Of children, education and government policy in Malawi

When I went home a few months ago, I had an opportunity to visit almost all the districts in Malawi. While there, I observed and experienced a lot of things. However, I identified one very disturbing thing in many parts of my beautiful country which, to say the least, shocked me speechless. Neglected children doing ‘masikini bwana’ in the streets.
On one Thursday morning, I was standing outside the Celtel Internet Café in Blantyre and in the few minutes that I stood there I saw more than 20 street kids doing ‘spare-some-change-bwana’. I then wondered as to why these kids were not at school given the FREE primary school education in Malawi. I did not bother to ask any of these kids why they were in the streets and not at school because I could foretell the excuses that I would be getting from them. ‘We are poor’, ‘we are orphans’, ‘we have nobody to take care of us’ etc. These are the kind of excuses which have always been there ‘since time immemorial’ and it is not at all the children’s fault that they find themselves in such terrible situations. However, what I really find disturbing is the Malawi government’s reaction to the plight of these unfortunate kids.

While acknowledging and appreciating the Malawi government’s move to introduce Free Primary Education, I really ask myself as to how ‘free’ this FREE primary education is in Malawi. It is true that Malawi needs a lot of effort and initiative to pull herself out of her destitution. However, such efforts need to be well tailored to the realities of life in Malawi. We are talking of free primary education here, a truly positive move (on the surface). However, when you look at the real Malawian situation, you would notice that this initiative sidelines some of the most important aspects of life in Malawi. For example, throughout my primary school education, nutrition was a very essential ingredient. I could hardly concentrate nor focus on what my teachers were teaching me whenever my stomach was empty. That was not all, I also needed note books, text books, pens, pencils, uniform etc to make sure that I benefited from school. Above all, my parents had to pay about MK5.60 every term towards my tuition fees. This was a lot of money. In other words, primary school education was not free.

However, it is not the ‘hard cash’ cash element alone which makes education free or not and a simple declaration that parents will no longer be required to pay MK5.60 for their children’s primary education does not at all make such education FREE. At the moment, I am yet to be convinced that our primary school education is free and our government surely needs to look at the broader Malawian social context and consider ways which could truy make primary education FREE. Otherwise …!!!!