In Malawi, the Ministry of Education is responsible for primary (grades one through eight) and secondary education (grades 9 through twelve). Primary Education is free, but students must pay for education after completion of standard eight. Beyond primary school, there are a variety of options for secondary schooling, both public and private. In the public sector, there are conventional secondary schools, government secondary schools and community day secondary schools. Typically, both conventional and government schools have fair to excellent resources, and more qualified teachers. Students who attend these schools tend to account for a majority of the national exam passes and go often continue into higher education. The community day secondary schools (CDSS) are primarily located in rural areas and consequently the fees are intended to be affordable to this population. The CDSS’s have only recently (January 1999) been incorporated into the Ministry of Education policy. These schools tend to yield extremely low pass rates for national exams and few students continue into higher education.

Classrooms are wildly different from their American versions; a run-down building with a tin roof, perhaps a black board like the one pictured above and usually at least 60 students per teacher.

In the past, CDSS’s were established as a means to increase secondary education in Malawi’s rural communities. When these schools were established, they were taken under the wings of Christian missions, and already existing Distance Education Centers (DEC’s). These were independent learning facilities with no teachers and no resources. Students followed correspondence materials and learning occurred according to the student’s initiative. When these were converted into CDSS’s they were taken under the Ministry wing, but during the transition period have remained with a number of issues.
CDSS’s are still seen as being at the bottom of the hierarchy of secondary schools. As a result, these schools face the greatest challenges of all secondary schools in the Malawian education system.

First of all, CDSSs struggle with limited resources. Lack of desks, books and teaching aids, small inadequate libraries, no electricity, insufficient, if any, laboratories, and at times, even a lack of classrooms are all problems hindering effective instruction. In addition, the students’ often have a weak educational background which resents a challenge in itself to teachers.

	Lisa Sneider with her students at a "Girls Day" event. Many education volunteers take part in gender equality exercises including essays and career events.

Due to a shortage of teachers nationwide, CDSS teachers are often only qualified to be teaching at the primary level but are being bumped up to the secondary schools. Their insufficient knowledge of the material they are then forced to teach leads to poor, and many times, inaccurate lessons. In addition to that, the few teachers who are qualified are often lured away from the CDSS to a government secondary school where they receive better pay and housing accommodation.

In general, the teaching profession is one of little status in the Malawi. As a result, one of the problems on a national level is a lack of motivation in the teachers, due mostly to insufficient incentive to excel at their jobs. Most Malawian teachers take home about 30% of the salary a PCV teacher receives, so they are often forced look for other means of income in addition to teaching, raising a family and managing their crops. Teachers often bemoan the system which continues to overlook teachers for pay raises and allocates less than adequate funding to manage the schools properly. Coupled with the high level of corruption in the government, the outlook on improvement of Malawi’s education system can be rather daunting.

In addition to issues with the infrastructure of education there are attitudes and practices within the system which lead to problems. Malawi has a 50% literacy rate and the job market is very limited. As a result, education is not a highly valued establishment. Still, in the past six years fees in most CDSS’s have gone from 20 kwacha a year to upwards of 1500 kwacha. For the average rural family, this is a considerable sum. Parents are likely to encourage their children to work in the fields rather than go to school and some children, particularly girls, are discouraged from going to school at all. This weakens the students’ support and thwarts even the most perfect educational system.

Students’ overall achievement is measured by their score on national exams. There are two exams administered in secondary school: the Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) and the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE). Students take the JCE after Form two and passing determines whether or not they continue into Form three the following year. The MSCE is administered at the end of form four and serves as a leaving exam for secondary school. In addition, the score determines eligibility for higher education and most civil servant jobs.