Compulsory education policy under spotlight
Education experts have challenged government to walk the talk and start implementing compulsory education as stipulated in the Education Act (2013) if the country is to deal with high levels of school dropouts.
The observation follows findings of a study by education expert Limbani Nsapato which show that out of a population of 19 million people, five million adults are illiterate while three million primary and secondary school-going age children are out of school.
The study further reveals that about 450 000 primary school learners and 71 000 secondary school learners have dropped out of school during the 20 months of President Lazarus Chakwera’s leadership, while thousands of college and university students have turned out to be beggars at risk of dropping out due to lack of fees.
In his analysis of the report, Nsapato said that the findings pose a challenge for Chakwera to expeditiously work on his broken promises to uplift the education sector by, among others, developing guidelines for implementing the compulsory education policy.
The Education Act (2013) Section 13 stipulates that “provision of primary education in government schools shall be free of tuition to all and compulsory for every child below the age of 18”. The Act outlines punishments to parents for failure to send their children to school.
Reads the analysis in part: “President Chakwera on several occasions made a number of commitments to upgrade the education standards among them a commitment to ensure that every child goes to school, stays in school, and finishes school. However, this is not being implemented.”
In addition, Nsapato said there were several gaps in resources, governance and management that were pushing learners out of the system.
The report further shows that primary school completion rate has declined from 53 percent in 2019 to 50 percent in 2021, while secondary school completion rate has declined from 21 percent in 2020 to 20 percent in 2021.
Pass rate in Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) has averaged 46.7 percent over the past two academic years, which is below the 58 percent average achieved since 2015 when the country adopted the global Sustainable Development Goal number 4.
Said Nsapato: “Most of the promises require substantial investment in the education sector. The global financing architecture is guided by benchmarks. In 2015 the Unesco Incheon Declaration urged countries like Malawi to spend or exceed six percent of the GDP [gross domestic product] or 20 percent of the national budget towards education.”
However, even though government has allocated a lion’s share of its budget to education, the allocation falls short of the benchmarks and 50 percent below K646 billion projection set out in the National Education Sector Investment Plan (Nesip 2020-30), a medium-term blueprint for achieving Malawi 2063.
Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe agrees with Nsapato that there was need to come up with a plan to start implementing the law.
Ministry of Education spokesperson Chikondi Chimala said the ministry is working on implementing the policy in accordance with the 2020-2030 Nesip.
According to the Nesip, between 2020 and 2030, government will be developing a strategy to enforce the implementation of compulsory education. It is projected that primary enrolment will jump from the current four million to seven million in 2030.
