Chapter 3 - Malawi

3.1. Educational provision: An overview
3.2. Knowledge generated
3.3. Government interventions
3.4 Donor interventions
3.5 Non governmental organisations
3.6. Conclusion

3.1. Educational provision: An overview

3.1.1 Primary education
3.1.2 Secondary education
3.1.3 Tertiary education
3.1.4 Literacy
3.1.5 Public expenditure on education

3.1.1 Primary education

Enrolments: In the 1980s, less than half of primary school-aged children in Malawi were in school and girls comprised only 44% of enrolments by 1986. A central part of the programme of the new democratic government was the introduction in October 1994 of free primary education (FPE). Nevertheless, Malawi is still beset with grave problems, the most pressing of which are: poor spatial access to schools, low internal efficiency and lack of equity. There are also significant disparities in participation and attainment among various socio-economic groups and regions and also between boys and girls, men and women. Although most children now attend school, access is still a major problem for some marginalised groups, particularly among the poorest households.

As a consequence of the FPE policy, primary enrolments jumped by nearly 50% - from 1.9 million in 1993/94 to nearly 3 million pupils in 1994/5 (see Table 1). Although regional, district, rural urban and gender disparities in enrolment rates were more serious before the universalisation of primary education, regional differences are still pronounced. In particular, enrolment rates are significantly higher in the Northern Region. Gender disparities in primary enrolments have also narrowed considerably during the 1990s. As indicated in Table 1, half the school-going population are now girls. In 1992/93, girls comprised 51% of new admissions in standard 1 although their participation dwindled to only 35% of Standard 8 enrolment. The net enrolment ratio (NER) in 1994/95 was about 96% for both boys and girls. ¹

¹ Given over-age enrolment and high drop out it is unlikely that NERs are as high as 96%. This figure might be inflated by inaccurate population data.

Table 1: Primary school enrolments by gender, 1980/81-1994/95

Year	Total	Female	% Female
1980/1	809,862	333,495	41.2
1981/2	882,903	368,769	41.8
1982/3	868,849	367,523	42.3
1983/4	847,157	359,103	42.4
1984/5	899,459	383,776	42.7
1955/6	942,539	408,727	43.3
1986/7	1,022,765	449,221	43.9
1987/8	1,066,642	473,393	44.3
1988/9	1,202,836	536,477	44.6
1989/90	1,325,453	593,539	44.8
1.990/1	1,400,682	628,706	44.9
1991/2	1,662,583	760,718	45.8
1992/3	1,795,451	847,974	47.2
1993/4	1,895,423	912,126	48.1
1994/5	2,860,819	1,345,311	47.0

GERs, however, have remained higher for boys (141% versus 127% for girls in 1994/5), indicating a higher propensity for over-aged boys to persist in the system than over-aged girls.

Table 1a: Proportion of girls by standard, 1980-1995

Year/Std	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1980/81	46.3	43.5	43.1	41.3	39.2	37.4	34.4	26.0
1984/86	47.1	45.1	45.4	44.4	42.2	42.3	39.3	30.4
1990/91	47.8	45.9	46.3	41.9	45.3	43.9	42.1	35.6
1992/93	51.1	48.2	48.2	46.2	45.6	44.3	42.2	34.9
1994/95	49.4	47.6	47.6	46.1	45.3	44.3	43.3	38.6

Source: MOE statistical bulletins.

Internal efficiency: The internal efficiency of primary education is low mainly because of high drop-out and repetition rates. It is estimated that it takes, on average, thirteen years for a child to complete an eight year cycle of primary school. Nearly half the children who enter primary school drop-out before Standard 5, and are not, therefore functionally literate or numerate. Although the drop out rate of girls in 1994/95 was double that of boys in Standard 7, the gap between boys and girls has narrowed over time (see Table 2). In 1994/95, nearly a third of all primary school children were repeaters which is largely a result of the decline in school quality following FPE. Repetition rates have actually increased since 1991/2. Late entry to school is common for both boys and girls. One study in rural Malawi reported the average age in Standard 1 to be ten years for both boys and girls with late entry being particularly detrimental to girls' persistence at school due to the fact that they are more likely to drop out when they reach puberty (Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994). Table 2 shows an enormous increase in drop out rates since 1991 for children of both sexes, although the gap between girls and boys rose in 1994/5 after the introduction of Free Primary Education.

Table 2: Primary school drop-out rates by gender, 1980-1995²

Year	% Girls	%Boys	Diff
1980/81	18.1	12.3	5.8
1981/82	23.8	18.7	5.2
1985/86	11.2	7.7	3.5
1987/88	11.5	6.3	5.2
1990/91	n.a	n.a	n.a
1993/94	17.4	15.7	1.7
1994/95	29.1	25.2	3.9

² Drop-out is calculated by dividing total number dropping out in the relevant year by the total enrolment of that year.

Source: MOE Basic Education Statistics.

Achievement and Performance: Girls have had consistently lower pass rates than boys in the Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC) although, in overall terms, the gender gap at the primary level is gradually closing. The gender gap in pass rates is much wider in rural areas (62% for boys and 3 8% for girls in 1995) than in urban areas (57% for boys and for 43% girls) (Khembo, 1995). The overall quality of secondary schooling in Malawi is extremely low as evidenced by high pupil:teacher and high pupil:classroom ratios, and the very poor availability of teaching and learning materials.

3.1.2 Secondary education

Enrolments: The secondary education system admits only a small proportion of the relevant cohort: for the past decade, transition rates from primary to government-assisted secondary schools have remained consistently below 12% of those who passed PSLC. Interestingly, transition rates are higher for girls because girls are selected for secondary school at a lower cut-off point than boys. Gender enrolment disparities are more pronounced at the secondary level due to higher drop-out rates among girls at primary schools and poorer performance at PSLC. Although enrolments in conventional secondary schools increased threefold between 1980/81 and 1994/95, the rising demand for secondary education is clearly not being met. Throughout the 1980s, girls accounted for only one-third of enrolments. By the mid 1990s, their share was still only 39% (see Table 3).

Table 3: Secondary schools: total enrolment by gender, 1980/81-1994/95³

Year	Girls	Boys	Total	% Girls
1980/81	5,248	12,758	18,006	29.2
1981/82	5,654	13,675	19,329	29.3
1982/83	5,720	14,112	19,832	28.8
1983/84	6,451	15,794	22,245	30.0
1984/85	7,426	16,917	24,343	30.5
1985/86	8,132	17,045	25,177	32.3
1986/87	8,713	17,242	25,955	33.6
1987/88	9,044	17,601	26,645	33.9
1988/89	10,004	18,561	28,565	35.0
1989/90	11,906	22,492	34,398	34.6
1990/91	10,995	20,500	31,495	34.9
1991/92	11,876	21,950	33,826	35.1
1992/93	12,768	23,782	36,550	34.9
1993/94	18,179	28,265	46,444	39.1
1994/95	18,929	29,431	48,360	39.1

³ These figures include those enrolled in the DECs.

Source: MOE Basic Education Statistics.

At mixed secondary schools, a third of places are reserved for girls. Many boarding schools have also adopted the same admission criteria. In 1992/1993, the GER for secondary education was about 4.6%, (which had remained almost unchanged since 1984/85), with the rate being higher for boys than for girls, 6.0% and 3.2% respectively (see Table 4). Virtually no children from the lowest socio-economic groups attend secondary school (World Bank, 1995). Girls attending secondary school tend to come from higher socio-economic backgrounds than boys.

Internal efficiency: Because the system is so selective, student drop-outs at secondary schools have been minimal. Throughout the 1980s, nearly half of all girls failed the Junior Certificate Examination (JCE), although the overall gender gap in pass rates at JCE fell from 26 percentage points in 1980 to 11 points in 1990. From 1990, girls' overall pass rates have continued to improve. JCE results between 1992 and 1996 show that the gender gap is largest in mathematics, physical science and geography and the narrowest in languages. However, the gender gap in maths and science during this period fell significantly between 1992 and 1996 from 22.7% to 10.5% in mathematics and from 18.7% to 9% in physical science.⁴

⁴ MANEB statistics.

Table 4: Gross and net enrolment ratios for secondary education

Year	Gross enrolment ratio			Nat enrolment ratio
	Girls	Boys	Both	Girls	Boys	Both
1979/80	1.2	4.5	3.2	1.1	1.3	1.2
1984/85	2.4	5.6	4.0	1.1	1.5	1.3
1985/86	2.6	5.5	4.0	1.3	1.5	1.4
1986/87	2.7	5.4	4.0	1.4	1.5	1.4
1987/88	2.7	5.3	4.0	1.4	1.5	1.5
1988/89	2.6	5.4	4.1	1.4	1.6	1.5
1992/93	3.2	6.0	4.6	2.5	2.4	2.4

Source: MOE Basic Education Statistics.

Those who do drop out of conventional secondary schools tend to find their way into Distance Education Centres.⁵ 54,481 students (one-third of whom were female) were enrolled in Forms 1-4 and night classes in the DECs in 1995. However, the quality of education offered at these centres (which are located predominantly in rural areas) is much lower than that at conventional secondary schools. This factor plus the fact that DEC students tend to be poor performers at PSLCE, means that few students pass the MSCE examinations.

⁵ Access to the Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE) centres is open to anyone with a pass in the PSLC exam unlike conventional secondary schools

In 1995, the overall pass rate for girls was 5% and 14% for boys. In marked contrast, at conventional secondary schools 29% of girls and 50% of boys obtained pass grades at MSCE with boys performing better in all subjects except Chichewa (Kadzamira, 1987). The gender gap was largest in maths and physical science and smallest in languages although, during the 1980s, the overall performance of girls in maths did improve.

Table 5: Total enrolments by gender at the University of Malawi and teacher training colleges

Year	University			Teacher Training Colleges
	Male	Female	%	Male	Female	% Female
1980/81	1,295	409	24.0	1,100	651	37.2
1981/82	1,454	346	19.2	1,098	659	37.5
1982/83	1,463	347	17.4	1,155	653	36.1
1983/84	1,754	370	18.3	1,162	728	38.2
1984/85	1,605	359	18.2	1,211	709	36.9
1985/86	1,615	359	22.5	1,184	770	39.4
1986/87	1,688	489	21.2	1,180	622	34.5
1987/88	1,800	484	21.3	1,647	857	34.2
1988/89	1,837	498	21.4	1,681	898	34.8
1989/90	2,109	574	22.9	1,928	981	31.6
1990/91	2,244	669	23.6	2,114	1,125	34.7
1991/92	2,481	766	21.1	2,183	1,162	34.7
1992/93	2,766	755	23.3	2,147	1,397	39.4
1993/94	2,824	860	24.7	2,135	1,489	41.1
1994/95	2,703	888	25.6	1,859	1,126	37.7

Source: MOE statistical bulletins.

3.1.3 Tertiary education

Enrolments: An even smaller cohort of eligible school children gain admission to tertiary education. Only 7500 places were available in tertiary institutions in 1993/4, which represents a mere 0.3% of the total enrolments in the formal education system as a whole (World Bank, 1995). There has, however, been a slow increase in university enrolments since the early 1990s.

The university now has an affirmative action policy aimed at increasing female enrolment to one-third of total enrolment. Female students are admitted with slightly lower marks than boys. There are, however, still marked gender differences in subject choice with the majority of female students being concentrated in nursing and teaching and only a few in non-traditional areas. For example, in 1990/91, only 2% of engineering students were female (Table 6). Up until 1986/87, girls were not encouraged to pursue engineering courses at the University of Malawi and to date, only 7 out of the 373 engineering students to have graduated from the university were female! Similarly, by the end of 1993/94, out of the 41 doctors who had graduated from the University of Malawi, only 11 (26%) were women (Semu and Kadzamira, 1995). The channelling of students into gender-typed courses tends to lead to gender-defined occupations.

Table 6: Number and percentage of women by area of study at the University of Malawi in 1990/91.

Area of Study	No	% of total enrolment
Agriculture	86	12.3
Humanities	45	6.4
Science	46	6.6
Social Science	64	9.2
Education	83	11.9
Law	18	2.6
Public Administration	16	2.3
Theology	0	0
Business	57	8.2
Engineering	13	1.9
Management	0	0
Commerce	9	1.3
Public Health	4	0.6
Laboratory Technician	11	1.6
Nursing	242	41.8
Medicine	1	0.1
M.A.	3	0.4
Total	698	100.0

Source: MOE statistical bulletins.

At teacher training colleges, females accounted for around 38% of total enrolments and this proportion has not changed much since 1980 (see Table 5). There are even fewer female teachers at the secondary level.

Sex-stereotyping is also found in the vocational training courses offered. Semu and Kadzamira (1995) found that the training received by female extension workers at the agricultural training institutions tends to concentrate on 'female' typed subjects such as home economics and child care. Agriculture comprised only 25% of the curriculum for these female extension workers, thus limiting the kind of assistance they could give to women farmers. Anecdotal evidence shows that at the health sciences college very few women are enrolled in radiology, clinical courses, and pharmacy. The majority of women are enrolled instead in nursing. Women are under-represented in all training institutions offering courses in computing, accountancy and technical education.

At the five technical colleges, girls are concentrated in secretarial courses and there have been very few instances of girls enrolling in technical courses such as bricklaying, carpentry, electrician and motor vehicle mechanic. The same situation is found at the Polytechnic where almost all women students at the college are taking secretarial courses.

3.1.4 Literacy

One of the salient outcomes of low levels of educational participation in the past has been the extremely high illiteracy rates in Malawi. There are a number of different sources of information on literacy rates in Malawi. Though literacy rates have improved from 12% in 1966 to 39% in the 1987 census, absolute numbers of illiterates doubled in the same period and the gender gap widened (GOM and UN, 1993). The 1986 National Literacy Programme introduced by the Ministry of Women, Children, Community Development and Social Welfare (MOWCDSW) to combat high levels of illiteracy, has been beset with problems, in particular, inappropriate delivery models and lack of materials. In the 1990s, non-formal education remains a forgotten priority with donor attention switching to primary education.

Table 7: Adult literacy rates by region and gender 1977-1989

Year	1977		1987
Region	Female	Male	Female	Male	Total
Northern	32.5	61.5	50.4	78.1	63.4
Central	16.8	37.9	34.3	64.5	48.9
Southern	14.3	38.4	29.1	62.9	44.9
Malawi	17.4	40.8	33.5	65.3	48.5

Source: Malawi Population Census 1977 and 1987 Reports

3.1.5 Public expenditure on education

Compared to other countries in Southern Africa, public spending on education in Malawi is relatively low. The share of education in the national budget averaged around 10% from the early 1980s to early 1990s, but since then this share has gradually increased, amounting to almost 23% in 1995 (see Table 8). This improvement can be largely attributed to the Girls' Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education (GABLE) project funded by USAID since 1992. One of the key conditionalities of the project was that the government would increase the share of the national budget to education to 27% by 1997.

Table 8: Education spending as a proportion of national budget (%)

Year	80/81	82/83	85/86	89/90	90/91	91/92	92/93	93/94	94/95
Recurrent	11.4	12.2	9.9	11.1	11.0	11.0	17.0	21.0	27.0
Dev/ment	4.4	15.9	12.9	13.4	11.1	14.5	17.3	17.7	12.7
TOTAL	8.2	13.4	10.7	11.7	9.5	12.1	17.4	20.0	22.9

Source: MOE, statistical bulletins.

Up to the late 1980s, government policy tended to favour secondary and tertiary education. Though primary education had the largest share of the education budget, per pupil expenditures were very low compared to secondary and tertiary education. Since then, however, public expenditure on primary education has increased in troth absolute and relative terms. Whereas in 1980/81, 40% of total education recurrent expenditure was allocated to primary education, by 1994/95 this share had increased to 52% (see Table 9). Expenditure per pupil is still low, and the increase in primary expenditure has not been adequate to reverse the effects of many years of under-funding for infrastructure and supplies (World Bank, 1995).

Table 9: Percentage share of education subsectors on recurrent budget, 1980-1995

Year	80/81	82/83	85/86	89/90	90/91	91/92	92/93	93/94	94/95
Primary	40.2	39.1	42.2	48.1	44.7	46.1	54.1	51.1	52.4
Secondary	14.9	14.7	13.9	11.7	11.2	11.1	9.3	10.5	9.0
MCDE	1.8	2.1	2.5	2.2	2.5	2.0	1.3	2.2	1.2
Teacher Training	4.8	4.4	3.9	5.2	3.8	4.7	3.2	3.7	3.9
Technical & Vocat.	1.5	1.7	1.5	1.6	2.0	1.6	1.1	1.1	1.2
University	23.2	23.6	19.2	16.9	16.5	17.6	15.7	17.6	18.3
Other*	13.6	14.5	18.2	14.4	19.2	17.1	15.3	13.9	14.0

Source: Various Education Statistics Reports

* 'Other' includes Administration, MANEB, Museums, Archives and Antiquities

In 1994/95, expenditure per student at primary school level was MK81,⁶ MK828 for a secondary student, MK5,042 for a technical student and MK22,622 for a university student. Thus, in 1994/95, the expenditure per pupil for secondary school student was four times higher than that for primary school children. For tertiary level education, this ratio was 71 per primary student and a university student was 103 times more costly than a primary level student (World Bank, 1995). Because of the small number of students that are admitted and the high pupil/teacher ratios, unit costs for tertiary are high. A high proportion of secondary schools are boarding and per student costs at these schools are significantly higher than at day schools. Recent MOE estimates indicate that unit costs at boarding schools are nearly double those at day schools.⁷

⁶ MK = Malawi Kwacha £1 = MK25 in March 1997.

⁷ MOE estimated per pupil costs for day secondary schools to be MK5,158 against MK9,463 for boarding schools in the 1994/95 school year. The high cost of boarding schools was due to the cost of feeding the students and though the students pay boarding fees these constituted 11% or less of the total boarding costs.

In conclusion, while girls' participation at the primary level has greatly improved since the introduction of FPE, inequalities in access by gender and region remain. Due to higher drop-out rates for girls than boys, the proportion of girls progressively diminishes through the primary grades. Access of girls to conventional secondary schools remains a serious problem due to the inadequate supply of schools. Despite some improvement since the early 1990s, outcomes for girls at both primary and secondary continue to be well below those of boys, particularly in science and mathematics. Access to tertiary levels is highly selective and although the proportion of females at university has risen slowly, they are still very poorly represented, particularly in more technical areas. Low female literacy rates remain a serious problem for Malawi, with twice as many men than women being literate in 1987 (the date of the last census).

3.2. Knowledge generated

3.2.1 Research gender and education
3.2.2 Utilisation of research knowledge
3.2.3 Research on socio-economic constraints
3.2.4 Research on socio-cultural constraints
3.2.5 Research on school-related factors

3.2.1 Research gender and education

Prior to the 1980s, researchers paid scanty attention to gender equity issues in the education system. Thereafter, a significant number of studies were undertaken which identified serious gender gaps with respect to access and attainment and examined the constraints affecting girls' education. These studies can be loosely grouped into two types - independent and commissioned research.

Whereas most research work conducted during the 1980s was by academics, independently following their own research interests, since the early 1990s, the bulk of research has been commissioned and funded by donor agencies. Nonetheless, there has also been a growing interest among university students in studying gender issues which can be partly attributed to the greater attention paid to girls' education by government and donors over the past decade.

3.2.2 Utilisation of research knowledge

At the time of the first wave of research on girls' education in the 1980s, the Banda government showed very little interest in girls' education or gender equity issues. Not surprisingly, therefore, while this research revealed acute gender inequalities in the education system in terms of access, persistence and achievement, it was not utilised either by government or donors in their education policies and programmes. Up to the early 1990s, the link between academic research and policy formulation in Malawi remained weak. Most of the research reports that were produced gathered dust on shelves in libraries and offices.

Mechanisms for dissemination of research results to policy makers were almost non-existent. A coordinating committee on educational research did exist in the early 1980s, chaired by the Ministry of Education with representation from the Faculty of Education, The Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE), Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB), Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) and Centre for Social Research (CSR). However, its mandate was limited to coordination of all research in education so as to avoid duplication of research efforts. Thus, no effective mechanisms existed within the MOE in particular which could take up issues raised in reports and studies. But it was primarily the MOE's lack of interest in gender equity issues, and girls' education in particular, that accounts for the non-utilisation of knowledge.

The second wave of studies on girls' education from the early 1990s, differed from the early studies in that most of them were sanctioned by MOE and commissioned or funded by donor agencies which have become increasingly committed to girls' education.

In 1990, USAID sponsored a National Commission for Women in Development (NCWID) workshop on the 'access of girls and women to education and training opportunities' which was attended by a cross section of women including those from Chitukuo Cha Amayi M'Malawi (CCAM-the Malawi Women's Organisation) and the University of Malawi. Several researchers made presentations of their work in the area of girls' education. Recommendations from this workshop helped to shape subsequent studies, which were undertaken under the auspices of the GABLE project. A number of USAID sponsored studies were undertaken in the early 1990s which looked at factors affecting the attainment of girls in primary schools. These included Jean Davison and Martin Kanyuka's (1990) ethnographic study on factors affecting girls' education in Southern Malawi and the study by Sue Grant-Lewis (1990) on constraints to girls' persistence in primary school. With respect to secondary education, USAID also funded research on girl drop-outs (Sagawa and Thawe, 1991).

These studies were directly utilised in the design of the GABLE project. Other independent pieces of academic research also influenced the design of GABLE. Studies on gender streaming at secondary school level (most notably Hyde, 1993b) led to the introduction of gender streaming on a trial basis in selected schools. Under the GABLE project further policy-related studies were commissioned, including Pat Hiddleston's (1996) study on the gender streaming of mathematics classes in upper primary school. Other commissioned research was not directly related to girls' education but was aimed at finding solutions to improve the learning conditions for both girls and boys, (for example, the study on double shifting of primary classes by Kadzamira and Kunje, 1996 and age streaming (MIE, 1997)). A double shift policy was introduced in 1996, using the results of the double shift study. Policy initiatives on gender and age streaming are still awaiting the completion of final reports.

3.2.3 Research on socio-economic constraints

3.3.1 Socio-Economic Constraints. Economic constraints are the most frequently mentioned explanations given by parents, children and teachers for non-enrolment and dropout (Davison and Kanyuka, 1990, Kainja, 1990, Grant-Lewis and others, 1990, Kapakasa 1992, Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994, Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996, Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). Before the introduction of free primary education, parents lack of money to meet school fees was the most frequent reason given for school drop-out and non-enrolment, particularly amongst girls. Despite the abolition of school fees, economic constraints still feature as a key constraint on girls' participation in more recent surveys (Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996, Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). Most rural households are too poor to provide for their children's education and the indirect costs of sending them to school. The cost of school uniforms, for example, has been found by several studies to deter parents from sending girls to school because girls' uniforms are more costly than boys, and parents are more willing to invest in their son's education than their daughters (Davison and Kanyuka, 1990, Kapakasa, 1992). This finding led to the review of the uniform policy in 1994 and uniforms are no longer a requirement for attendance.

Recent studies, however, show how complex this issue is in the context of the pervasive poverty that exists in rural Malawi. Lack of clothes to wear to school has often been cited by parents and children as a reason for absence from (Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996, Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997, Sey, 1997). Girls are more likely to withdraw from school because of lack of adequate clothing than boys because of the attention that they might attract if parts of their bodies are exposed. Several studies have also identified hunger as the reason girls are not in school (Fuller, 1989, Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994, Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). Food availability in most rural households is seasonal and erratic such that households lace critical shortages during the hunger months of December, January and February. Some studies have shown that the opportunity costs of sending girls to school are higher than those of boys because of the labour forgone. In addition, the demand for girls' labour at home has been identified as one of the major constraints to girls' education with girls spending more time than boys on domestic chores thus limiting time available for studying (Davison and Kanyuka, 1990; Kaunda 1995; Sey, 1997).

A recent study indicates that girls from the poorest households are least likely to be enrolled in school (World Bank, 1995). Orphanhood is also reported in recent literature as having a differential impact on boys and girls. It is usually the girl who has to leave school prematurely to look after the family if the mother or both parents have died (Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). This is becoming common as the AIDS epidemic takes its toll on communities, leaving many children as orphans. Poor communities have been unable to offer support to the large number of orphans.

3.2.4 Research on socio-cultural constraints

Socio-cultural constraints have been identified by researchers as one of the major constraints to girls' education. Cultural practices, beliefs and attitudes influence parents decisions whether to enrol their daughters in school and when to pull them out of school. Early marriages and pregnancies have been cited by many surveys as one of the main deterrents to girls' participation (Kainja, 1990; Sagawa and Thawe, 1990; Grant-Lewis (1990); Kapakasa, 1992; Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994; Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996; Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). One of the key findings of research carried out as part of GABLE social mobilisation activities (using various methodologies including survey and participatory research) was that parents place more emphasis on marriage and child bearing than on education (Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996). Several studies have reported a lower age of marriage for girls than boys with most girls getting married when they are about 15 years old. Pregnancy is also a common reason given for school dropout amongst girls. Sagawa and Thawe (1990), for example, reported that pregnancy was the major reason for dropping out of school at secondary school level. The fear of pregnancy was found to be sufficient to prevent some parents from sending their daughters to school.

Marriage patterns have also been singled out in a number of studies as influencing the schooling of children especially girls. Early betrothal and the practice of allowing the prospective husband to stay with the girl before the final marriage decision is made, often leads to early pregnancies and/or marriages. A number of studies have found initiation ceremonies to be a significant constraint to girls' education (Kapakasa, 1992; Kaunda, 1995, Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). Initiation ceremonies signal the entry into adulthood. This newly acquired status might be incompatible with schooling, particularly when one considers that the majority of the children undergo initiation whilst still in lower primary school. More important is the knowledge that is acquired during initiation ceremonies which is often blamed by parents, teachers and children for encouraging girls to leave school prematurely.

Socio-cultural beliefs have been found to influence schooling of girls. Davison and Kanyuka (1990), for example, reported that parents believe that it is more worthwhile to educate boys rather than girls. Parents also consider boys to be generally more intelligent than girls as they perform better in school.

3.2.5 Research on school-related factors

The fact that schools tend to reinforce or even exaggerate the gender stereotypes found in wider society is well documented. Several studies have cited school environment, teacher attitudes and pedagogy and gender-biased learning materials as affecting the performance of girls in school in Malawi (Kamwendo, 1984; Davison and Kanyuka, 1990; Hyde, 1993a; 1993b and 1994; Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997). School based experiments on gender streaming have shown that girls' performance in mathematics at primary and secondary levels improves significantly when they are taught separately (Hyde, 1993b, Hiddleston, 1997). This result indicates that single sex settings provide a better learning environment for girls. Hyde (1994) reports that girls are often ridiculed and harassed for performing well in class by boys which tends to depress their achievement as they are afraid of excelling in case they provoke a negative reaction from boys.

Teachers, both male and female, often have lower expectations of girls' academic achievement. Kamwendo (1984), for example, found that teachers expected girls to perform worse than boys in physical science. Hyde (1994) reported that male and female teachers felt that boys were more interested in school work than girls. Teacher attitudes and perceptions do not differ from those found in wider society. For example, boys are also perceived to be intelligent, hardworking, motivated and cooperative, whilst girls are perceived to be easy to control, passive, submissive and calm by their teachers (Kainja and Mkandawire 1990). It has also been reported that teachers pay more attention to boys in class and girls participate less in classroom activities (Davison and Kanyuka 1990, Sey 1997).

Long distance to school has been cited by most surveys as the reason children, particularly girls, are not in school (Burchfield and Kadzamira, 1996). Security and safety of girls, both in and out of school, is an important issue (Hyde, 1994; Phiri et. al. 1994; Sey 1997). Girls are often harassed and teased by boys in class, on the school compound and on the way to school. At upper levels of schooling this takes the form of sexual harassment, and rape has been reportedly perpetrated by fellow students (Phiri and others 1994). One of the reasons given by girls for not liking school is the bullying and harassment that they face (Msiska and Kadzamira, 1995).

Several studies have documented the low level of achievement of girls in primary and secondary school in relation to boys. The poorer performance of girls has been observed across all subject areas except Chichewa (Kadzamira 1987, 1988 and Bradbury 1991). The gender gap in performance is widest in mathematics and science subjects (Kamwendo 1984; Kadzamira, 1987 and 1988). Some of the reasons that have been advanced for girls poorer performance in science are: girls negative attitudes towards science subjects, low expectations of girls' ability in the area by both female and male teachers, little participation in science activities in class, and use of textbooks which are biased against girls (Kamwendo, 1984).

3.3. Government interventions

3.3.1 Education Development Plans
3.3.2 Government policy to promote girls' and womens' education
3.3.3 Policy design and implementation: strengths and weaknesses
3.3.4 Contradictions in government policy
3.3.5 Organisational and bureaucratic factors and the role of gender advocates
3.3.6 The role played by gender advocates within MOE and MOWCACDSW
3.3.7 Implementation issues
3.3.8 The girl's secondary school scholarship programme

3.3.1 Education Development Plans

The Government of Malawi has produced three Education Development Plans (EDP) since independence. The first EDP covered the period 1973-1980, the second EDP 1985-1995, and the third and current plan covers the period 1995-2005.

A close scrutiny of the first two EDPs reveals that the stated goals lacked a gender perspective and that gender dimensions of the policies were not explicitly articulated. There was no overt attempt in either plan to address the serious gender inequities that existed in the educational system nor integrate gender into the education plans. The Government's main objective as specified in the first EDP focused on an equitable distribution of education resources, efficient utilization of resources, relevance of the curricula and fulfilment of specific needs of the labour market. The first plan gave a higher priority to secondary and tertiary education in order to meet middle level human resources needs of the country.

The emphasis put on post-primary education in the first plan had highly detrimental consequences for the development of primary education with a disproportionate share (around 45%) of the education budget going to secondary and higher education. As a result, primary education was underfunded, resulting in a deteriorating quality of education.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the construction and equipping of primary schools was left in the hands of local communities. Though the response of the communities has been tremendous (most rural primary schools and teachers' houses were constructed by communities on a self-help basis), the overall result has been an uneven distribution of schools across the country and an imbalance between rural and urban areas. In urban areas where the construction and furnishing of schools was in the hands of the government, schools are generally much better constructed and resourced than in the rural areas (Moyo, 1992). The remotest and poorest of the rural communities had particularly limited access to schools which adversely affected all children, but especially girls given their inferior social status.

While the second EDP had similar objectives (namely, equalization of educational opportunity, promotion of efficiency in the system, improvement of physical and human resources, and the judicious use of limited resources), there was a distinct shift in emphasis from secondary and tertiary education to primary education. Though both plans were concerned with equity issues in the allocation of resources, the main emphasis was on reducing regional and district geographical disparities rather than gender inequities. Significantly, neither plan presented gender-disaggregated data. Interviews with MOE headquarters staff reveal that most officials regarded both the first and second EDPs as gender neutral. There was a feeling then that the policies enacted did not in any way discriminate against any gender with the overall objective being to increase the access of all children to quality education.

The current education plan (which is also known as the Policy and Investment Framework for Education (PIF)) has similar objectives but, unlike the first two plans, gender specific policies are included which aim at reducing the gender gap with respect to both access and persistence. Most of the gender specific policies and strategies stated in the plan are a result of the GABLE programme. Though PIF does attempt to tackle some of the key gender concerns in education, it still falls far short of a coherent and consolidated gender policy. Gender planning has not been fully incorporated into MOEs overall planning process and problematic areas identified by research have not been adequately addressed in the new plan. There is need therefore to consolidate gender policies within the education sector to come up with an overall gender policy and a gender strategy which should be made clear and known to all. This would bring educational policies in line with the new constitution which enshrines a bill of rights, including women's rights', with the goal of gender equality and non-discrimination being fundamental principles of all national policy and legislation.

Though the first two education plans lacked a gender perspective, strategies and programmes aimed at improving womens' and girls' education were still put in place. However, the lack of an overall gender policy at the national level and specifically within the education sector has meant that the policies adopted to reduce gender inequalities in the education system have often been piecemeal and not effective. Multifaceted approaches in which various elements of a package support one another appear to offer the greatest promise of closing the gender gap in education (World Bank, 1996). For example, quota systems on their own cannot completely eliminate gender inequalities in access without addressing the underlying causes of poor performance and high dropout.

3.3.2 Government policy to promote girls' and womens' education

Some policies adopted by MOE have had a negative impact on girls and womens' access and schooling. Policies which were supposed to be gender neutral had differential impacts on the education of boys and girls, usually because the policy makers did not take into consideration the special needs and interests of the latter. This section reviews past and current government education policies and how they have affected girls and women over time; in particular, policies adopted in the past which have been changed such as school fees, school uniform, discipline policy relating to pregnancy. Current programmes and policies such as the free primary education programme, current provisions for secondary and GABLE scholarship for secondary school girls are also scrutinised. Poor children, and girls in particular have limited prospects of proceeding beyond primary school in rural Malawi.

Most of the key policy changes regarding gender and education made during the 1990's have been part and parcel of the GABLE project which was started in 1991. Prior to the introduction of the GABLE project, women's groups (particularly the organisation of Malawian women (CCAM) and the National Commission for Women in Development (NCWID)), spearheaded the debate on girls' and womens' education in the country at their various meetings, seminars and conferences and made several recommendations to the MOE. Whilst NCWID was a government organisation assigned to look into the issue of women and development, CCAM was largely an arm of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) that worked in close collaboration with NCWID in order to integrate women into development.

Policies and strategies enacted under the Banda regime to improve the education of girls and women were:

· The quota system introduced in 1972 for the selection of girls into secondary school which reserved a third of the places in mixed sex government assisted secondary schools.

· The Human Resources and Institutional Development Programme (HRID) funded by USAID which aimed at improving the human resource base through advanced training. At the University of Malawi, the programme established a coordinator of women's programmes, implemented a scholarship programme and a masters programme in WID. Scholarships and career counselling for girls who opted for non-traditional areas was provided in areas such as engineering, management, transport economics, agricultural economics and the sciences from 1987-1995. In total, 347 women benefited.

· Preferential selection of females into the university from the late 1980s with females entering university with lower cut-off point than males and reserving 30% of the university places for women.

· A UNDP bursary scheme for high-achieving pupils from standard 1 to 8. Bursaries were awarded in the ratio of 3 girls to 1 boy in each participating primary school. Each bursary paid for school fees and other learning materials. About 26,000 pupils benefited from the scheme which ran from 1990 to 1994.

· The GABLE school fee waiver programme for non-repeating girls from standards 2 to 8 was aimed at increasing girls' access and persistence in school. The programme ran from 1992/93 to 1993/94 school year. Approximately half a million girls benefited from the programme each year.

· Review of the pregnancy policy in December 1993 to allow pregnant girls enrolled at school one chance to re-enrol in school after delivery. If a boy in the school is responsible for the pregnancy he is also supposed to be withdrawn together with the girl and re-apply for admission after one year.

· Removal of subject restrictions (in 1993) that barred girls from opting for certain subject areas, particularly sciences at the primary level and that limited girls' participation to female stereotyped areas of the curriculum at the expense of non-traditional areas.

· The establishment of the Gender Appropriate Curriculum unit (GAC) in 1992 at the Malawi Institute of Education (MIE). The unit is charged with the responsibility of incorporating gender sensitivity into the primary curricula, teacher training curricula and in-service teacher curricula. Under the project, primary school textbooks have been revised to make them gender sensitive, to remove all gender biases that existed, and to portray women in more positive roles. Training has been provided for teachers to make their teaching gender sensitive.

· The launching of the GABLE Social Mobilisation Campaign activities (GABLE SMC) in 1994 to change attitudes and mobilise parental and community support to educate girls. The SMC activities mainly utilises direct person to person communication in addition to the mass media such as radio programmes. Some of the strategies used at village level to promote girls education are interactive, for example, Theatre for Development (TFD), focus group discussions and workshops with parents, girls, boys, teachers, school committees, local leaders, initiation counsellors facilitated by Community Development Assistants (CDAs) and Primary Education Advisers (PEAs).

There are only subtle differences in policies adopted by the Banda regime and the current government. Most of the gender policies currently being implemented are a direct result of the dialogue that was initiated by the GABLE project. GABLE has put girls' education and primary education on the national agenda and this is reflected in the inclusion of gender specific policies in the Policy Investment Framework PIF developed by the new government (Kadzamira and Sisson, 1997). The emphasis of the new government is on 'education for all' hence the introduction of the FPE programme. However, the removal of school fees for all pupils eliminates the focus on girls' education that the GABLE school fee waiver for girls brought and, unless new policies that focus on girls are developed, the impetus created earlier might be lost (Wolf, 1995).

Under the new government elected in May 1994, the following policies and programmes were introduced to improve the education of women.

· The introduction of FPE in October 1994 which eliminated school fees for all children in primary school. The programme benefits both girls and boys.
Gender disparities in enrolment have been greatly reduced as a result of the programme and equal proportions of primary school age boys and girls are now enrolled in school for the first time.

· The school uniform policy was reviewed in 1994 and school uniform is no longer a requirement for attendance.

· With the introduction of FPE, a separate fee waiver programme for primary school girls was no longer needed. In its place, the GABLE scholarship programme for non-repeating secondary school girls was introduced in 1994/95, which pays fees (both boarding and tuition) for girls in conventional schools and in DECs.

· The introduction of a 50:50 quota for secondary school places which was applied to the selection of Form 1 students in the four pilot double shift day secondary schools in 1994/95. This plan will be extended to other mixed sex day schools and all the new secondary schools in the planning stage.

· Plans for gender balanced community schools are on course. The idea is to bring schools closer to communities in order to reduce distances to primary school. This is likely to be particularly beneficial for girls since long distance to school has been identified by several surveys as the reason why girls are not in school. Female enrolment will also be encouraged by recruiting more female teachers who will act as role models and by encouraging more community participation in school governance and possibly local recruitment of teachers to facilitate the sense of community ownership of the schools.

Knowledge and Gender Policy: There was minimal information concerning gender and girls' education during the 1970s when the quota policy was first introduced. However, it was obvious that girls were seriously disadvantaged when competing for secondary school places on an equal basis with boys because the MOE faced serious problems in filling places for girls at government maintained schools when the same cut-off point scores were used. Since most schools were boarding with established places for each sex, this might have led the Ministry to look for strategies that would ensure that all the boarding places for girls were filled. It is doubtful that the policy decision was informed by any research evidence from examination results and the prior experience the Ministry had in allocating students to vacancies that existed in schools.

As was discussed earlier, a number of research studies in the 1980s focused on gender disparities in educational attainment and achievement. Despite the compelling evidence about gender disparities, there was no serious attempt within MOE to address the issues raised by this research. This was largely the consequence of a lack of gender awareness and sensitivity amongst Ministry personnel and rigid bureaucratic structures hampered the uptake of gender issues.

In marked contrast, the much larger body of research that was undertaken in the 1990s has had a significant impact on government policy and practice. In particular, the research and related policy recommendations taken up by CCAM and NCWID who put pressure on government to address existing gender inequalities in education.

Research evidence also had an impact on both pregnancy and school uniform policies. As was shown earlier, research findings identified pregnancy as one of the major reasons for drop-out amongst girls, and school uniform costs for girls were seen as impacting negatively on girls' chances of being enrolled or staying in school. At the regional level, FAWE and other forums advocated the review of pregnancy policies that permanently expelled girls who became pregnant from school. Research findings concerning lack of school fees and parental preference for boys education in the context of economic hardships led to the introduction of the school fee waiver programme for non-repeating girls under GABLE.

3.3.3 Policy design and implementation: strengths and weaknesses

This section examines the gender issues arising from key education policies, particularly the unintended impacts of certain policies and lack of action which have adversely affected girls' education.

i) Girls' Access to Secondary Schooling: the Quota System

The quota system for selection of girls into secondary schools has certainly helped to increase girls' enrolment in secondary school: the proportion of girls in government assisted secondary schools rose from 27.9% in 1973/74 school year to 39% in 1994/95. However, progress toward gender equity in enrolments at this level has been painstakingly slow. For example, it was only in the mid 1980s that the proportion of girls reached one-third of all enrolments.

Although the quota policy is supposedly progressive, it fails to address the underlying causes of girls' poor performance in schools. Quota systems that fall short of full equity have the potential of limiting access of disadvantaged groups in the long run. For example, in situations where most schools are boarding, as is the case in Malawi, only one-third of the boarding places are reserved for girls, thus leaving no room for any expansion in their numbers. New secondary schools have also restricted girls' enrolment within the prescribed limits. The current quota system has ensured that girls remain a minority in co-educational secondary schools.

A current proposal is that the quota should be increased to 50%, but this might be counterproductive if girls performance continues to lag behind that of boys. Selecting girls on a lower cut-off point than boys tends to reinforce the attitude that girls are academically weaker than boys. The increase in the quota for girls should, therefore, be accompanied by other strategies to improve girls overall academic performance and remove the existing gender disparities in performance in public examinations.

ii) Co-educational Secondary Schooling

The MOE does not have a clear policy on single sex and co-educational schools, particularly with regard to the education of girls. In 1994/95 out of 76 government assisted secondary schools, only 8 (13%) were girls only. Of the remainder, 58% were coeducational and 29% boys only. Despite compelling research evidence from Malawi and elsewhere that girls perform better in single sex schools, all the new secondary schools constructed since the late 1980s are co-educational. The current democratically elected government is also committed to co-educational secondary education and plans to build 250 day co-educational secondary schools (funded by the World Bank) in which 50% of places will be reserved for girls.

Despite the fact that it is well documented that girls do not have the same opportunities as boys in mixed sex schools (Hyde, 1994), the government seems to be ignoring the evidence that single sex schools are better for girls.⁸ Co-education is not hand, tend to get most of the teacher's attention in a mixed sex setting and dominate most of the classroom activities.

⁸ Government objections to providing more single sex schools for girls are mainly on the grounds of cost.

iii) Low Academic Performance

Recently, there have been some initiatives that should help to improve the performance of girls. These include making the curriculum gender sensitive by removing those aspects that portray girls and women negatively or reinforce gender stereotypes. With regard to science and mathematics, a few secondary schools have tried to improve girls' performance by streaming classes by gender and ability. The results have been impressive - at one school, for example, the performance of girls and boys improved dramatically after streaming by gender was introduced for mathematics lessons. JCE pass rates for girls rose from 9% in 1980 before gender streaming was introduced to 62% in 1985. Boys have also benefited from single sex classes. Their pass rates increased from 74% to 80% during the same period. The gender gap in mathematics performance also narrowed considerably from 65 points in 1980 to zero in 1991; pass rates for both boys and girls were 98%.

However, these kinds of interventions, though promising, have yet to be replicated by other schools. Apart from the pilot project on gender streaming for mathematics carried out under GABLE, there has not been a deliberate effort to encourage wider experimentation and replication of gender streaming. The GABLE GAC unit is trying to develop gender sensitive strategies for primary school teachers but there is little evidence that this has been introduced in the curricula of teachers at all levels, including pre-service training. None of the research findings produced by researchers at Chancellor College have been integrated into the various foundation courses taught as part of the Bachelors degree in Education, nor are gender courses offered as an overall part of training of secondary school teachers.

iv) Sex Segregation in Curriculum Choices

Policies regarding curricula choices tended to discriminate against girls and to some extent, boys in certain subject areas. Prior to 1993, girls in primary schools that offered home economics and needlework subjects (particularly from standard 6 onwards) were denied the opportunity to study science. With the change in MOE policy in 1993, girls in these schools can now choose between science and homecraft for the PSLC examinations. The main reason given by the MOE was that, since girls performed poorly in the science PSLC examinations and boys' performance always surpassed that of girls, girls could study homecraft instead as their performance in the subject was much better than in science. This would then have the effect of raising their overall PSLC scores thereby giving them an equal chance to compete with boys for secondary school entry which is based on merit.

In practice, most schools timetabled science and home economics subjects together thus denying girls the opportunity of studying science. In addition, the policy had the adverse impact of curbing any interest girls had in the subject and it tended to reinforce the belief that girls are naturally poor in the sciences. Another problem with the policy was that in most secondary schools the sciences formed part of the core (compulsory) curriculum and, therefore, girls who did not take science at primary school were placed at a disadvantage vis-à-vis boys. In addition, certain subjects within the primary school curricula were restricted to one sex only. For example, needlecraft and home economics were open to girls only, and only boys were allowed to do arts and craft. Pupils' choices in these subject areas were further channelled by school timetabling practices, making it impossible for students to study both needlework and arts and craft.

Similarly, in secondary schools, girls were denied the opportunity to study technical subjects such as woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing whilst boys were not allowed to study home economics and needlework. Though the policy has now changed, few schools offer open choices as timetabling arrangements often restrict subject choices. Most schools timetable home economics and needlework simultaneously with technical subjects which results in girls only doing domestic science and boys only doing technical subjects. Facilities for technical subjects are usually not offered at girls-only schools. On the other hand, the vocational subjects taught at girls-only schools tend to reinforce 'feminine' roles (e.g. typing). Interestingly, from the 1980s, cookery and nutrition was offered to boys in order to enable them pursue careers in hotel management and catering. Hyde (1993a) reports that in some secondary schools subjects like French or history were paired with home economics which made it impossible for girls to opt for these subjects as they were more likely to be channelled into home economics.

These outcomes reflect sex stereotyped attitudes of curriculum planners and schools which have reinforced girls' traditional roles as mothers and wives at the same time as offering boys a wide range of subjects. Sex segregated subject choices are also marked at the university level where the majority of female students are concentrated in the arts, education, humanities and social sciences with very few women taking science, law, medicine and engineering courses.

v) Access to Vocational and Other Types of Training

Vocational training is offered in a number of post-secondary institutions run by the MOE and other ministries. A number of courses are offered by these institutions ranging from technical education, secretarial and office practice, forestry, fisheries and agriculture, computing, accountancy and nursing and other health allied professions. Because most of these institutions do not fall directly under the MOE, it is difficult to obtain enrolment statistics. There is some evidence, however, of discrimination by sex in terms of the type of courses offered at these institutions. The subject and career choices of men and women mirror those found at school level and also tend to reinforce the gender stereotypes commonly held by society about what men and women are capable of doing.

The main reason that so few women pursue technical courses or training that will lead them to higher paying jobs is that the majority of the women are unable to meet entry requirements. The entry requirement for most of these courses is a credit pass in mathematics and science subjects, problematic areas for girls.

vi) Gender, Social Class and the Two-Tier Secondary Education System

The two tier secondary education system has tended to reinforce the class distinctions in school attendance and educational attainment. As was discussed earlier, the regular secondary schools have much better resources (teachers, learning materials and physical infrastructure) than the DECs. Major disparities in school attendance according to socio-economic group have been documented in Malawi. A recent World Bank study, for example, found that the poorest girls are least likely to be in school. Furthermore, very few children from the lowest socio-economic groups were enrolled in secondary schools (World Bank, 1995). In her study of mixed sex secondary schools, Hyde (1994) concluded that girls' parents were most likely to have had some post - secondary education than boys' parents. Other studies shown that achievement is also related to social class background (Fuller, 1989 and Lockheed; Fuller and Nyirongo, 1989).

This means that girls from poor family backgrounds are unlikely to find their way into the regular secondary schools which are heavily subsidised by central government. Their only option is to attend DECs which are more expensive and less effective. DECs also provide a less secure environment for the girls because most students have to rent out accommodation in private dwellings where girls are more prone to various kinds of abuse and harassment.

3.3.4 Contradictions in government policy

i) School Fees

Before the introduction of free primary education, any student who failed to pay their school fees by the end of the first term was expelled from school. This policy of no fees no school contributed significantly to the non-enrolment of a high proportion of school age children and also to the high drop out of those children from school. Surveys have clearly shown that most parents cited a lack of school fees as the reason for withdrawing their children from school or for not enrolling them (e.g. Davison and Kanyuka, 1990, Kainja 1990, Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994). This policy had a particularly detrimental effect on girls' access to schooling due to parental preferences for educating boys.

ii) School Uniform

The previous education policy required all school children to wear a uniform. Though the policy did not state that those not wearing a uniform be sent away from school, anecdotal evidence showed that in many schools children without a uniform were excluded. This policy and practice had particularly adverse effects on girls' persistence in school as their uniforms were more expensive.⁹

⁹ Furthermore, uniforms cost up to ten times as much as school fees.

iii) Pregnancy Policy

Before the change in regulations to permit pregnant school girls to be readmitted, girls who became pregnant whilst still at school faced permanent expulsion from the school system. Indeed, the policy justified parents' fears regarding investing in their daughter's education.

iv) Free Primary Education

FPE has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the access of girls and boys to primary education. For the first time ever, full parity in net enrolment ratios for boys and girls has been reached, which is a major achievement. From 1992/93, girls have recorded higher NERs largely as a result GABLE's school fee waiver scheme. Nonetheless, gross enrolment ratios have remained higher for boys (141% as opposed to 127% for girls), indicating the presence of more over-age boys than girls in the system.

Despite these impressive gains, not all girls and women have benefited from FPE. The overall proportion of girls in primary school dropped slightly from 48% in 1993/94 before the introduction of FPE to 47% in 1994/95 after FPE was introduced although it rose to 49% in 1996. By 1996, more boys (51%) than girls enrolled in standard 1 reversing the trend that had been observed in the preceding two years, when for the first time ever more girls than boys were enrolled in standard 1.¹⁰ The critical issue for girls remains their decreasing representation in the upper grades of primary.

¹⁰ In 1992/93 and 1993/94 for example girls comprised 51% of the new entrants in standard 1. The increase has been largely attributed to the GABLE school fee waiver programme for non repeating primary school girls in standards 2 to 8.

These enrolment statistics clearly indicate that more boys than girls have enrolled in school as a result of the FPE initiative. No age restrictions are enforced under the FPE policy and schools are required to admit anyone to any standard as long as they are over the official minimum age of entry. The underlying assumption is that all those who have missed the opportunity of schooling in the past or have dropped out of the system for one reason or the other, will automatically be taken care of. This obviates the need for special adult education or any other kind of remedial programmes.

The fact that net enrolment ratios are the same for boys and girls but gross enrolment ratios are appreciably higher for boys suggests that overage boys have taken greater advantage of the opportunities arising from FPE and have gone back to school. Dropout rates are higher for girls, particularly in standards 6 and 7 (over 50%), which partly explains their lower GERs. Several studies have reported that most girls drop-out from school after reaching puberty when the social pressure for them to get married is great (Hyde and Kadzamira, 1994, Kainja, 1990). The FPE policy needs to be complimented by non-formal education programmes which can cater for the special needs of girls who have dropped out.

3.3.5 Organisational and bureaucratic factors and the role of gender advocates

The MOE does not have a special unit or department dealing with gender issues. There is just one desk officer coordinating all gender issues within the Ministry. This position, which is still not established, was originally created so that the Ministry could comply with NCWID policy of having a gender focal point in key ministries. The current officer (in the Department of Secondary Education) carries out this function in addition to the duties of her substantive post. The major drawback with this arrangement is that there are no clearly delineated linkages between the women's desk officer and other departments. Furthermore, administrative structures within the MOE to take up gender in planning and practice are lacking. Nor is it clear how the role of womens' desk officer is supposed to influence policy decisions regarding gender in other departments such as primary, teacher training, secondary and planning. In practice, the role of the women's desk officer has been limited to representing the MOE at fore (both national and international) where gender or women's issues have been discussed rather than seriously contributing to the Ministry's planning processes.

The MOE's relationship with NCWID is equally poorly defined. The Education and Training Committee made several recommendations to the MOE to review some of its policies that were detrimental to girls' education, but the MOE ignored them even though some of its officers were involved in the drafting of recommendations.¹¹ The Ministry first responded to external pressure from USAID and then to a female Minister of Education. Obviously, the lack of any clear linkage between the Ministry's gender focal point officer and other sections and departments is a reflection of the fact that the current organisational structure of MOE does not encourage the integration of gender issues into its work. Lack of a gender policy within the MOE adds to the confusion.

¹¹ Including its women's desk officer.

3.3.6 The role played by gender advocates within MOE and MOWCACDSW

Lack of an overall gender policy in Malawi has meant that most of the strategies that the government adopted to reduce gender inequalities in education between the 1970s and 1990s were a result of pressure from individuals within the government as well as from external agencies. From the late 1980s, increased attention was given to issues affecting girls' education in the country. Contrary to the common belief that the push towards attention to issues affecting girls' education emanated from the donors, evidence indicates that it was local women's groups who lobbied for special attention to be given to female education. The NCWID was created in 1984 largely in response to the United Nations Decade for Women (1980-1990). NCWID is a government body whose secretariat is the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Community Development and Social Welfare. It has seven specialised committees one of which is the education and training committee, chaired by the Secretary to Education. Women advocates (and their male counterparts) within the Ministries of Education and Community Services used the Commission to bring factors affecting girls' education to the attention of policy makers between 1986 and 1990. These efforts culminated in the GABLE project.

The NCWID's Education and Training Committee spearheaded the debate on girls' education and drew up a plan of action. Among other things, the Committee planned to initiate research studies to look into factors affecting female education, such as the causes of poor academic performance of girls in school and premature drop-out of girls from school. The committee regarded the MOE's practice of permanently expelling pregnant school girls as being punitive. Other issues included in the plan of action were: review of the curriculum for gender sensitivity, inclusion of family life education in the curriculum at primary and secondary levels, strengthening career and vocational services to encourage girls to opt for non-traditional areas, and increasing the number of girls-only secondary schools.

In July 1990, the committee organised a five day national workshop on "Increasing the Access of Girls and Women to Education and Training Opportunities in Malawi" funded by USAID. The workshop came up with far reaching recommendations covering the education of girls and women, notably, career counselling and guidance, vocational and technical training and better employment and conditions of service for girls and women. Some of the recommendations made by the workshop were that:

· The government should increase expenditure on the education sector.

· Primary education should be free and compulsory.

· Gender biases should be removed from the curriculum and all learning materials.

· More girls-only schools should be built with at least one in each of the three regions by 1995.

· Girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy should be allowed to be re-admitted once.

· The Adult Literacy Programme should be intensified by recruiting more qualified teachers and including skills training components in the curriculum.

These recommendations contributed to the setting of priorities regarding girls' education for the GABLE programme. The Women's Ministry was directly involved in the initial design process of the GABLE project.

The success of gender advocates within the two Ministries can be largely attributed to a political leadership that supported women's issues. The development wing of the League of Malawi Women, CCAM, worked closely with the NCWID and thus ensured that womens' issues received political support at the highest level. The NCWID also provided an important forum for gender advocates within the relevant government ministries to meet and consider issues affecting women at a time when there were few women in government decision making roles.

However, due to structural weaknesses, NCWID has had difficulty in re-defining its role in the democratic era. It has never had permanent staff and it has to operate through desk officers in each Ministry. Turnover of these personnel has been high which has made planning difficult, have been relatively junior and have not, therefore, had the authority or the technical skill needed to implement programmes (Walker, 1996). In addition, the commission has not had its own budget and this has tended to limit its role and functions. More generally, the advent of political pluralism and the emergence of several NGOs dealing with women's issues has put pressure on NCWID to re-define its role and streamline its activities. In short, the role of NCWID has diminished since 1994 and plans are underway to make it a parastatal body.

Kate Kainja who was appointed in 1993 as the first woman Minister of Education, played a central role in steering through the pregnancy and the school uniform reforms. Having conducted research in the area of gender inequalities in education she was ideally placed as a gender advocate to introduce what were culturally sensitive and controversial measures such as those dealing with schoolgirl pregnancy.

3.3.7 Implementation issues

Implementation of gender-specific education policies has been problematic. This is particularly so where policies touch on sensitive issues and where the beneficiaries have been girls only, which has tended to produce a backlash from parents, as in the case of scholarship and fee waiver programmes for girls.

The following discussion examines some important implementation problems arising from the pregnancy policy and the GABLE scholarship programme for secondary school girls.

Pregnancy Policy: Several problems have arisen in the implementation of the new pregnancy policy both at the school level and at MOE headquarters. Implementation of the policy at primary level lies in the hands of the DEO, whilst all post-primary cases are dealt with by MOE headquarters. Monitoring of the policy has not been made easy by the fact that pregnancy cases are reported as disciplinary cases and there has been no attempt at any level in the education system to keep track of how many of these disciplinary cases are due to pregnancy. As such, the MOE has been in no position to know how many girls have withdrawn each year because of pregnancy.

It is apparent that inadequate attention has been paid to detailed implementation procedures involved in the policy and little information was supplied to parents, teachers and the students themselves. As a result of lack of consultation with important stakeholders within MOE (e.g. heads, teachers, DEOs, REOs, parents, PTAs and school committees) and an absence of serious debate about the policy, unnecessary implementation problems have arisen.

1. Lack of detailed implementation guidelines

· No guidelines on dissemination of the policy have been given to the REOs, DEOs, head teachers and principals of colleges. Some teachers have even felt that distributing the policy to the community and parents is likely to encourage immoral behaviour on the part of the students thus increasing the incidence of pregnancy (Wolf 1995).

· From the very outset it was not made clear whether girls and boys should be readmitted to their former school or reassigned to new schools. Currently, the majority of the girls (about 80%) are re-admitted to a different school because a number of girls were harassed when they tried to rejoin their original schools. However, re-admitting girls to a different school poses problems in case of primary education because the majority of schools (especially in the rural areas) are not close together.

· Monitoring girls who drop-out due to pregnancy is particularly difficult as most girls leave school before they are discovered to be pregnant.

2. Negative attitudes towards returning mothers

· Opposition to the new policy by head teachers and teachers at some schools has been reported. Some head teachers have refused to admit returning teenage mothers on the pretext that they have no vacancies available at their schools.¹² According to an MOE official, some head teachers do no think it right that girls should be given a second chance when secondary school places for girls are so limited.

¹² Interviews with MOE personnel.

· There are also indications that the girls face social stigma once they go back to school. Preliminary findings from a survey on teenage motherhood conducted by the Centre for Social Research show that although the majority of girls interviewed knew about the new pregnancy policy, very few returned to school. Out of the 153 teenage mothers interviewed in three districts, only eight had returned. One of the reasons cited was that they were not actively encouraged by the head teachers to re-apply and return to school after delivery.¹³ It was also widely reported that girls were teased by their fellow pupils which discouraged them from re-enrolling in school.

¹³ Interview with Ms. C. Hickey, Centre for Social Research, Zomba.

3. Opposition to the timing of re-admission

· According to MOE officials, pregnant girls are supposed to withdraw from school and then reapply for admission once the baby is three months old. In practice, most parents and girls are anxious to have their children back in school as soon as possible after giving birth. The current policy means that the girls can lose up to two academic years. As result, some parents have forced their daughters to re-apply for admission soon after the baby is born.

4. Lack of publicity

· The pregnancy policy was initially announced on radio, but there has been very little publicity since then. Consequently, important stakeholders including school pupils and parents have remained poorly informed. There has been also been uneasiness on part of some education personnel that the policy might encourage promiscuity amongst school children. The importance of disseminating information and encouraging parents to send girls to school is demonstrated by the impact of GABLE SMC activities in the pilot district of Machinga in Southern Malawi where many teenage mothers have been encouraged to return to school (Brouder and Munthali, 1996).

5. No support mechanisms devised to supplement the new policy initiative

· The new policy was not accompanied by supporting strategies at the school level. For example, no counselling of any kind (either in birth control or coping strategies) is given to the returning mothers and fathers. Furthermore, the MOE keeps the identity of returning mothers confidential from the school they are being re-admitted to which makes it impossible for schools to provide counselling services to returning mothers. It is important that the girls are not intimidated by other pupils or staff. None of the schools in Malawi make provision for crèches. Nor have other options for returning mothers (such as non-formal education) been considered.

· There is no monitoring of the implementation of the policy at the Ministry level. However, well informed MOE officials believe that the majority of girls who leave school because of pregnancy still do not return. This is especially true of girls coming from poor families who may find it difficult to take care of the child and whose mothers would rather their daughters breastfeed for a longer period because they do not have adequate funds to feed the child. In some cases, parents encourage their daughters to marry.

3.3.8 The girl's secondary school scholarship programme

The on-going GABLE scholarship programme for secondary school girls was introduced in the 1994/95 school year in order to improve persistence and achievement of girls in primary schools. A school fee waiver programme for non-repeating primary school girls was introduced in 1992/93, but was unnecessary after school fees were abolished in October 1994. The money allocated for this activity by USAID was then transferred to support girls in secondary schools.

The Programme Assistance Approval Document (PAAD) stipulates that the selection of girls for the scholarship programme should be on the basis of need and merit. Initially, however, MOE officials proposed that the fund should only benefit girls in regular secondary schools, irrespective of need, because it was feared that the lack of proper accounting controls at the DECs could well lead to the misappropriation of the scholarship funds at the centres. However, limiting the scholarship fund to girls in regular secondary schools clearly raises a number of issues.

As discussed earlier, girls attending secondary schools tend to come from higher social economic backgrounds than boys. During focus group discussions, many parents in the SMC pilot district indicated that they would be prepared to send their girls to a DEC and even construct a new centre in their area. Very few girls from poor families and rural communities attend regular secondary schools which are highly competitive and based on merit, whereas access to DECs is open to all and they are located in rural areas. Many DECs have benefited from community contributions for the construction of classrooms and hostels. Restricting the scholarship programme to girls in regular secondary schools, therefore, raised important equity and class issues, and it was finally decided to extend the programme to the DECs.

District Education Officers (DEOs) and heads of primary and secondary schools are responsible for identifying needy girls and helping them complete the application form. Implementation in the first year was fraught with problems. The main criterion for selection was need, but this was difficult to assess because of vague guidelines and limited information. The resulting confusion meant that very few girls applied for the scholarship in 1995/96. Beginning in the 1997/98 school year, all girls in regular schools and DECs became eligible for assistance and schools are required to register all girls for the scholarship. The programme pays tuition and boarding fees of up to K440 per year. If fees are higher than this, each girl receives up to K140 in the first term and K150 in the second and third terms with the total balance paid each term. In addition examination fees for both JCE and MSCE are also covered by the programme.

Other implementation problems that have arisen in the first two years of its operation are as follows:

1. Lack of publicity

· The programme suffered from a lack of publicity in the first year. Its introduction was announced just once in the media. Correspondence to the SMC office revealed that many eligible girls failed to benefit from the programme during the first year.

· During the second year of implementation, much greater efforts were made to publicise the scholarship fund. Politicians, particularly from the ruling party also assisted in disseminating the information although confusion has been caused by contradictory messages about various details of the programme.

2. Bias against the poorest girls and girls in DECs

· The new guidelines for 1997 mean that girls in regular government-assisted secondary schools have a larger proportion of their tuition and boarding fees paid for by the scholarship fund. In contrast, for the majority of girls from DECs, the K440 per year allocated is far from adequate.¹⁴ Students in DECs have to pay the full costs of boarding fees which vary from centre to centre, but can range from anything between K200 to K1,000 per term. The scholarship programme is, therefore, regressive because those enrolled in DECs are from poorer families.

¹⁴ Fees for the DECs are much higher than regular secondary schools because that latter are subsidised by government.

3. Backlash from male pupils

· From the complaints that are aired on the radio in a GABLE SMC programme, it is clear that most boys in schools think that the government is favouring girls. The majority of boys in regular schools come from peasant families and also find it difficult to raise secondary school fees.

These examples demonstrate the need for greater attention to be paid to all stages of policy formulation and to the practicalities of implementing gender-related policies. Confusion about target groups has resulted in policies not having the intended impact and this applies to both government and donors. These examples also illustrate the need for commitment at all levels of the educational hierarchy if such measures are to be successful.

3.4 Donor interventions

3.4.1 Donor support to education
3.4.2 USAID - Gable programme 1991-1998
3.4.3 UNICEF
3.4.4 ODA/DFID
3.4.5 Donor coordination

3.4.1 Donor support to education

Malawi's education system relies heavily on donor support, particularly for infrastructure development and provision of resources. A large proportion of the Malawi development account is financed externally, although the education sector has not attracted as much donor aid as the productive sectors of the economy. The share of education in the national development account was only 17.7% in 1993/94 and this fell to 12.7% in 1994/95 (MOE, 1995). Until recently, education was not a high priority for government.

Since the late 1980s, there has been a shift by most donors to the programme approach which emphasises system or institutional development in the education sector (involving budgetary support) as part of a process of policy reform. As discussed in earlier chapters, donors, and most notably USAID, have played a major role in sponsoring research which has highlighted gender inequalities in education provision. The other donors who have assisted the education sector include UNESCO, DFID, NORAD, CIDA, JICA, EC, UNFPA, UNICEF, and more recently, DANIDA. Most educational aid has focused on the provision of physical infrastructure (classrooms and teacher houses) and material resources, particularly textbooks. Only a small proportion of aid has been channelled towards the improvement of the overall education system through policy and curriculum review, development of teaching and learning materials, and institutional development.

The World Bank is the largest donor to the education sector in Malawi. It has provided funding to education since 1967. From the early 1980s, the focus of World Bank funding shifted from secondary and tertiary to primary education, although the provision of physical infrastructure and other material inputs still predominates. Similarly, until very recently, DFID and USAID also concentrated on secondary and tertiary education sectors. UNICEF's assistance to education has always focused on primary education in line with its mandate. The African Development Bank (ADB) has made loans for building and equipping primary and secondary schools in urban areas.

During the 1980s, very little donor support was extended to girls' education programmes and projects. But, by the 1990s four agencies (DFID, USAID, UNICEF and the World Bank) all had important programmes address in different ways gender imbalances in the education system. The initiatives developed by these agencies to tackle gender inequalities range from programmes that specifically target girls e.g. USAID's GABLE programme to projects that have mainstreamed gender such as UNICEF's 'Keeping Kids in School' project.

3.4.2 USAID - Gable programme 1991-1998

GABLE is USAID's main initiative in promoting girl's primary education in Malawi. The purpose of GABLE is to increase the enrolment, persistence and achievement of girls in primary school whilst at the same time improving the overall quality and efficiency of the primary education system thereby benefiting both girls and boys. The components of GABLE that have specifically targeted girls include: the waiving of school fees for non-repeating girls in primary school, revising the curriculum to make it more gender sensitive, training of teachers in the delivery of the new gender sensitive curriculum, and a social mobilisation campaign to encourage parents to send girls to school, and a scholarship programme for girls in secondary schools. Other components of GABLE are aimed at improving the overall efficiency of primary education by increasing the budgetary allocations to the education sector, especially primary education.

The motivation behind USAID's interest in girls' education in Malawi can be traced to its own gender priorities as well as the demands of Malawian women's groups. GABLE was seen by USAID as contributing in a major way to its key strategic objective in Malawi, namely the reduction of population growth. USAID personnel in Malawi were clearly influenced by research findings that linked female education to increased agricultural productivity and reduced fertility and infant and child mortality and morbidity rates. Although gender equity in education was not part of government education policy, the partnership that the USAID mission forged with women's organisations, particularly NCWID, assisted in the project design of GABLE. Six factors that contributed to the success of USAID Malawi in addressing gender issues can be identified:

· Strong receptivity of Malawian women toward USAID/Malawi, enhanced by the gender-balanced work force of the mission over the past decade.

· Strong and consistent commitment by mission management to address gender throughout the portfolio as a regular part of the programme project cycle.

· A highly qualified and resourceful WID officer who focuses attention on strategic interventions that have a significant and sustainable impact.

· Consistent use of monitoring to identify effects of policies and programmes on both males and females.

· Integration of gender considerations into on-going tasks as a regular part of the programme project cycle.

· As opposed to the location of the WID officer in the Programme and Project Development office (a technical office) which offers a comprehensive cross-cutting view of mission activities and facilitates identification of key interventions (Romashko et al, 1994).

The experience of USAID in Malawi highlights the importance of organisational factors in the incorporation of gender issues in the agency's overall country programme. USAID has adopted a new approach to educational development in Africa. Education Sector Support (ESS) is based on a set of agreements, established and agreed upon by USAID and the government. Through the non-project assistance (NPA) component of the ESS, funds are disbursed in tranches against agreed conditions reflecting the implementation of key policy, institutional and budgetary reforms (DeStefano et al, 1995).

GABLE is a combination of project and non-project assistance. The conditions that were established to promote gender equity include the following:

· Implementation of a nation-wide system of school fee waivers for non-repeating school girls in primary schools.

· Preparation of a plan for gender-balanced community primary schools and implementation of targets set.

· After reviewing results of the pilot gender streaming study, develop a plan for nation-wide implementation of gender streaming in upper primary standards.

· Implementation of a nation-wide scholarship programme for secondary school girls.

With regard to more sensitive policy areas (such as schoolgirl pregnancy), USAID did not set explicit conditionalities. The problem of drop-out through pregnancy was addressed by means of its SMC component which encourages girls to enter school at an early age so they can finish school before pregnancy emerges as a problem (Wolf, 1995)

As part of the GABLE programme, the government is required to increase the share of education in total recurrent public expenditure from 17% in 1993/94 to 27% by 1997 and also increase the share of the primary education sector in total public education expenditure from 50% in 1993/94 to 62% in 1996/97. It is not entirely clear whether the government has met this target due to a variation in government estimates of expenditure for primary education.

It is too early to gauge the impact of gender streaming. The MOE has met most of the GABLE conditions. But the problem with the NPA approach, however, is that it does not pay enough attention to the implementation of new policies and this can lead to MOE headquarters neglecting important stakeholders, such as regional and district offices.

3.4.3 UNICEF

Up to the late 1980s, UNICEF's activities in Malawi concentrated on improving child health and nutrition. Since the early 1990s, it has increasingly targeted the education sector with respect to gender although it still does not have a comprehensive education programme. UNICEF has followed both a mainstreaming approach in some of its projects and programmes and rather than relying on specific gender programmes to prevent a backlash that usually occurs if girls are targeted.¹⁵ Although the following programmes do have a strong gender orientation.

¹⁵ In this respect, UNICEF might well have learned the lesson from GABLE's first waiving of school fees for primary school girls prior to October 1994, which was unpopular amongst parents who felt it discriminated against boys.

UNICEF has identified distance to school as the main obstacle to girls' education in Malawi. Consequently, the main thrust of their education programme is to bring schools closer to pupils' homes. Its two main education projects are Keeping Children in School (funded by NORAD) and Closing the Gender Gap (funded by CIDA). The major objective of the first of these projects is to consolidate the gains made under the free primary education initiative by curbing drop-out rates as well as improving water and sanitation conditions in schools, with particular attention being given to toilet facilities for girls.

'Closing the Gender Gap' (funded by CIDA) which started in 1995/1996 seeks to address the following problems facing many children (particularly girls): the limited access to school of 6-10 year olds, inadequate and untrained teachers and lack of teaching and learning materials. The major strategies employed to address these issues include: the provision of learning materials, recruitment of female teachers (often paraprofessionals), training of school committees and supporting action research and advocacy. Both of these programmes operate in remote areas where distances to school are great.

Promoting and strengthening community participation in the management of schools has been a central feature of UNICEF's approach. One UNICEF initiative has involved the construction of classroom shells, with communities providing labour for the brickwork. PRA methods have been extensively used to help communities identify problems affecting the education of their children. To encourage community participation in school governance and school committee, PTAs and local leaders are given training which has a gender component. UNICEF has also implemented advocacy and social mobilisation programmes to encourage girls to persist in school. Stories are produced for schools and communities as part of its Adolescent Girl Child Initiative in order to provide female role models. The main thrust of UNICEF's education programme is to try and keep children in school by improving the quality of education and improving access for marginalised groups.

UNICEF does not impose conditionalities on governments and all plans and operations are developed in collaboration with government counterparts. There is little monitoring of gender in the education sector and the focus of UNICEF gender-related projects in Malawi is limited. There is an inherent assumption in these programmes that by increasing access, gender inequality will simply disappear. Although UNICEF's approach in Malawi is to mainstream gender, in the East and Southern Africa region UNICEF has just started implementing a girls' education project known as the 'African Girls' Education Initiative' (AGEI).¹⁶ Attempts to introduce a multimedia project that attempts to raise the social status of the girl child (the Sara Initiative) have met with some opposition in Malawi as it is not considered to be culturally relevant¹⁷.

¹⁶ Funded by NORAD.

¹⁷ The use of some images adopted from 'Meena' in Bangladesh such Sara's pet monkey is seen as being inappropriate in the Malawian context.

3.4.4 ODA/DFID

DFID's activities in Malawi are managed by the British Development Division in Central Africa (BDDCA) which, in 1995, relocated from Lilongwe to Harare. Currently DFID is supporting three primary education projects: the primary community schools project (PCOSP), the primary schools support systems project and the supplementary readers project. The PCOSP, which is one of DFID's largest education projects in Africa has developed a strong gender component. BDDCA has supported its interventions in Malawi with research and information and the education and social development advisers have worked closely to develop gender inputs for education projects.

In 1995, BDDCA commissioned a UK based consultant to produce a literature review on the constraints to girls' education in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1995. This was followed up with a workshop in 1996 which was designed to 'give advice on how to develop more productive strategies for working with ministries and more effectively addressing the needs of girls and women.'¹⁸ A series of guidelines was subsequently developed to help address gender inequalities in education sector projects in BDDCA. It is intended that these will be used in the formulation and implementation of education projects.

¹⁸ S. Packer, BDDCA Workshop, Harare, 7/96.

Primary Community Schools Project (PCOSP)

The main objective of PCOSP is to develop and disseminate cost-effective and replicable approaches for the delivery of effective primary education. The project aims to provide quality education for both boys and girls with emphasis on access, retention and achievement and pays particular attention to the factors which inhibit girls' participation in school. The schools will have the following special characteristics:

· Serve disadvantaged communities particularly where distance to the nearest primary school is great.

· Operate up to standard 4 only, thus targeting very young children between 6 and 10 years old.

· Are an integral part of the national primary education system and follow the national curriculum.

· Serve as places for wider community activities.

· Involve the community in the design, development, management and maintenance of the school and in the provision of resources.

· Adopt child-centred and interactive approaches to classroom instruction.

· Involve the community in the selection of teachers from their community.

The project aims at providing quality education for both boys and girls with an emphasis on access, retention and achievement and pays particular attention to the factors that inhibit girls participation in school.

Although not included in the original project design, gender has now been incorporated into all aspects of PCOSP. A gender strategy was developed following a training workshop on strategic gender planning, which addressees all issues of planning, implementation, outcome and impact. Seven gender principles have been developed which will be considered in relation to each of the seven main project strategies and activities from the selection of sites for the schools to classroom practice. Some of the gender strategies to be employed are:

· Gender balance in the appointment of teachers, headteachers and central project teams.

· Gender sensitive teaching and learning materials and teaching methods.

· Equal participation of men and women in school establishment particularly school committees.

· Equitable employment opportunities and remuneration in school construction activities for men and women.

The PCOSP has a strong element of community participation. The project has proposed innovative strategies to involve communities in a meaningful way in both the establishment and management of schools. Communities are also involved in the selection of teachers and head teachers for schools. The project uses PRA techniques to mobilise communities. The PSCOP has adopted a comprehensive gender strategy that not only deals with issues relating to pupils, teachers and learning, but also covers all aspects and stages of project implementation including management and the construction of schools.

Currently, 50% of the teachers recruited for the project schools are women, five of the headteachers recruited for the first 12 schools are women, and 40% of the first group of emerging community contractors trained as part of the construction component are women. The project has trained both men and women for construction work and they are paid equal rates for the same work. School committees are being established with an emphasis on gender balance in membership, office holding and participation. Gender sensitisation has been employed for the project team. After initial resistance on the part of some men, 'almost all' became convinced of the need to take gender issues seriously.¹⁹

¹⁹ Unfortunately, the local team leader was not convinced about the need to incorporate gender and he left the project.

Widespread illiteracy is a potentially very serious constraint to effective participation in school management, particularly among rural women. Many parents, and particularly women, lack the confidence to either enforce school attendance or provide advice on school work (Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997 and Hyde et al, 1996). A baseline study for the project identified general lack of education as a constraint to the effective participation of the communities in school governance (Kadzamira and Ndalama, 1997).

3.4.5 Donor coordination

The major donors to education have established a donor coordinating committee whose aim is to share experiences in order to avoid the duplication of activities. The committee meets quarterly and is chaired by the Principal Secretary of the MOE. There are six subcommittees looking into various aspects of education although not one of these addresses gender which is assumed to be a cross-cutting theme. Gender and education does not enjoy the same level of donor collaboration as other areas such as community participation and teacher training. For example, when USAID/GABLE was launching its SMC nation-wide, UNICEF was about to implement its social advocacy programme which is very similar to GABLE's approach. If they had collaborated in this area, duplication could have been avoided. Nevertheless, it is evident that there has been much sharing of experiences between the major donors in Malawi over the past five years with regard to education. USAID, World Bank, DFID, SCF and UNICEF have all been working towards community involvement in the management of schools. The success so far of GABLE has helped to put gender, and girls' education in particular, on the national agenda so that most of the other donors have now incorporated gender into their activities.

Donor prioritisation of basic education, although justifiable, could have important negative consequences in the longer run. In particular, as long as women are grossly under-represented in higher education, they will continue to be excluded from important decision making roles. Furthermore, the neglect of non-formal education could adversely affect donor and government plans to promote more community participation in schools.

Table 10: Current donor activities in the education sector

AID AGENCY	NAME OF PROJECT	SUBSECTOR	ACTIVITIES
WORLD BANK	Primary Education Project (PEP)	Primary	· Primary classroom construction. · Pedagogical support and in-service teacher training
	Third Sector Education Credit	Primary	· Provision of teaching and learning materials · School nutrition and health
		Secondary	· Construction of day secondary schools · Secondary school curriculum review
USAID	GABLE II	Primary	· Increase budgetary allocation to education and within education to primary education sector · Primary classroom construction · Improve the analytical and planning capacity of MOE and improve the planning sector's ability to integrate planning and budgeting processes · Strengthen GAC unit by dividing into two components one dealing with teacher training and another one for curriculum development · Improve the achievement of girls on PSLC through gender streaming
		Secondary	· Establish a girls' scholarship fund for secondary schools
KFW		Primary	Construction of primary schools · Establishment of sub-zonal resource centres · Construction of PEAs offices
ODA	Primary Community Schools Project PSCOSP	Primary	· Construction and establishment of junior primary schools
	School Support Systems Project MSSP		·Input into national training initiatives through development of training modules · Construction of sub-zonal resource centres and PEAs houses · Training of headteachers, PEAS in management and advisory roles. · Support to MIE
GTZ	Basic Education Project	Primary	· Teacher support · Integrate formal and non-formal education into one basic delivery system · Strengthen planning and management capacity of district offices · Training of primary school teachers · Rehabilitation of primary classrooms
	Primary Science Project	Primary	· Curriculum development of science and health education and material development · Institution building at MIE
UNICEF	Keeping Kids in Schools	Primary	· Construction and establishment of junior community primary schools for standards 1 and 2
	Closing the Gender Gap		· Training of paraprofessional teachers · Provision of instructional materials
DANIDA	Rehabilitation of primary education	Primary	· Construction of primary classroom and teacher training · Teacher resource centres · Development and production of learning materials
	Improvement and expansion of secondary education	Secondary	· Provision of teaching and learning materials to DECs · Initiation of comprehensive subsectors study · Revitalise DECs · Teacher training
	Technical and Vocational, Educational Training		· Study on the labour market · Development of a sub-sector policy and action plan

3.5 Non governmental organisations

3.5.1 The nature of NGO activity
3.5.2 Relationship between women's NGOs and government
3.5.3 NGOs and aid agencies
3.5.4 NGOs and government policy

3.5.1 The nature of NGO activity

An important legacy of Malawi's authoritarian past is the relatively small number of NGOs in the country. In the education sector, 34 locally registered NGOs were active in 1995. Half of them provide basic education services which involves the provision of infrastructure and materials as well as the actual running of schools. The remainder are heavily involved with non-formal education and HIV/AIDs education and counselling. Many education NGOs are church based and have staunchly advocated single sex schooling for religious and moral reasons. Most, if not all, single sex primary and secondary schools that exist in Malawi were established by these church organisations.

In 1994, there were fewer than ten NGOs directly concerned with womens' issues and most of these have focused on human rights and political and economic empowerment. Only three - Forum for African Women Educationalists, Malawi (FAWEMA), CCAM and Tiyende Women in Development (TWID) are concerned with education. CCAM offers bursaries to both needy school children and TWID has a literacy and survival skills project for girl drop outs. Since its inception, 120 women aged between 18-25 have benefited from training for self employment. FAWEMA's activities concentrate on advocacy and support for girls' and womens' education. The Society for the Advancement of Women (SAW), one of the most prominent women's NGOs to emerge in the democratic era, focuses more on human rights issues than education. However, it is involved in mainstreaming women's rights in the primary and secondary curriculum. It also conducts training in human rights which covers issues such as domestic violence. Thus, apart from the churches, little attention has been paid to education by groups in civil society. The activities of NGOs have been dominated by economic empowerment and advocacy.

The majority of women's NGOs were established between the late 1980s and the early 1990's, a period of activity which was heavily influenced by events on the international scene. It is the general view of the NGO community (particularly those concerned with women) that so much is already being done by government and donor programmes such as GABLE to improve girls' education that they should rather focus on human rights issues. However, this ignores the overwhelming need for adult education provision.

The government remains the largest provider of non-formal education for girls and women through its functional literacy programme and homecraft classes in the Women's Ministry. These efforts are supplemented by NGOs whose programmes tend to be smaller in scope and coverage. The relatively low level of NGO activity in the area of both education and women's rights is a reflection of the historically low levels of female literacy in Malawi and political repression associated with Banda's rule.

3.5.2 Relationship between women's NGOs and government

Prior to 1994, the most influential organisation that dealt with women's issues was CCAM which was established in 1985 as the development wing of the only political party, the MCP. The relationship between CCAM and NCWID was close as there was little distinction between party and government. CCAM had a broad based membership in line with the ruling party. Its secretariat was in the Office of the President and Cabinet and was headed by a female permanent secretary. The location of CCAM within a high status Ministry rather than the Ministry of Women helped the secretariat to gain status and recognition and enabled CCAM to acquire the necessary financial and physical resources (both local and foreign) to sustain its activities.

CCAM members from all districts met annually to discuss issues affecting girls and women. A series of recommendations emerged from these meetings (which, inter alia, covered basic education for girls, literacy for women, access to credit and legal awareness). These were channelled through the NCWID which worked very closely with the CCAM secretariat.

Although in theory CCAM was supposed to have grassroots representation, in practice ordinary women were never integrally involved in its activities. This was despite the fact that women were required to contribute funds and labour for various CCAM activities (particularly in urban areas) which made the organisation unpopular. There was a clear underlying tension in CCAM aims between getting women to contribute to development by mobilising the poor in communities and advocating for an improvement in the position of women. The first was the preoccupation of grassroots women and the latter of academics and women in the hierarchy. Nevertheless, CCAM did succeed in drawing attention to girls' education issues and for this reason was widely consulted in the initial stages of the GABLE planning process during 1990. With the introduction of multiparty government, CCAM had to re-define its position and in January 1994 became an NGO independent of government. However, the range and extent of its activities have been greatly reduced due to the loss of state support.

In 1996, a group of gender activists formed an informal network called Gender Initiative Network (GIN) committed to the advancement of women and gender equality. GIN is political but non-partisan and its mandate is the monitoring of government fulfilment of the Beijing commitments and other commitments regarding women's rights. It held a forum to brief Malawian women on the issues and concerns of the Beijing conference which attracted NGOs, government ministries and donor agencies. The Ministry of Women took the opportunity to launch the Malawi Platform for Action which included clauses on the education of the girl child. The long awaited Platform of Action for Malawi on the status of women was officially launched at the forum by the Women's Ministry and NCWID. However, the apparently close working relationship between the government and GIN has been marred by recent allegations in the press that GIN is a front for CCAM.

3.5.3 NGOs and aid agencies

Most of the church based NGOs are assisted by the central government in their provision of basic education services. But, only a few NGOs receive support from aid agencies, the most notable example being the US-based Save the Children Federation. SCF has been working closely with several donor agencies, most notably USAID and UNICEF in experimenting with new models of community participation in school management. USAID, through GABLE, has provided the initial funding for SCF to open four village based schools in remote and deprived communities where distance to the nearest school is great. Another measure taken to encourage the enrolment and persistence of girl children in particular, is the recruitment of women teachers from local communities. Communities have also been encouraged to appoint school committees with a target of at least half female.²⁰ An evaluation of the project in 1996 found an equal proportion of girls and boys enrolled at four sample schools. USAID has taken the most successful elements of the SCF project and is negotiating with the government to scale them up nationally. One of the conditions in the GABLE 2 programme is the completion of a time-phased action plan for the establishment of gender balanced community primary schools by the MOE.

²⁰ As a result, in 1996 40% of school committee members were female compared to an average of 25% in government schools.

UNICEF has also collaborated with SCF since 1995 in establishing community schools for Standards I-IV in Mangochi. The four schools have since been handed over to SCF who are providing supporting the training of teachers and school committee members as well as providing supervisory and advisory services.

3.5.4 NGOs and government policy

Currently, there are few opportunities for women's groups in civil society to influence the design and implementation of education policy. Women's groups such as FAWEMA²¹ have yet to make an impact on MOE largely due to political issues related to leadership. Although FAWEMA was established in 1993, its operations have been largely ineffective and the MOE has yet to recognise its existence. When the new education policy plan was being drawn up between 1994 and 1996, important community stakeholders were actively consulted. However, FAWEMA was not represented at the various seminars and workshops that were organised to draw up an education policy plan. FAWEMA's agenda is impressive but the lack of funds and leadership problems continue to plague the organisation. The organisation is not known to most Malawians and it has not managed to effectively advocate for girls' education.

²¹ There is little interaction between FAWEMA and the FAWE Secretariat in Nairobi.

3.6. Conclusion

A considerable amount of knowledge about gender and education is now available which has improved our understanding of the nature and complexity of the causes and problems affecting girls' education in Malawi. This knowledge emanates from both academic research and the accumulated experience of both government and donors in implementing a wide variety of programmes and projects. And yet, despite the existence of such a rich knowledge base, the response of both government and donors in seeking to address some of the most serious gender inequalities in the education sector has not been adequate given the scale of the problem.

Much of the research conducted before the 1990s did not influence government and donor policies. This in itself is not surprising as the government had little interest in the education of women and girls during this period. The MOE was mainly preoccupied with regional and district inequalities in access and attainment which were more politically sensitive than gender inequalities.

Wide gender gaps still exist throughout the education system in Malawi. While the gender gap at primary level in access, enrolment and achievement has almost closed, at secondary and tertiary levels serious gender gaps still remain. The MOE did introduce a progressive quota policy for the selection of girls into secondary schools from as early as 1972, but the MOE's overall commitment to improving the status of girls in the education system remained limited. It was only after the successful introduction of GABLE programme that government commitment to girls' education increased significantly. The major and most far reaching efforts to reduce gender inequalities in the education system have, therefore, been initiated from outside the MOE.²²

²² It has been reported that the MOE was not keen on the girls' education aspects of GABLE but showed great enthusiasm for wider system reforms (Wolf, 1995).

In contrast, the Women's Ministry has consistently shown much greater interest in the education of girls and women. However, this Ministry lacked the bureaucratic and political authority to push through the policy reforms that have been proposed by various women's groups.

Eight important lessons can be drawn from the Malawi case study.

1. At present the institutional mechanisms for the integration of gender into education are weak and initiatives are taken on an ad hoc basis.

2. There are no clear procedures to take up important issues arising from research in the area of gender and education.

3. In the absence of local commitment for girls' education particularly within MOE, external pressure from donors (in this case USAID) has been crucial in pushing through policy reforms to improve girls' education.

4. The importance of women's lobbying groups in this reform process cannot be underestimated. CCAM and NCWID have played a critical role in raising levels of awareness about the disadvantaged position of women and girls in the education system and lobbying government to take action. When USAID was putting together the GABLE project, it found a ready partner to work with and to mobilise support from government.

5. The lack of attention paid to the implementation of gender policies and programmes has resulted in serious problems on the ground. Policies and programmes have been designed without due regard to their gender dynamics and no serious attempts have been made to identify potential obstacles to the smooth implementation of such policies. Examples in Malawi are the pregnancy and scholarship programmes for secondary school girls.

6. Donor agencies, like governments, have paid too little attention to the implementation of gender policies and programmes. Most attention has been directed towards the central ministry in designing and implementing donor funded gender initiatives. However, the people directly responsible for implementing policies at the grassroots level have often been neglected. The monitoring and evaluation of donor supported activities has generally been weak.

7. The weak organisational structures within the MOE to take up gender objectives have hampered progress towards the 'genderising' of the planning process. Lack of gender planning has led to a fragmented approach to addressing gender concerns in the education system. In short, the MOE still lacks a coherent gender policy and the capacity to implement it.

8. Gender sensitisation of government officials responsible for implementing policies for the community at large is crucial. Most of the implementation issues that have arisen from gender policies are due to a lack of gender awareness on the part of government officials and poor communication of their policies (e.g. concerning pregnancy).

Recommendations:

The following recommendations include those made by the Malawi working group at a research dissemination workshop held in Harare between 12-13th January, 1998.

Structures

1. With regard to the lack of institutionalisation of gender within the MOE, the establishment of a gender unit with a clear mandate is proposed within the planning unit. The unit would be responsible for ensuring the integration of gender across all departments of the Ministry and it would also conduct on-going gender sensitisation of headquarters staff.

2. Gender sensitisation followed by courses in gender planning would be offered to policy makers, educational administrators, teacher trainers etc. This process would help to shift attitudes of education planners from promoting access to improving the retention, performance and achievement of girls.

3. The links between research and policy making within the MOE need to be strengthened. Currently, only research commissioned by government and donors is incorporated into policy. The coordinating committee for educational research linking the university and the MOE should be revived so as to incorporate a wider membership. The committee should be chaired by the MOE.

4. Research findings should be disseminated widely and utilised more effectively both inside and outside of government.

Gender and Education Policies

5. A comprehensive gender policy should be incorporated in the review of the Policy Investment Framework (PIF).

6. Donors, governments and NGOs should make sure that clear guidelines are produced as part of the policy design process with regard to the implementation and monitoring of gender interventions.

7. The mandate of the National Commission on Women and Development should be reviewed to take a gender and development perspective.

Areas of emphasis

8. Given the high rates of adult illiteracy (particularly of females), adult education and functional literacy programmes should be actively developed by donors and government in collaboration with NGOs where appropriate. This would also help to deal with the problem of over-age school enrolment.

9. NGOs should pay more attention to adult education and early childhood education, both of which are sorely neglected at present.

10. A study should be commissioned to examine the impact of the current pregnancy policy on girls' education.

11. In order to reduce the present imbalance in the provision of secondary schooling for girls, 10% of the 250 new secondary schools the government is planning to build should be for girls only.

12. Donors should also support gender initiatives in tertiary sectors such as universities and vocational training institutions. As sex stereotyping of subjects is particularly pronounced at the tertiary level, scholarship programmes for girls taking courses in non-traditional area such as engineering is appropriate. Donors could also support government efforts to reform and revitalise the tertiary sector.