30 years of shame

Malawi clocked 30 years of democracy last year.

However, questions linger whether the shift from founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s one-party rule has delivered the desired change.

Kamuzu’s successor, Bakili Muluzi, says he settled for Bingu wa Mutharika as his heir to deliver economic emancipation after a decade of entrenching democratic reforms and rights, including free primary education.

However, education for all has more than doubled enrolment to over three million in underfunded public schools.

This means most Malawian children have to learn in harsh environments marked by a shortage of teachers, classrooms, desks and other basics.

Three decades on, Mapereka Primary School in Mulanje District has never had a desk, save for the one reserved for the headteacher.

All learners that have gone through the rural school endured sitting on dusty floors and only a lucky few get to use one when selected to secondary school.

The dusty classrooms with cracked walls, ‘potholed floods’ and faded chalkboards mirror a common gap in the country’s underfunded education sector.

Still, the learners, mostly from poor households, appear determined to learn and escape the vicious cycle of poverty.

Similarly, dedicated teachers frequently use personal money to buy teaching materials.

However, they cannot afford desks for the 1 200 learners in eight overcrowded classrooms.

They cannot utter a word about the pathetic teaching and learning conditions as Mulanje district education manager Enock Chumachawo has gagged school authorities from speaking to journalists “on matters happening in the schools or requiring Ministry of Education’s response”.

The ban requires headteachers, teachers, primary education advisers, inspectors and school staff to refer “such matters or the journalist to the ministry”.

“It is only the PRO [public relations officer] who is mandated to talk to the public on ministry matters,” it reads in part.

However, Chumachawo himself declined to speak on the deprived school’s situation.

Instead, he referred the matter to the PRO, Mphatso Nkuonera.

When asked what the ministry is doing to address such challenges, the publicist said: “We will revert whenever the response is ready.”

However, for over a month the ministry is yet to respond.

In 2023, the Ministry of Education reported only 484 074 desks for over 5.2 million learners in the country’s primary schools.

This leaves over 4.8 million learners stuck to dusty floors.

“Learners who sit on the floor are exposed to harsh temperatures in cold and hot places and seasons,” the ministry reports.

Some primary schools rely on donations from local and international organisations.

Teachers say the harsh learning environment forces some children to skip classes and drop out.

This derails the national push for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) five, which promotes quality, inclusive and equitable life-long learning by 2030.

Also at stake is the Malawi 2063 long-term vision to transform the nation into an inclusive, prosperous, and self-reliant upper-middle-income economy by 2063.

Education policy analysts say such neglected conditions demotivate learners from staying in school.

They say all regimes since 1994 have shown little or no political will to close the gap.

Educationist Steve Sharra says such conditions make young learners’ experience tough.

He says: “This is part of why only about 260 000 of at least one million learners in Standard One cohort survive to Standard Eight.

“That is also part of why learner performance in the early grades is poor.”

Sharra asks the government to invest in improving school conditions and procuring desks.

“Desks are part of a broad set of factors that accord a level of personal dignity to learners, which translates into self-confidence, self-identity and a sense of purpose. These are important factors in educational achievement and success,” he says.

Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe says millions of children learn in suboptimal conditions that undermine their educational experience and development.

“Addressing this crisis requires a multifaceted approach, including increased government and donor investment in educational infrastructure, effective resource allocation, community involvement in maintaining school facilities and innovative solutions such as locally-produced desks,” he says.

Edukans country director Limbani Nsapato says it is crucial to ensure that funds for buying desks and other educational materials are distributed equitably.

As children in constrained schools wait for the furniture to lift them off the chilling floors, some feel the 30 years of democracy are lost decades.

For them, free primary education is meant for the poor while the rich and ruling elites send their children to elite private schools locally and abroad.

Their big question is: Why?