Missing the universal education goal

This year, 2015, was set as deadline for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the United Nations. Five years have elapsed since the Millennium Declaration was signed by member states in September 2000. Among the eight MDGs is the quest to meet universal primary school education and the ultimate goal is that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, would be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

Completing full primary course is not enough without guaranteeing the quality assurance of the education attained. Are we satisfied today that those who complete primary school education in public schools can read, write or speak English or at least anything that can show that they have been in school?

If the answer is no, then a lot more has to be done in our education system. Despite the free primary school education in Malawi, where enrolment is titanic, achieving quality primary school education seems to be many moons away due to a number of reasons.

One of the factors affecting quality education in primary schools is the shortage of school blocks or classrooms. Lack of better school infrastructure is forcing teachers to set classes outside.

Apparently, the culture of learning outside is refusing to die 51 years after independence. It is possible that somebody who leant under a tree during colonial era has a grandson or granddaughter still learning under the tree. A good example is Bua Primary School in Mchinji, which has only 12 classrooms, but with 3 300 learners.

Almost half of the pupils learn in the open.

Learning outside has many challenges, including failure by learners to concentrate because they have many things to divert their attention. During the rainy season, classes are combined and school work becomes strenuous for the learners and their teachers. Those who learn in classrooms have no desks.

Kamuzu Primary School in Mchinji has 3 864 learners, with only 20 desks. Learning for those who sit on the ground is arduous and has a negative bearing on the learner’s performance due to the bad posture at which they are forced to present themselves while learning.

Another factor putting our primary school education in the doldrums is teacher-to-pupil ratio is far from normal. Currently, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), there are 4.7 million pupils in primary schools against 58 946 teachers. This is obviously far from the pupil–to-teacher ratio of 60:1.

But given the status quo, it is possible that one teacher has over 200 pupils in extreme cases. The practicality of delivering a lesson in 35 minutes, assignments and marking over 200 exercise books is an impossible tale.

Pupils can learn at different velocities given that some are slow while others are fast learners but it takes an enabling learning environment for a teacher to reach out to them all equally.

When I visited one of the schools in Blantyre, I found a teacher seated near the classroom door outside while the class was in session and when I enquired, she said she could not bear the heat in an overcrowded class where all spaces were filled, including where the teacher was supposed to sit.

As if that is not enough, the MoEST introduced the Primary Curriculum Assessment Reporting system (Pcar) whereby a teacher is supposed to produce an assessment report on each and every pupil on the lesson learnt. Many education commentators suggest that Pcar is a right system, but in the wrong place. It is difficult for a teacher who has over 200 pupils in class to deliver a lesson in 35 minutes and at the same time assess all the pupils.

This has led to some teachers writing fake reports to please primary education advisors (PEAs) who conduct routine supervision in schools to ensure that teachers are abiding by the operating principles.

There is also lack of teacher motivation hampering primary education. Apart from the meagre salaries that teachers get, they get their salaries very late. Some teachers, according to Teachers’ Union of Malawi (TUM), have not been paid since October 2014. In some circumstances, teachers can stay for three months without pay.

Some teachers have never been promoted, in spite of their being employed for over 25 years. This forces them to form part-time classes where each pupil coughs out up to K3 000 a month. Pupils whose parents cannot afford the amount are completely marginalised because the mainstream classes cannot give the quality of education they deserve.

Given all these factors primary school education is very pathetic in Malawi and a lot needs to be done. Whatever happens, it is the innocent children who pay the price and we all owe them good future. The confident and trust that the children we send to school receive the quality education they deserve has been lost and our and if nothing improves our schools are already in the process of manufacturing a generation of illiterates.