The country's teacher training colleges, which train primary school teachers, have an estimated bed capacity of between 9,000 and 10,000. Currently primary school teachers undergo a two-year certificate programme, and an estimated 5,000 new teachers graduate each year (actual figures differ from year to year due to various factors).
The government has been unable to recruit new teachers over the past five years, and lately they have resorted to recruiting what they are calling "auxiliary teachers", paid K80,000 (approx. $75) per month, on yearly contracts. The International Monetary Fund's Extended Credit Facility conditionalities prevent Malawi from recruiting the civil servants that it needs. There is some good news this year, as both The Nation and Daily Times reported on 6th July. Government will be able to recruit 3,000 new primary school teachers, and another 3,000 new secondary school teachers. Given government's inability to recruit any teachers over the past five years, and albeit the small number, this is a positive development.
The current estimate of 5,000 new teachers graduating every year means it would take six years to train the 30,000 teachers that make the current primary school teacher shortage. The Ministry's statistics show that 2,141 primary school teachers left the profession in the 2021/2022 school year. The commonest reason was retirement - voluntary, mandatory, and, interestingly, by "public demand."
The National Education Sector Investment Plan (NESIP) 2020-2030 estimates that the country will need 118,314 by 2030 in order to reach a 1:60 qualified teacher-pupil ratio. Covid-19 forced half a million learners out of primary school, which, inadvertently, improved the teacher-pupil ratio to 1:62, pushing it very close to the policy target nine years ahead of schedule. However, the truth of the matter is that we need to retire this policy target. It is archaic. It first appeared in the country’s education policy in 2008, as an admission that it was proving impossible to achieve the 1:40 teacher-pupil ratio proposed in Vision 2020. So 1:60 was proposed as an intermediate target, to be reached by 2018. It did not happen.
We need a new, more ambitious policy target. Countries who rank as having the best education systems in the world aim for small classes, even down to 15 learners per class. That may be impossible for us, but as the historic Transforming Education Summit at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly called on member states, transforming education systems requires setting ambitious targets.
One important, transformative policy proposal in the NESIP 2020-2030 is to change the entry-level qualification to teach in primary school from a certificate to a diploma/degree. Going by the NESIP projection of 118,314 teachers needed by 2030, and probably several thousands more if we factor in attrition, population growth, and a more ambitious teacher-pupil ratio, there actual number of teachers who need to be upgraded is much bigger. The current model of relying on bed capacity in the public and private teacher training colleges will not be able to deliver the more than 17,000 teachers per year who need to upgrade between now and 2030.
On Friday 14th July, 2023, Unicaf University launched a new Bachelor of Education in Primary Education programme, for Malawian primary school teachers. As a fully online teacher preparation programme, it has been designed to help towards the Malawi Government’s ambition to upgrade the entry level qualification for primary school teachers, and to do so at scale. The programme was launched at Chatuwa Primary School, in Area 18B, in the city of Lilongwe. The Minister of Education, Hon. Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima, was represented by Dr. Levis Eneya, Director of Higher Education in the Ministry. The Secretary for Education, Mrs Chikondano Mussa, was represented by Dr. Zizwa Msukuma, Director of Teacher Education and Development in the Ministry.
Below are the remarks I made at the launch, edited for purposes of the blog. I explained the rationale behind the programme, the process and the design, and how we hope it can contribute towards the transformation of the teaching profession in Malawi. I titled my remarks “Spirit of Transformation: Making Teaching a Prestigious Profession in Malawi.”
[Speech]
I want to start by sharing a brief story of how I became a primary school teacher. I am one of 4,000 teachers who were trained through the Malawi Special Teacher Education Programme, MASTEP. It ran from December 1989 to July 1993. Our postings came toward the end of the year 1993. In January 1994, at the beginning of the second term, I reported at the Dedza District Education Office. I was posted to a school in Dedza West, on the border with Mozambique. To get to the school, there was a bus that went in that direction once a day, but from the bus stop, there was another long distance, by bicycle. So, I was advised to drop off at the bus stop, walk to a nearby school, and ask to borrow a bicycle. I did as advised. The school was kind enough to ask a Standard 8 learner to accompany me. So I got on the bicycle, with the student on the carrier. I remember at one point asking the boy, how far do we still have to go? “He pointed at a range of hills in the distance. “See those hills in the distance? The school is behind those hills.”
We arrived at the school towards noon. I informed the headteacher that I was not staying yet; I needed to go back and get my belongings before returning to report for duties and start my job. We cycled back, just in time for me to catch the bus on its way back to Dedza boma. Instead of picking up my belongings and reporting at the school, I came to the Ministry Headquarters here in Lilongwe, to ask to be transferred to Zomba, where my parents stayed and worked. Why? I was looking for an opportunity to continue with my studies. It would be easier to do that in Zomba than in Dedza. My request was not granted, but I was allowed to transfer to Ntcheu instead. Four years later, in 1998, my dream of further education materialized.
I started with that story because, were that scenario to repeat itself today, I would not reject my posting to a remote school in Dedza, or anywhere in the country. I would accept it, because I would not need to go to a city school in order to pursue further studies. The Bachelor of Education in Primary Education programme that we have developed at Unicaf University, which is being launched today, has been designed exactly for the kind of teacher I was in 1994. It has also been designed for anyone who would like to become a primary school teacher anywhere in Malawi. The desire for Malawian primary school teachers to have diplomas and degrees as the entry-level qualification has a long history. In the 2008-2018 National Strategy for Teacher Education and Development (NSTED), the plan was to start with headteachers, Primary Education Advisers, Teacher Training College lecturers, and District Education Managers. For TTC lecturers and District Education Managers, this was achieved. In the National Education Sector and Investment Plan (NESIP) 2020-2030, the plan has now extended to primary school teachers. And this is where Unicaf University has stepped in, to support this national policy and help make it a reality.
As the Ministry’s most recent statistics show, there were 84,798 primary school teachers in the country in 2022. At least 800 of these teachers already had a diploma or a degree in education. That leaves more than 83,000 teachers who need to be upgraded. The NESIP 2020-2030 projects that 118,314 teachers would be needed in order to reach a teacher-pupil ratio of 60 learners per teacher, per classroom by 2030. Considering teacher attrition rates, population growth rates, and the desire for smaller classes as per international standards, the demand for new primary school teachers is obviously larger than these figures suggest. Training all these teachers to diploma and degree levels poses a national headache.
Unicaf University has a state-of-the-art online platform that can enroll students at scale. The BEd in Primary Education programme that we have developed will enroll anyone who would like to become a primary school teacher, and also primary school teachers who would like to upgrade their qualifications to diploma and degree level.
The programme provides three innovations made possible only by online technology, not available in traditional face-to-face programmes.
1. First, upgrading teachers will not have to leave their duty station and teaching responsibilities to go to a university. All the curriculum and content materials are online. Students just need a computer, or laptop, or tablet or a smartphone and an Internet connection.
2. Second, Teaching Practice will not need relocation, whether for upgrading teachers or generic students. This modality therefore allows for an extended Teaching Practice, beyond the limits of a face-to-face programme. In our programme, the Teaching Practice for upgrading teachers is one full year, while for generic students, it is two years.
3. The third innovation made possible by the online platform is that student teachers, both generic students and upgrading teachers, will be able to put theory to practice immediately. They will not have to wait to finish college courses, before going into the classroom for Teaching Practice.
There are two other innovations. The programme requires student teachers to conduct Child Study in Year 3, and Action Research in Year 4. The Child Study will involve the study of the cognitive and social development of a learner for one full year (Year 3). The Action Research component will require student teachers to identify a problem in classroom practice, or in the school, and spend their final year researching solutions to that problem.
International research on Teacher Education consistently shows that student teachers who spend up to one year in Teaching Practice are more satisfied with their preparation as teachers, and are viewed by their colleagues and headteachers as better prepared. The research further shows that teachers prepared through this model are also more likely to enter the profession upon completion, and to stay in the profession. In Malawi, Teaching Practice runs for one or two school terms, at most.
To develop the programme, we engaged in extensive consultations and research. We had more than fifteen meetings and stakeholder forums with the relevant directorates in the Ministry, and with stakeholders who included teachers, headteachers, teacher educators, Primary Education Advisers, District Education Managers, academics, civil society, and Development Partners, among others. We benchmarked against peer institutions locally, and also internationally. We studied previous teacher education programmes in Malawi, including MASTEP and MIITEP, and the current IPTE programme. We also consulted top-ranked teacher preparation programmes in other countries.
The product of that process is a programme that will produce a well-prepared and highly qualified primary school teacher in a 21st century Malawi. They will learn the foundations of education, comprising historical, philosophical, and ethical perspectives in education. They will encounter sociological and psychological perspectives in education; academic communication and critical thinking, as well as curriculum theory and practice, and inclusive classroom management.
They will learn all the content that comprises the primary school curriculum, and the attendant teaching and assessment methods. Student teachers will also learn how to teach peace education, citizenship education, and intercultural education. They will tackle climate change and sustainable development challenges, leadership and management, and evidence-informed decision making in education policy. The programme aims to produce teachers who will use creative and innovative thinking to solve classroom and school problems. They will learn how to use digital technology for teaching and learning, in addition to courses in Business Management, Entrepreneurship, and Financial Literacy.
I was looking at the class that sat this year’s Standard 8 exams, the Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PSLCE) Examinations. When that class entered Standard 1 eight years ago, in the 2015/2016 school year, their enrollment was an estimated 1.1 million learners. This year, the number that sat the PSLCE exam was 276,052 learners. Over the 8-year period between 2015 and 2023, more than 823,000 learners from this cohort, did not make it. That is 75 percent; or three out of four learners. This is a serious challenge to the human capital development agenda of this country. We have designed a programme whose graduating teachers will have a deeper understanding of national challenges such as these, and the role of teachers in helping to find lasting solutions.
As the numbers of teachers wanting to upgrade, and of young Malawians wanting to enter the teaching profession grow, there will be a need to educate a new cohort of teacher educators to produce new teachers in our teacher training institutions. Unicaf University has existing Masters, Ph.D., and Doctor of Education programmes to meet this need. Our university offers a holistic and comprehensive online ecosystem of teacher education and development from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Our postgraduate programmes in education contribute to education research, policy and practice at national and international levels. Our postgraduate students research difficult problems in the education systems of Malawi and other countries around the world.
The BEd in Primary Education programme being launched today is going to contribute to national aspirations to make the teaching profession special and attractive. As we all recognize, the teaching profession is the foundation of all professions. At the historic Transforming Education Summit in September 2022, held during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, His Excellency the State President, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, presented Malawi’s National Statement of Commitment towards transforming education in Malawi by 2030. With regard to the role of teachers in that transformation, here is what the President said: “Malawi’s aspirations for teachers … include the transformation of the teaching profession to make it prestigious, autonomous, trusted, and accountable.”
At Unicaf University, we believe that the BEd in Primary Education programme will contribute towards those aspirations. There is one important implication to the aspiration to the make teaching profession prestigious and attractive, as is stated in the National Statement of Commitment. It means transforming the education system, and the teaching profession, so that Malawi’s brightest secondary school students, those who score Six Points (distinctions) at Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination, should be able to choose to become primary school teachers, because they know they will be joining a prestigious profession. That is why it is important that a diploma/degree in primary education is becoming the entry-level qualification, as per the NESIP 2020-2030. And teachers should not stop there. They should be able to continue on to postgraduate qualifications, while staying within the teaching profession and helping to transform it.
As I conclude my remarks, it is in that spirit of transformation, that our programme has been designed; to help make teaching a prestigious profession in Malawi. In so doing, we hope this programme will contribute towards Malawi’s long-term ambitions, including the 2030 agenda, and the Malawi 2063 vision.
