Minister NyaLonje says population growth impedes education standards in Malawi
Minister of education Agness Nyalonje has said providing quality education to all Malawians is hampered by the increase of population growth citing the figures of children born on this year’s Christmas as an example.
The minister was saying this during the launch of a 23rd General Congress of Teachers Union of Malawi at Crossroads Hotel in the capital city Lilongwe.
“It is alarming to see one district producing 102 children a single day which translate to two classrooms on a normal standard ratio”. Said Nyalonje.
In 2011 government suspended effort to adopt population policy following protests from chiefs on the basis that there was lack of wider consultation on the development of the draft policy.
However the fourth Cluster Survey ,recently released a report in which it indicate that 38 percent of girls between the age of 20 and 24 are married before the age of 18 while only seven percent of the boys in the same age get married before the age of 18.
The country has seen an exponential growth in population especially in eastern region districts of Balaka , Mangochi,Mchinga and Zomba with an increased dropout of learners in primary schools with Mangochi topping the list due to challenges that include distance to and from school.
In a bid to address the issue of distance the minister said government has lined up programs by among other things constructing school blocks and teachers houses to bring facilities closer to learners.
Weighing in on the matter, Civil Society Education Coalition Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe said with this kind of population growth it entails that the number of enrollment is also continuing to grow calling on government to draw clear and sustainable short term strategies which should seek to reduce the shortage of teachers especially in primary schools.
He adds by saying that to reduce the yawning pupil teacher ratio gap, government must look further by championing issues that can uplift the teaching spirit of teachers attributing the deficit to be sometimes an issue of the poor conditions teachers endure.
“Government should look further to find ways of motivating teachers by increasing salaries and giving them recognition and showing them respect but also objectively promoting them and making learning materials to the teachers handy that they should not be struggling in accessing them otherwise we risk losing more teachers that will end up increasing the deficit”.Said Kondowe.
Based on government statistics which some education experts don’t agree with, the teacher deficit in primary schools alone is at 26000.
However as a measures to reduce the deficit ,government has started conducting interviews in the country’s 28 districts for both secondary and primary schools.
The minister said for primary 2200 teachers will employed and 2185 for secondary schools while 1500 as auxiliaries in secondary school.
Commenting on population growth Kondowe further suggested that for the country to reduce the vice,government has to enhance raising awareness on the importance of bearing children with responsibility that would instill a sense of commitment for manageable family.
He has further suggested that government should progressively roll out compulsory primary education saying the system has a potential of delaying child bearing age.
“Education makes one not only to delay in marriage but it also considers marriages as a matter of choice rather than being a cultural obligation. The sexual reproductive health rights should be adequately mainstreamed in the education curriculum to give students the opportunity to make informed choices about their sexual and family lives”
“All in all chiefs and religious leaders should be mobilized to be champions of manageable families as the right to marry and finding a family to come with responsibilities”. Said Kondowe.
To straddle in the time and space of covid 19, minister of education said the Tonse government has developed and set up an interactive radio lessons and online materials to facilitate learning and teaching during the closure of schools.
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Madam Minister, don’t go round and round on the population, palibe kubisa mawu pano. The population growth rate for Malawi is very high, it needs urgent attention in order for the government to make a meaningful development with the meagre resources we have. Kaje kaje corruption, makes everything worse. Therefore, the government much continue and put more resources in controlling the population growth, it has a contribution to environmental degradation too which results into climate change.
Finally the government has spoken about the problem of overpopulation. Thank you. Indeed the whole African continent needs to develop a policy of not more than 3 children per family. The government can not afford to provide resources to everyone even the donors cant. Please, family planning sector should do its job to monitor this problem. Another thing is government must provide recreational parks in every district and social activities that the youth will be busy on than making babies at home.
We need to make more children.
Am happy that the Minister has noted this.
It’s the main cost driver for our eduction system and time is now that the Education sector should advocate for a Ministry dedicated to deal with population.
Most of the problems eduction sector is experiencing its due to population growth. And worse is that the population growth is due to learners from primary school who choose to drop out dur to pregnancy
Ever wondered how you could ask people to draw two bucket loads of river water during the rainy season as opposed to a single bucket in the dry season. This same allusion explains the defence cited here. It gives no relevance to the current economic development and hitherto capacity of the nation to afford and accommodates this predicament. Instead, it is looking at stagnant school infrastructure and blames the populations’ natural growth.
Investment in education is a must if economic development wishes are to come true.
Ku Malawi Sukulu tinakangothetsa tizikhala mntchire ndi kusaka zinyama. If we have failed to develop this country after 50 years of independence. Do you know what it mean? Malawi education is very useless.
It is a mistake to turn schools into feeding institutions for pupils. It is the duty of the parent to provide for the child he/she has brought to the world. Mary’s meal doesn’t feed birds it’s the parent bird that fetch food for the offspring. If Mary’s meal has the money to feed these kids for years on end, I suggest they channel the funds to train more teachers. There are many willing teachingcandidates out there lacking training school fees support them and let us be responsible for feeding the children we manufacture. It is also high time we started… Read more »