I dream of a teaching profession that attracts the best and brightest motivated young Malawians

A TV Station interviewing a 2021 Malawian outstanding teacher (Photo credit: © Steve Sharra)

The Lamp Magazine interview by Joseph Kayira, May 2021

JK: The results of the retaken 2020 MSCE examination show that 81,017 candidates out of 138,310 have failed representing 41.42 percent, a pass rate said to be the worst in a decade. What is your take on this?

SS: The poor results of the 2020 MSCE examinations were shocking and disappointing, but they cannot be said to have been unforeseen. It would have taken a miracle for the majority of students to have excelled after schools were closed for six months, and then the exams were cancelled midway through due to massive leakages and cheating. As the elders would have put it, this was “muvi woyang’anira”. It was heartwarming to see some students still going ahead to score six points and others with several distinctions, so all is not lost.

JK: What’s your opinion on some experts who think the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) should take responsibility for this unfortunate situation where these 81,017 candidates find themselves in.

SS: MANEB’s responsibility is to assess students, not to teach them. What these results have done is to hold up a mirror for us to see how our public secondary school system is performing.

JK: Was it not proper for MANEB to consider reducing the passing rate in view of the Covid-19 induced holiday forcing students stay home for some time?

SS: Reducing the passing mark would compromise the quality of education because it would depict a false image of how our public secondary school system is performing. We would end up lulling ourselves into a false sense of satisfaction; sending to universities and into employment people whose educational qualifications would not be congruent with their true level of knowledge and skills. Perhaps MANEB could have asked the Ministry of Education to delay the exams by another month or two, to allow teachers and students a little more time to prepare. But reducing the pass mark would have had undesirable consequences. The solution is to systematically study the conditions in the system, and address them.

 JK: Others think MANEB punished MSCE candidates for the examination leakage hence the poor results.

SS: If that were true, it would be unfortunate. An examining authority cannot set an exam whose purpose is to make students fail. It would entail examining students on content that was beyond their level and scope. That would be not only unethical, it would also be irresponsible. I stand to be corrected, but I hope that is not what happened.

JK: How best can MANEB handle similar situations in future to avoid the 2020 examination saga?

SS: There was a promise to carry out investigations, both internal and external. I am not aware of any reports that have been released in that regard. If the investigations were systematic and meticulous, then MANEB and the Ministry must have identified where things went wrong, and why. It was reassuring to see that the re-run happened without leakages and cheating, so one hopes whatever lessons were learned from the investigations were applied. It will take consistent due diligence to ensure that the 2020 scenario does not repeat itself in future. The integrity of our education system hinges on the conduct and credibility of the national examination process.

JK: Do you think MANEB has all the support it needs from its stakeholders to properly prepare and manage examinations?

SS: In recent years MANEB was able to demonstrate professionalism and credibility, which may be taken to mean that it has been getting the support it needs from key stakeholders. The national examination process has many layers of complexity, and requires the support and collaboration of many players. Achieving success in such a complex undertaking takes all the players sharing the ultimate goal, that of improving our education system and upholding its integrity.

JK: For months teachers, through Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM), have been fighting government [Ministry of Education] asking for risk allowance in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Were they justified to go on strike for that reason?

SS: There are two ways of looking at this. First, the teachers’ demands for covid-19 risk allowances were made in a political economy context where “allowances” have come to symbolize benefits and entitlements that have in the end created inequalities that are eating at the core of the country’s social fabric. Thus “allowances” operate in a culture where the elite accumulate for themselves benefits, privileges and power, at the expense of everyone else. That self-accumulation has been blatantly evident in the way covid-19 relief funds have been handled. People who were not at risk to the corona virus because of the nature of their work helped themselves to those funds.

The second way of looking at this question it through the prism of risk itself, real or perceived. Teachers were considered to be at some level of risk, and therefore deserving of allowances, but that decision was changed without explanation. Malawian classrooms in the public schools are so overcrowded it is impossible to achieve the social distance needed to keep away the virus. And young people are known to be carriers of corona virus without exhibiting symptoms. Classrooms are enclosed spaces and epidemiologists have pointed out this as a significant factor in the spread of the virus. Teachers and learners spend long hours inside those enclosed spaces. Teachers were not given PPE; instead, they were made to make their own masks at training sessions where even the money meant for their lunch allowances was swindled.

JK: How should the culture of allowances be handled in this country? Were teachers right or wrong to ask for risk allowance?

SS: When testing for corona virus reached boarding secondary schools, the numbers of students who were found positive were alarming. In some schools the infection rate was fifty percent. Teachers especially in boarding schools were justifiably concerned about their safety from the virus. By the way many teachers use their personal funds to make purchases for their learners and for their classrooms. This happens all over the world. Giving them the allowance would have been a reasonable gesture of appreciation for what teachers do, much of which is thankless. And some would use the money to buy PPE.

The injustice in how the allowances were handled was blatant, and it would have been naïve to expect teachers to just watch and keep quite. That is the context in which we should understand the teachers’ demands for risk allowances.

We all await the report and recommendations from the taskforce that the president announced to look into the issue of allowances, procurement and employment contracts, headed by the Vice President. Hopefully that process will bring sanity to the corrosive culture that the allowances syndrome has created.

JK: Wouldn’t you agree with those who are criticizing teachers for not being sensitive enough to go on strike at a time when the learners needed them most and at a time the country was, and still is in a crisis?

SS: In contexts where injustices are rampant, people tend to be strategic in deciding when to make their demands heard. If Malawi were a society where people were treated with dignity and respect, and people’s pleas for recognition were listened to, the teachers’ demands would have been considered insensitive. But we have created a society where the elite feel entitled to all the privileges and accumulate for themselves benefits and perks. The teachers were trying to make their voices heard in such a context. It is unfortunate that this happened when the education system was at its worst moment due to the covid-19 pandemic, but given everything we have seen, one can understand where the teachers are coming from. 

 

Minister of Education, Hon. Agnes NyaLonje, awarding a 2021 outstanding teacher

(Photo credit: © Steve Sharra)

JK: Do you think teachers have better working conditions in this country? How is Malawi ranked when it comes to remuneration of teachers in this region?

SS: When we talk about teachers’ working conditions, we talk about several things. We talk about school and classroom conditions, where teachers spend a lot of their time. The infrastructure alone needs to be appealing, hygienic, and fit for purpose. Teacher-pupil ratios need to be reasonable. Workloads also need to be reasonable so that workers can have a good work-life balance. Education relies on equipment and materials to facilitate teaching and learning. Then there are issues of remuneration and benefits. 

In Malawi teachers’ conditions, as defined, are not conducive. Classes are so large it takes a lot of work to manage them. Much of the infrastructure, especially in rural areas, is below standard. Teaching and learning materials are a big problem. In her report on the 2020 MSCE results, the Minister of Education, Hon. Agnes NyaLonje, stated that students in lower secondary classes are sharing one textbook to five students. In the upper secondary classes, that is Forms 3 and 4, the situation is so bad that up to 25 students are sharing one textbook. What that means is that many students are going the whole school year without touching a school book. That is a sure recipe for the disaster unfolding before our eyes.

There is also the important aspect of professional growth and career path, which is a huge bottleneck in our educational system. Many teachers work hard over many years but are never rewarded through promotions or other modes of recognition. Many times promotions are politicized. Many teachers are frustrated, and morale has been low for a very long time, it has become a chronic problem. There are now efforts to institutionalise a performance management system, a teacher management strategy, and a continuous professional development framework that should make career progression systematic and realistic. Once that system is established, it should restore hope in the profession and make it attractive again. It should also help retain teachers.

In terms of remuneration, teachers’ salaries are calibrated within the civil service salary structure, and teachers start at one level higher. However, salaries are just one part of the remuneration and privileges ecosystem, and in this regard teachers have the lowest benefits when compared to other sectors in the civil service. In comparative terms with the region, Malawian teachers’ salaries appear to be at par with the region, as far as power purchasing parity is concerned. But Malawi’s economy is in the lower ranks in the region, which puts Malawian teachers also in the lower ranks. Considering the role teachers play in the development of a nation, it is important to give teachers’ remuneration and benefits special consideration. We need to make the teaching profession attractive and appealing to young people. 

JK: How dangerous is the standoff between TUM and government to the welfare of teachers in Malawi?

SS: It is very dangerous. Teaching and learning rely on a lot of factors lining up symmetrically and working in sync. Learners learn best when teachers are motivated, respected and encouraged, and when teachers’ personal welfare and professional aspirations are taken care of. Classrooms are sensitive places that require a teacher who is mentally prepared to teach and is focused on helping students learn. The current atmosphere makes it very difficult for teachers to feel motivated and appreciated. The vitriol coming from certain quarters betrays an ugly underbelly of deep-seated resentment and contempt for teachers. That is very unfortunate.

JK: What should TUM do to puts its house in order for it was apparent during the recent standoff that the centre is no longer holding?

SS: TUM has existed over the decades. It started out as a teachers’ association from the time when schools were run by missionaries, to the time of independence. It has represented the voices of teachers very well over the years. That said, TUM does have issues that it needs to sort out. It needs to be responsive to the needs of its membership, and to be open and transparent. It is the membership that defines an organization, and where it derives its power. It is in listening to and representing the membership that TUM’s significance and influence will grow stronger. There are clear ongoing attempts to weaken and destroy TUM, which shows a lack of understanding of why TUM exists. The leadership of TUM needs to be cautious of attempts to politicize what the organization stands for, and to manipulate how it represents its constituency. These need to be resisted at all costs.

JK: Your final word?

SS: The goals we have set for ourselves for the Malawi we want will not be achieved if we sideline teachers and treat them as second class civil servants. It is teachers who will educate young Malawians and impart to them the skills and mindsets that this country needs to prosper. Teachers have an enormous responsibility in delivering the Malawi we all want. The values with which we treat teachers are the same values teachers will treat learners with. We need to be mindful of this always. I dream of a country that treats the teaching profession, in deed and in action, as the most important profession. I dream of a teaching profession that attracts the best and brightest motivated young Malawians because they understand education as the foundation for building a better Malawi.

Note: A version of this interview appeared in the May 2021 issue of The Lamp magazine. 

To build the Malawi we want, start with the way we treat teachers

Malawi News Hardtalk Interview by Rebecca Chimjeka (6th March, 2021)

RC: In your view are the teachers justified to demand risk allowances during the covid-19 pandemic?

SS: The teachers' strike brings into sharp relief difficult dilemmas from both sides, and calls for our best thinking for what is good for the education system, and for the country, in the long term. From the teachers’ side, one needs to appreciate the decades of official neglect, insignificance and undermining of the profession teachers have endured. As civil servants, teachers view their benefits, their public image and their noble role, in comparison to other civil servants. The differences are stark. Teachers see what is happening to public finances, in particular funds meant for fighting covid-19, and see their names implicated when they have not partaken in the plunder. Teachers are sharply aware of the unfairness, the elite ridicule, and what they see as the government’s inconsiderate attitude.

On the government’s side, the worry is understandably on the effect of any decisions on the public purse, the precedence this sets for other sectors, and the fate of millions of children. These are valid and genuine worries.

There is differential treatment towards the teachers in terms of how risk allowances are being allocated and how personal protection equipment (PPE) is being distributed. Teachers were told they would have to make their own masks, and were given training. Yet expenditure reports indicated that teachers were given masks. Most of the equipment and funds they received were inadequate, yet expenditure reports were bloated with false figures. Whether teachers are justified or not in striking needs to be understood in that context.

RC: Do you think Government is handling the sit in by teachers properly?

SS: Seen from the public gallery, Government seems to be taking the teachers for granted. It is rather curious that recommendations for risk allowances made by the education covid-19 task force in July 2020 were conveniently ignored and no explanation was provided. We are getting reports that in the crisis meetings that have been happening this week, the issue of allowances is being evaded and avoided. It makes one question whether government is negotiating in good faith.

RC: If one were to say it's morally wrong for teachers who were at home for 3 months on full pay, to now demand allowances from Government just when they have been told to go back to work, what will be your comment?

SS: What is morally wrong is to treat teachers as second class civil servants and to ignore their pleas for fairness and equality in how they are treated. The demand for allowances is not coming out of nowhere. It is coming from a perception of perennial persecution and insignificance, and a history of occupational invisibility. One wishes teachers did not choose this awkward, sensitive moment to stage the strike, given everything that has happened with covid-19 since March 2020. But truth be told, we need to be empathetic towards the teachers’ struggle for fairness and equality. There is virtue in acknowledging mis-steps in handling an unprecedented crisis such as this pandemic, and taking concrete steps to correct things. If done in good faith and in appreciation of the plight teachers are in, most teachers are reasonable, understanding and patriotic.

RC: If Government was to bow down to their demands, do you think it will be sustainable and what economic consequences will this have for Malawi?

SS: We need to think in the long term. Teachers are the foundation the country needs to set itself on the path to inclusive, equitable wealth creation and self-reliance, as we have expressed in the new long term vision, Malawi 2063. Achieving that long term vision is crucially dependent on a teaching workforce that is highly motivated, highly educated, and attracts the best and brightest young Malawians. That type of teaching workforce would transform this country beyond any short term considerations, and would put the country on a path to long term sustainability and economic prosperity.

RC: Anything you want to add?

SS: Two things. First, the culture of allowances has been allowed to fester and to distort our work ethic and government’s obligations to improve remuneration in the civil service. What we are seeing today is a legacy of that problem. It is a welcome development that there is now a taskforce to study and review the public service procedures, including allowances.

Lastly, a lot of things need to change if we are to achieve our societal dreams and aspirations. We need to build a society that values hard work, integrity, ethical conduct, human dignity, fairness, equity and equality, compassion, resilience, self-reliance, trust in our capabilities, and hope for the future. To build such a society, it must start with the way we treat teachers, and it will transfer to the society at large. Teachers will be critical in inculcating these values into the young Malawians who will deliver the Malawi we want.

Note: A version of this interview appeared on the Hardtalk page of the Malawi News on Saturday, 6th March, 2021. 

uMunthu, Peace and Education: On Malawi's 44th Independence Anniversary

One morning at a school near Lake Chirwa in Zomba in 1972, pupils entering their Standard 8 classroom received the shock of their lives. The portrait of then Life President Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda had been defaced. Someone had drawn into the portrait a pair of spectacles, and had written unsavory comments about the then president. The pupils informed the teacher, who informed the school's head. The head immediately convened a staff meeting. After lengthy deliberations, the school administration agreed on investigating to find out who did it. The Standard 8 teacher went back to the classroom and asked for the culprit to turn himself in. Nobody volunteered any information.

After further deliberations amongst the staff, a decision was reached. Mwandilakwira, a Standard 8 pupil, would be expelled from the school and reported to the then District Education Office (DEO). Mwandilakwira protested his innocence, but the school administration responded by saying since he was the one who sat directly underneath the president’s portrait, he was probably the pupil who did this. Mwandilakwira was ordered never to come back to the school, and his name was reported to the DEO’s office. Mwandilakwira was also told that he was effectively banned from attending school in the entire Malawi.

That was thirty six years ago. Malawi has changed a great deal since then, especially in the last sixteen years. As we celebrate yet another independence anniversary, it is right and proper to ask what 44 years of independence has meant for us as a nation. This particular year I would like to ask this question from the perspective of a teacher as a way of reflecting on the role Malawian teachers play in building the nation and setting the country on a more peaceful and prosperous course.

For me, two things stand out as the most important for a future Malawi, and indeed the world, to have. First, I envision a future Malawi in which the ideals of uMunthu form the basis of our identity, and shape the form that all our endeavors take. Second, I envision a future Malawi that is blessed with peace and social justice and bestows on everyone equal chances of success and opportunities for the affirmation of everyone’s potential and talents. I see uMunthu as an ideal that pervades through these aspirations, knowing that the success of one person in a community is beneficial for, rather than a threat to, the whole community. Our Malawian elders were not wrong when they observed that Mwana wa mnzako ngwako yemwe, ukachenjera manja udya naye (your neighbor's child is your own, his/her success is your success too).

It wasn’t until 2004 that I first started thinking about uMunthu as a serious theme in envisioning the future of Malawi and the world. The day was Saturday, April 17th. The Catholic Diocese of Zomba ordained a new bishop on that day, Rt. Rev. Fr. Thomas Msusa, to take the place of Bishop Allan Chamgwera who had retired. I witnessed the beautifully choreographed and spiritually touching event at the grounds of Zomba Catholic Secondary School. In his speech, Bishop Msusa, who had left Nankhunda Seminary a few months before I set foot there in 1988, spoke of the problems Malawi was facing, and how we needed to “become as one.” He said those words had always been his guiding biblical wisdom from his seminary days. “The African worldview is about living as one family, belonging to God,” he said. “We say ‘I am because we are’, or in Chichewa kali kokha nkanyama, tili awiri ntiwanthu (when you are on your own you are as good as an animal of the wild; when there are two of you, you form a community).”

Listening to the newly ordained Bishop Msusa that afternoon harked my mind back to former Anglican Archbishop of the Diocese of Cape Town in South Africa, Desmond Tutu. A Nobel peace laureate, former Archbishop Desmond Tutu led his country, at the request of then President Nelson Mandela, in the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In his memoirs narrating his reflections on how he experienced the TRC, No Future Without Forgiveness, Archbishop Tutu explains uBuntu as the philosophical essence that propelled the TRC. In the book the former Anglican archbishop offers a list of examples where uBuntu was the driving philosophy for many southern African countries who chose forgiveness over retaliation against white minority regimes upon attaining independence. Included on the list are Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia.

Some people point out that South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation process did not solve South Africa’s problems, and instead merely created new ones. While that may be true, with regard to what has been happening in South Africa especially in recent years and in particular this year, it is important not to blame the TRC for something it had no control over. South Africa’s problems are much more complex and difficult to understand than many of us are ready to accept. The failures of recent years belong into the broader global economic order which South Africa has been forced into by institutions with far more power than African governments can ever hope to wield. This is not to exculpate South African elites from blame, as part of the path the country has taken has been a matter of unprincipled choices in times of difficult global dilemmas. Our own country Malawi is caught up in similar influences that promote neoliberal economic competition and privatization, leaving many unable to participate, and therefore bitterly resentful. It is not always that we pause to ask ourselves the roots of the violent crime we witness in our everyday lives right here in Malawi.

Before 2004, I was not even aware that uMunthu had been the subject of serious academic and intellectual inquiry by leading Malawian and African philosophers, theologians, political scientists, and many others. Several Malawians have written entire books on the subject. They include Rev. Dr. Augustine Musopole who in 1994 published a book titled Being Human in Africa: Toward an African Christian Anthropology, Rev. Dr. Harvey Sindima who in 1995 published Africa’s Agenda: The Legacy of Liberalism and Colonialism in the Crisis of African Values, and Dr. Gerald Chigona, who in 2002 published a book titled uMunthu theology: Path of Integral Human Liberation Rooted in Jesus of Nazareth. In addition to the above books, University of Malawi scholars Richard Tambulasi and Happy Kayuni have published an article on uMunthu in Malawian politics during the one-party dictatorship and the first multiparty government. There have also been several newspaper and magazine articles on the topic, as well as performing arts groups and forums using the concept of uMunthu to describe their focus.

In my interviews with several Malawian primary school teachers since 2004, I have learned that uMunthu is a subject fit to be taught in our schools, from Standard 1 all the way to the university. This is especially important for teacher training colleges and other tertiary institutions. The teachers argued that many of Malawi’s problems of structural violence, inequality, exploitation and injustice spring from the absence of uMunthu ideals in the inculcation of values. The education system has a crucial role to play in promoting uMunthu in our society because the violence and injustice we see in our communities is in fact facilitated by the education system’s failure to offer a coherent value system that affirms our humanity and identity.

The presence of rigorously researched and analyzed treatises on the topic of uMunthu, amongst Malawians and other scholars elsewhere is an exhortation for us to make it central in our education system. In my work with Malawian primary teachers over the years, we have explored ways of teaching the values of uMunthu-based peace and social justice, even in learning areas as unlikely as Mathematics.

The consideration to make uMunthu and peace education central features of Malawian education at all levels involves rethinking the ways we train our primary school teachers also. Having been a primary school teacher myself, I have come to appreciate the need to enhance our teacher education process, to align it with the needs of present day Malawi. The two-year teacher training program has been helpful up to this point, but it has become outdated. Today’s and tomorrow’s Malawi needs teachers who are much more highly trained, who are provided the best of what our intellectual heritage has to offer. This requires making our universities an integral part of the training we give our primary school teachers. None of this can be done overnight, but that is no excuse to postpone important decisions and put them off to an unforeseeable future.

Young Malawians are bustling with intellectual energies ready to meet any academic challenges thrown their way. That is what Mwandilakwira proved to those who expelled him and banished him from attaining further education in Malawi.

After staying at home for two years without going to school, Mwandilakwira changed his name and enrolled at another school several kilometers away. There he excelled, and was selected to one of the best secondary schools in Malawi. Today he is the head of an important primary school.

Equipping teachers with the best training we can afford will be part of the process to ensure the type of future we envision for our country. It will enable teachers to assume their important role in society, in ways that empower them to uplift young Malawians, rather than attempt to destroy their future, as was the case with Mwandilakwira in 1972. Let us use the occasion of our independence anniversary to ponder the kind of future, and the kind of peace, we want for Malawi, and how best to plan for them.