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Malawi was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to abolish primary school fees in 1994. The impact was dramatic. An additional 1 million children entered school, a 51% increase in enrolment from the previous school year. Despite this significant progress in enabling children to go to school, the “Big Bang” approach resulted in a rapid deterioration in quality. Class sizes are exceptionally high, the number of children completing school is low and pupil drop-out rates are high.
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The quality of early years education in Malawian primary schools is exceptionally poor even by regional standards.
- data indicates that only 3% of Standard 4 (year 4) learners are competent in Maths and English;
- average Pupil to Teacher ratio in Standard 1 is 160:1;
- drop-out rates are high - less than 30% of children complete all 8 years of primary school;
- of those that do, one-third then fails the primary school leaving exam;
Education provision urgently needs to make a step change – business as usual with incremental changes will not change consumption into investment.
To ensure our work can have a wide-reaching impact, LCD works in partnership with the Malawian Ministry of education, Science & Technology (MoEST). The MoEST has recently completed it's 10-year National Education Sector Plan (2008-2017) and we are able to use our particular expertise to support the national plan in a number of areas. These include focusing on policy innovations to support the three national priorities of quality and relevance; access and equity; governance and management.
LCD Malawi is in a strong position to have a significant impact on the education sector in Malawi as demonstrated by the real progress happening in the two districts where we work. Our successes will continue to be used to influence educational policy at a national level with the aim of bringing improvement to schools across the whole of Malawi. At our core is the LCD vision of a world where all children have access to high quality education.
