Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04LILONGWE775
2004-08-10 15:20:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Lilongwe
Cable title:  

MALAWI EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM WORSE OFF THAN

Tags:  SOCI EAID MI 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LILONGWE 000775 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI EAID MI
SUBJECT: MALAWI EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM WORSE OFF THAN
BEFORE FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION

REF: LILONGWE 706

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LILONGWE 000775

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SOCI EAID MI
SUBJECT: MALAWI EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM WORSE OFF THAN
BEFORE FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION

REF: LILONGWE 706


1. SUMMARY. According to the recently released "Free
Primary Education For All" report, dropout rates,
repetition rates, and qualified teacher-to-pupil
ratios in public primary schools have all worsened
over the past ten years. At the same time, overall
enrollment and government expenditures on public
education increased. Recent attempts by the
Government of Malawi (GOM) to increase the number of
qualified teachers demonstrate that the GOM
recognizes that the quality of public education was
compromised at the expense of quantity when Free
Primary Education (FPE) was introduced in 1994. END
SUMMARY.

Free Primary Education: 10 YEARS ON
--------------

2. Analyzing free primary education since its
introduction ten years ago, the recently released
"Free Primary Education For All" report, published by
the Centre for Educational Research and Training at
the University of Malawi, asserts that quality was
compromised for quantity in an attempt to quickly
implement Free Primary Education. In its analysis of
the education system the report looks at the
relationship between public education spending and
education outcomes in primary schools. Primary
school in Malawi, is supposed to begin at age six and
last eight years.


3. On education expenditure, the report notes that
over the past ten years the GOM has increased its
education budget every year, but the budget increases
have not been proportional to the increasing student
enrollment. Most of the money in the education budget
goes for teachers' salaries, leaving little money for
expansion and maintenance of school facilities.


4. Dropout rates have also dramatically increased.
The report notes that over seventy percent of
children who entered primary school between 1990-2000
dropped out before finishing, with most citing the
costs of school uniforms and supplies as the most
common reasons. The largest percentage of dropouts
occurred the year free primary school was introduced,
and the rate has marginally improved each year since.
However, a higher percentage of students still drop
out than before free primary education.


5. In addition to high dropout rates, the majority of
primary students have repeated at least one grade,
which represents a twenty percent increase from the
repetition rates prior to the introduction of FPE.

The percentage of unqualified (untrained) teachers
also rose from twenty percent prior to FPE to fifty
percent four years later, and the number of pupils
per English and Math textbook doubled because of the
enrollment increases following the introduction of
FPE.


6. Officials, including the current Minister of
Education, acknowledge that more planning should have
gone into the introduction of FPE in 1994. However,
the education system's largest obstacle is budgetary
constraints. Last year, the Ministry requested MK 13
billion ($130 million),and Parliament approved a
budget of MK 6 billion ($60 million). However, the
amount actually received by the Ministry was less
than MK 6 billion. Of the Ministry's received
funding, MK 4 billion ($40 million) went to pay
teachers' salaries. The budget shortfalls have been
left to members of the donor community to cover. In
1998 alone, donors provided almost ninty-five percent
of the money spent on school facilities improvement
and teacher training.


7. According to the report, the introduction of free
primary education in Malawi has not produced a system
of universal primary education. Even before
factoring in dropout and grade repetition rates, only
eighty percent of children enroll in school.
Education in Malawi is not compulsory at any age.

INTRODUCTION OF FPE
--------------

8. Both of the major parties in the 1994 elections,
the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United
Democratic Front (UDF),promised free primary
education. The MCP stated that they would continue
to gradually implement FPE, while the UDF did not
publicly comment on their plan for FPE. When the UDF
won the presidential elections in May 1994, the
President announced that primary schools would be
free at the start of school in September. Prior to
the implementation of FPS, the GOM did not undertake
a study of the current educational system to see
where improvements were needed.


9. 3.2 million children signed up to attend school in
September 1994, an enrollment increase of 70% from
the previous year. The GOM allowed any child to
enroll in any grade, resulting in many overaged
children attending school. There was a particularly
large increase in Standard 8 (the last grade in
primary school) enrollment, which suggested many
children who had dropped out re-enrolled when school
was free in the hopes of attending secondary school.
To handle the increased number of students, the GOM
hired 22,000 new teachers, 20,000 of whom were
unqualified. These teachers were given a two-week
training course prior to being sent into the field.

PRIOR TO FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION
--------------

10. Prior to the introduction of FPE in Malawi, the
school system had been funded primarily through
student fees. The enrollment figures of Malawian
primary schools have been steadily increasing since
Malawi gained its independence in 1964. Starting in
the 1991-1992 school year, the GOM, along with help
from the World Bank, began to introduce fee waivers
for children in the first four years of primary
school, as a way to entice parents to send their
children to school. The year that fee waivers were
introduced there was a 40% increase in enrollment in
the first grade of primary school, meaning that many
parents were encouraged to enroll their children in
school when the cost was drastically reduced or
eliminated.


11. The GOM along with USAID introduced the Girls'
Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education (GABLE)
program in 1991-1992. This program provided school
fee waivers for non-repeating primary school girls in
most primary school grades. This program led to a
twelve percent increase in primary school enrollment
for girls.

COMMENT
--------------

12. The decision to implement FPE four months after
the 1994 elections was a way for the UDF to
communicate to the rural masses that multi-party
democracy meant big changes from Dr. Banda's elitest
dictatorship. GOM officials, however, expanded
public education without taking into account the
state of education in Malawi and the ability of the
existing schools to handle the increased enrollment.
That lack of planning before implementation continues
to hinder the expansion of education in Malawi, ten
years later.

RASPOLIC