Mwalandiridwa (Welcome) Readers,
Hello everyone, recently Africa Bags started to plan two new projects in Malawi. The first is a nursery school at Kamweko CDC, which will cost roughly $1000 per year for teacher’s salaries and supplies. The second project is the Kamweko Library, which will be developed in two stages costing a total of $7000. These two projects are part of a new initiative that Africa Bags is undergoing with Empowering Malawi. Empowering Malawi is working to provide “a better education and give them the opportunity to expand their knowledge.” With these new projects and endeavors that Africa Bags is undertaking I thought it would be nice to tell you a little bit about the education system in Malawi.
The nation of Malawi has a very troubled education system because many people are so poverty-stricken that they cannot afford to pay for themselves or for their children to attend. Just to give you an idea of the state of their education system here are some interesting statistics. In the period from 2005-2008 the adult literacy rate was only 73% compared to 99% in the US. Malawi’s primary school enrolment is 91%, however secondary school enrolment drops dramatically down to a range of 18% to 32%. This is a stark contrast to the United States 99% primary school enrolment and 94% secondary school enrolment. So as you can see Malawi is struggling with this problem and needs some help to try to improve their system.
A primary school class in Malawi
Now onto the layout of Malawi’s school system, they operate in an 8-4-4 system similar to that of the United States. In this system they attend a primary school for 8 years, a secondary school for 4 years and then possibly a university for 4 years; however this last step is rare and difficult for many to achieve. For the first 4 years students can choose any of the local languages to study, however after that English is the main language taught and the language of the textbooks. Other languages can be taken all the way up until the end of secondary school.
Secondary Education takes place through 3 options: Governmental aided mission schools, private schools and day schools otherwise called distance education centers. At the end of secondary school all students take what is called the Malawi School Certificate of Education Examination. This examination tests the students on a minimum of 6 different areas and is graded on a scale of 1-6 with 6 being the highest. This test is highly competitive and only around 1% of students receive a 6. It is used for placement into a University as well as for training courses and job selection. Also the SAT and GRE test are offered throughout the year.
A university classroom in Malawi
University Education is only found at the University of Malawi, University of Mzuzu or Government training colleges. There is a variety of constituent colleges to the university including: the college of medicine, Chancellor College, Bunda college of agriculture, the Malawi polytechnic, and the Kamuzu college of nursing.
If you would like to find more information about the education system you can visit these sites:
http://lilongwe.usembassy.gov/advising_services6.html
http://malawiunmission.com/malawieducation.htm
If you would like to help Empowering Malawi you can buy t-shirts with their logo printed on the front here:
The Malawi Beat 