YEAH Project

YEAH Project

Education: mission almost impossible

 

So, I am a volunteer in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world (in top 3 according to some sources) … in Nsanje district … the most undeveloped from Malawi … in Chididi – an isolated rural community in the mountains (or high hills).

Chididi is a group of villages with few primary schools and nurseries and just one secondary school. The education is free just for the primary level (8 years). Each secondary school has its own fees. In general, the better the school, the higher the costs. The best ranked are the private boarding ones, followed by the government boarding schools. What choice do you have if you are not performing very well: community secondary schools (like the one in Chididi). You will be placed in a high school according to the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination results.

At the secondary level you have two examinations: at the end of Form 2 – Junior Certificate and at the end of your final year (Form 4) – MSCE. No more than 10% of the Chididi Secondary School students pass the final examination each year, from which maybe just 1% are girls.

I am teaching English on afternoon classes for just very few of Standard 7 students and at the Secondary School – French for the Form Ones, PE for the Form 2, English Grammar for the Form 3 and Life Skills Education for Form 4. Each day I’m trying to do my best, but I have so many challenges: punctuality, lack of interest and discipline, language barrier. The students don’t know how to learn, to think logically, they don’t study at home, they don’t do their homework … and what to say about their level of English … (which is by the way the official language in Malawi and all the subjects apart of Chichewa should be taught in English).

There are, of course, a lot of reasons and factors to be taken into consideration. Whom should I blame? It is the students’, parents’, teachers’ and government’s fault equally. The students are lazy and they don’t have any models; most of their parents are uneducated and illiterate and they don’t encourage their children too much; lack of qualified personnel is a problem also – who would come to teach in an isolated place with poor conditions and uninterested people? Chididi Secondary School has just two qualified teachers (the others are primary school teachers) and most of the primary schools use local volunteers as teachers or assistant teachers. That is why one teacher could teach many subjects. It is just enough to have your MSCE (Malawi School Certificate of Education). Lack of materials (especially books) is another important issue; poverty – many students can’t afford to pay the school fees or to buy pens and notebooks; the big number of students – it is very difficult to teach a class of 50-100 pupils; poor conditions (broken walls, lack of space, benches etc.); the education system has some gaps too – for example, continuous evaluations could stimulate competition. Even if the students receive tests, the marks are not registered somewhere; just the end of term exams, which are actually not taken into consideration. Just the JCE (Junior Certificate Examination) matter. It allows you to proceed or not into the Form 3. So, of course the students don’t care if I give them a test and 80% fail. Because the marks don’t really matter.

If your family doesn’t give you a proper education and support and you don’t have a starting point/basis from the primary school, how would you expect to perform well in the secondary school or to dream about college or university?

But as always, there are some exceptions (very few in fact) which make me continue my job still with pleasure.