Think about informal Tevet

Malawi envisages becoming an inclusive, wealthy and self-reliant nation by 2063. This is the national vision in the Malawi 2063 (MW 2063).

In April 2023, I presented a paper on the informal sector and MW2063 at the National Tevet conference in Lilongwe.

This was a product of my academic research on determinants of youth unemployment in agribusiness employment opportunities.

It appears that most employable young Malawians do not have the requisite passion, knowledge and skill for agribusiness. They are mostly school dropouts with no formal qualification.

Exploring the magnitude of the problem and why many do not acquire skills after 12 years of education, I discovered that just about 19 percent of the youth in the country complete basic education.

About 15 percent of the girls and 12 percent of the boys drop out before Standard Five.

Completion rates form a pyramid, with those who complete secondary education considered as stars.

Subject to the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) scores, almost half of the stars fall off. Those who do not make it to college join the bandwagon.

For instance, 123 008 candidates sat the 2021 MSCE, but only 63 949 or 52 percent passed and just over 20 000 proceeded to tertiary education.

In simple arithmetic, more than 100 000 were stranded. These included the 40 000 who qualified for public universities, but were not selected to any college.

In 2022, some 152 391 candidates sat MSCE examinations, but 67 505 or 42 person failed.

That year, tertiary institutions could only absorb around 25 000, leaving 120 000 in the cold.

Frustrated, some migrate to South Africa.

We need to understand what skills, knowledge, values and attitudes the education system imparts to prepare them for the world of work.

Basic education philosophy questions include the following: Why should one go to school? Is education adding any value to prepare learners for the world of work?

The country about 6065 primary schools, but only 24 offer technical, entrepreneurial, vocational and education training (Tevet). This represents 0.3 percent.

Tevet is offered only in 12 out of 1411 secondary schools, representing about 0.8 percent.

Almost every primary and secondary school has a sports field and the youth fluently mention players of their favourite football team in English Premier League, but cannot mention a maize maize variety that will give nsima for the day.

While sports are vital, agriculture is the backbone of the economy. Unfortunately, few schools have demonstration gardens or greenhouses to ignite the right values, attitudes and passion for agribusiness.

Our economy requires more of blue-collar skills, not white-collar workers.

However, the curriculum is not stimulating and educating the youth to contribute to the economy’s backbone.

While some external factors hinder youth employment in agribusiness, the internal barrier is silent but has serious consequences on employment.

On June 7 1978, The Daily Times reported that Malawi exported 52 tonnes of vegetables to Britain and Seychelles in seven months.

How did we lose this spirit of inclusive wealth creation?

Today, we import even toothpicks.

Our youth should own greenhouses and form groups to export agricultural products together.

Overreliance on imports is a neglected but deadly pothole on the road to Malawi 2063, whose success hinges on wealth creation and exports.

The nation is driving dangerously and has veered off the road to the national dream.

Not everyone can do the academics. It is time we repositioned and transformed the informal Tevet and agriculture sectors for inclusive wealth creation.

Otherwise, Malawi 2063 is doomed for failure as did its predecessor, Vision 2020.

Big dreams require bold actions and right investments.

Remember that taking the same old ordinary steps cannot bring extraordinary results.