Quality education remains a pipe dream
It was a few minutes past 10:00 am when a tree fell down with a thud, attracting the attention of hundreds of people including children, teachers and the surrounding neighbourhood. Seconds later, children wailed and many rushed to the scene only to discover that the fallen tree had killed two pupils and injured several others who were learning under it.
The incident happened last year at Mkomachi in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. The tragic loss of pupils on this day attests to the problems afflicting the Malawian education system - highlights some of the lack of secure classrooms for a better learning environment required for the provision of quality education to thousands of pupils.
This, however, was not the first time for Malawi to experience such a disaster. Since the introduction of free primary education in 1994 the country has witnessed a number of deaths and injuries resulting from falling school blocks on pupils. Due to lack of classrooms, a number of pupils have been rained on during lessons, forcing them to abandon classes.
With this kind of situation it is very unlikely that Malawi will by 2015 ensure that all children have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality, one of the six Education for All (EFA) goals stipulated in the Dakar Framework of 2000.
According to UNESCO’s EFA Global Monitoring Report: The quality imperative 2005, simply focusing on quantitative goals such as universal primary education will not deliver EFA. Malawi is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries, which have yet to come up with concrete plans for the implementation of EFA goals.
Every year, Malawi takes part in Global Campaign for Education Week of Action with the aim of lobbying education stakeholders to do more towards the realization of the EFA goals. But civil society groups fear that the country may not achieve the EFA goals without an action plan. Julita Nsanjama, the national coordinator for Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF) – an NGO that advocates for equal access to education for both boys and girls - said the civil society organizations were working with the government to achieve the six EFA goals. She noted that one of the goals was the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and
achieving gender parity in education by 2015.
The achievement of EFA goals, she said, also requires government commitment.
“More importantly, it requires political will”, she added. The Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE), an alliance of Civil Society Organisations that
are actively working in basic education sector, said in its recent statement to journalists, that an absence of an action plan makes it difficult to measure how far Malawi
is in achieving the six EFA goals.
That notwithstanding, the government, through education policies and strategies, and commitment from civil society, donors, communities and the private sector, is slowly making headway in promoting education for all. CSCQBE says the time for promises is over and the government should embark on implementation. “This is the time to actualize the promises to deal with high illiteracy in the country and redeem the nation from the worst forms of poverty and injustice” said CSCQBE.
According to the 1998 census, illiteracy rate is high at over 40 per cent, with many children especially girls dropping out of school. It is estimated that only 30 per cent of the children
complete primary education.
Whereas the UNESCO report says that education for all cannot be achieved without improving the quality, the Malawi government may not realize this goal in the near future. For the past 10 years, the quality of education has gone down due to lack of infrastructure, trained teachers and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Upon ascending to power last May, President Bingu wa Mutharika said that some of his major engagements would include the improvement of the education system, which he said had deteriorated.
On his part, Education Minister Yusuf Mwawa admitted that his ministry has a lot of work to do in order to improve the standards of education. He is also aware about the six EFA goals, but hastens to add that the government lacks money for the effective implementation of the goals.
In the final analysis, experts are unanimous that the free education in Malawi has not been marched with quality due to poor planning. Achieving the six EFA goals in Malawi remains a pipe dream.