Malawi literacy levels at 62.7%

Malawi literacy levels stand at 62.7 percent on the latest list released by the African Economist Magazine.

With the release, Malawi is ranked 28 out of 52 countries.

The revelation by the magazine, according to executive director of Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec), Benedicto Kondowe, shows that education standards are falling apart.

According to the magazine, Zimbabwe has, for the third consecutive time, topped the literacy rate in Africa. The country has held pole position since 2010, taking over from Tunisia which is now ranked 15th.

The latest results show that, Zimbabwe’s literacy rate stands at 90.9 percent, down from 91.2 percent and it is the only country on the continent with a literacy rate of over 90 percent.

On second position is Equatorial Guinea, with 87 percent, while South Africa and Kenya follow with 86.4 and 85.1 percent respectively, making the tail end is Burkina Faso on 21.8 percent. Tunisia’s literacy rate now stands at 74.3 percent.

Kondowe said the statistics are showing that Malawi is not making progress when compared with recent literacy levels which were at 64 percent.

“This is a wake-up call to government to ensure that more Malawians are able to read and write,” said Kondowe.

The current pupil to qualified teacher ratio is 91 to 1 which is too high. The recommended ratio is 60 to 1.

Currently, at least 48 000 primary school teachers are attending to 4.1 million pupils in primary schools which Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) says exerts pressure on teachers.

Zimbabwe, which had one university at independence, now boasts of 12 with an enrolment of over 69 000.

The number of teachers colleges has also increased from eight in 1980 to 14 in 2013 while polytechnics have increased from two to 13 during the same period.