups for management purposes. A policy framework has been developed to enable the provision of education needs to be well-planned, and priorities drawn out.
Education Divisions for Primary Schools
Malawi has been divided into six Education Divisions namely:-South West Division (Chikwawa, Blantyre Rural, Blantyre Urban,Mwanza, Nsanje)South East Division (Zomba Rural, Zomba Urban, Balaka, Mangochi, Machinga)Shire Highlands Division (Mulanje, Chiradzulu, Thyolo, Phalombe)Central West Division (Lilongwe Rural, Lilongwe Urban, Mchinji, Ntcheu, Dedza)Central East Division (Kasungu, Dowa, Ntchisi, Salima, Nkhotakota)North Division (Mzuzu, Mzimba, Karonga, Chitipa, Nkhatabay, Rumphi)These Education Divisions comprise of 4-6 Education Districts. These divisions are further divided into zones and each zone has 6 – 10 primary schools. On average a single primary school contains up to 3000 pupils and an average of 350 teachers. This form of grouping is done for easy management of the schools.Every year the Ministry of Education prepares an Annual Primary School Census Questionnaire which is distibuted to every primary school.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to find out general information about the school.This information includes:-
School Identification Data :- When the school was established, the current Headmaster,Head Teacher, School phone number, School Registration number, Location of the school, School address, the proprieter of the school,
School Enrollment Data :- records are submitted by Age, Sex and Standard, repeaters by Sex and Standard, transfers in by Sex and Standard, transfers out by Sex and Standard, the previous years dropouts and also teachers by qualification.
Physical Facilities:- these include classrooms, staffroom, workshop, teachers houses, water toilets, pit latrines, kitchen, hostels, electricity, tables, chairs.
Supplies and Textbooks:- this checks wether supplies to the school are adequate or inadequate i.e. footballs, netballs, notebooks, textbooks, pencils, pens, registers, chalk etc.
Teacher’s Data :- Statistics are collected of all the teachers i.e. Sex, Date of birth, standard they are teaching, teaching qualification, total teaching periods, first appointment to education service.For private schools to be recognised they obtain a license from the government and after registering they get a center number so the center can administer Primary School Leaving Certificate Examinations. For a private primary school student to get selected to a government secondary he has to apply directly to the Ministry of Education so that they can decide his eligibility.
Free Primary School Education
The introduction of Free Primary Education in Malawi has seen a large increase in the number of children going to primary school. In effect more Malawians are being educated and hence the whole nation is moving towards literacy and a well-informed society with sound judgement and reasoning, where individuals are able to communicate with each other on the same level. A basic education is essential for someone to understand how the world works and to appreciate the value of the property one has. In Malawi it is essential for each individual to be able to appeciate what one has. Education helps build ideas in ones mind, without basic education even an intelligent child would not be able to develop to his full potential.Despite the advantages free education has also brought with it a lot of problems: –
Infrastructure: – Children have to learn under trees because there are more children attending primary schools and not enough classrooms to house the children. As a result Children are being denied the chance to learn under normal conditions due to scarce resources e.g. desks, books, teaching materials etc. Children are also exposed to hardships beyond their age due to lack of classrooms e.g. cold, rain, and wind since most of them are learning outside.
Hygiene: – Children have to live in an environment that has very poor sanitation, most of the toilets and water taps have been vandalised and those that have not do not work properly.
Teachers: – The Government has made provisions that for every 60 children there is a teacher allocated but in most cases you will find three teachers sharing 200 students in one class and dividing the subjects between them. This does not help the concentration of the children and neither that of the teacher. There is no way a teacher can pay attention to 200 pupils.
Public attitude: – Both the etchers, the public and the pupils are misunderstanding the word “free” they have an attitude that implies that since education is free they only teach if they want or not and similarly with children. The idea behind Free Primary Education is that education is free but the rules and regulations still apply to both teachers and pupils in the schools. There is also a general attitude that says government should do everything for us when that should not be the case at all.The government has put in pace Free Primary Education for the good of the nation and it is up to the public, parents, teachers and students to make it work.