5. Resources in schools visited

5.1 Overall impression
5.2 Descriptions of individual schools

5.1 Overall impression

The following data refer only to the five schools visited: 1 urban school in Lilongwe urban, 2 rural schools in Lilongwe rural, 1 urban school in Zomba urban, and 1 rural school in Zomba rural. Detailed information for the whole country is provided in MOE, Education Statistics, 1989.

The general impression is of extreme paucity of resources. Pew schools have intact windows, and many have never had windows or doors. Most classrooms have few desks or chairs. The teacher is often the only person with a book. A number of classes in both urban and rural schools take place out of doors. A striking feature of many primary schools in Malawi is the enormous size of the classes. Classes of over 100 are common. The largest class I saw had 167 pupils.

Mean Class Sizes in Schools Visited (to nearest whole number)

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Urban	131	97	90	80	108	123	109	75
Rural	141	115	113	87	86	59	54	41
All Schools	136	104	98	83	99	95	86	60

The overall mean size for all classes in schools visited is 99.3 and the pupil/teacher ratio is 70.8 to 1 (nationally 69.6 to 1: MOE, Education Statistics, 1989).

English Books per Pupil

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Urban	0.25	0.31	0.31	0.69	0.83	0.40	0.35	2.28
Rural	0.43	0.30	0.54	0.18	0.64	0.76	0.58	0.70
All	0.34	0.31	0.40	0.49	0.77	0.50	0.41	1.80

The corresponding figures nationally (based on MOE, Education Statistics, 1989) in government assisted schools are:

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	0.68	0.38	0.40	0.45	0.40	0.51	1.03	1.02

Two further points may be noted concerning books. The first is that there are a few pupils, mainly in urban schools, who bring their own personal copies. Precise data was not available, and in the schools I visited it I would estimate the maximum proportion of such pupils at around 10% and generally much lower. The second point is that if instead of considering the number of books per pupil at each year, we consider the number of books per pupil for average class size, the picture becomes more favourable. Thus in 13 out of the 40 instances (5 schools x 8 grades) the number of books is greater than the average class size at that grade, and in a further 10 instances the number of books would allow at least 1 book per 2 pupils. Thus, for over half the classes in the schools visited, books could be moved from one class to another enabling a higher proportion of books per pupil than appears if one simply divides the number of books by the number of pupils. The main reasons why this does not occur appear to be first the organisational problems, and secondly the desire of teachers to husband their stock of books. Here it should be noted that since there are few desks, the books are either on the floor or held by hand whenever they are in use.

5.2 Descriptions of individual schools

5.2.1 School S (Urban)

A large urban school in Lilongwe. Classrooms are in brick-built blocks with corrugated roofs; floors are concrete. Doors intact but almost all glass in window frames is broken. The classrooms are in a very poor state of maintenance; there are desks for some 10% of pupils, and these are in very bad repair. In November 1991 4 classes were taking place outside next to the road. The school operates 2 sessions per day.

Telephone: Yes

Electricity: in the administration block and 3 classrooms

Water: piped supply; several taps.

Teacher accommodation: house for headmaster

Enrolment:

Standard	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Boys	495	281	275	173	178	195	123	123	1843
Girls	456	307	263	251	216	173	202	91	1959
Total	951	588	538	424	394	368	325	214	3802
No/classes	7	6	6	5	3	2	2	3
AvClassSize	136	98	90	85	131	184	166	71
NoEngBks	100	150	150	300	350	150	89	800
Tchrs	2xT1	6xT2	3xT2	3xT2	2xT2	3xT2	1xT1	4xT2
	5xT3	5xT3	5xT3	5xT3	5xT3	2xT3	4xT3	5xT3

5.2.2 School M (Urban)

Brick buildings, large and well lit classrooms, doors and windows all intact. Desks in reasonable condition and adequate for the numbers.

Telephone: Yes, but out of order

Electricity: Yes

Water: Piped supply; several taps.

Accommodation: House for head teacher

Enrolment:

Standard	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Boys	123	94	86	68	77	62	58	98	666
Girls	108	96	94	70	68	60	54	62	612
Total	231	190	180	138	145	122	112	160	1278
NoClsses	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
AvClssSize	116	95	90	69	73	61	56	53
EngBooks	200	92	70	85	95	45	62	52
Tchrs	2xT3	2xT2	2xT3	2xT3	2xT3	1xT2	2xT2	2xT2
						1xT3		1xT3

5.2.3 School P (Rural)

Although classified as a rural school, this school was in fact close to an urban area and approximately 60% of pupils reported that their fathers were not subsistence farmers. The MOE official accompanying me felt it was not a typical rural school.

Telephone: no

Electricity: none

Water supply: Bore hole, but very little due to drought

Accommodation: 9 burnt brick houses. Insufficient for the teachers

Enrolment:

Standard	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Boys	381	185	157	140	100	64	50	66	1143
Girls	403	179	145	105	85	52	45	38	1052
Total	784	364	302	245	185	11	695	104	2195
No/Classes	4	3	2	2	1	1	1	2
Av Clss Size	196	121	151	123	185	116	95	52
No Eng Bks	415	148	240	461	411	21	80	95
Tchrs	4xT3	2xT3	1xT3	1xT3	1xT3	1xT3	2xT3	2xT2
		1xT2	2xT2	1xT2	1xT2	1xT2		2xT1
(+ 1xT3 & 1xT2 not assigned to a class)

5.2.4 School W (Rural)

An isolated rural school. Smeared mud interior (including seats; no desks). Two classes taking place outside. One temporary (bamboo frame) classroom. A new block was under construction. Meantime the boys were building a further temporary classroom.

Telephone: no

Electricity: none

Water supply: Well

Accommodation: 9 brick houses; 2 teachers housed in village

Enrolment:

Standard	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Boys	90	50	60	35	12	17	11	20	295
Girls	48	42	10	5	12	5	5	6	133
Total	138	92	70	40	24	22	16	26	428
No/Classes	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Av Clss Size	69	92	70	40	24	22	16	26
No Eng Bks	60	8	6	6	6	5	7	6
Tchrs	2xT3	1xUT	2xUT	1xT3	1xT3	1xT3	1xT3	1xT3
(UT=untrained)

5.2.5 School N (Rural)

An on-road rural school, consisting of three brick blocks with corrugated roofs, peppered with holes. No windows or doors; very dilapidated. Smeared mud interiors (including seats; no desks). One of two schools in this village.

Telephone: no

Electricity: none in school, but neighbouring village has it

Water: Stand pump

Accommodation: houses for all 9 teachers

Enrolment:

Standard	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total
Boys	150	70	60	35	40	23	34	24	436
Girls	60	50	20	28	10	17	18	8	211
Total	210	120	80	63	50	40	52	32	647
NoClasses	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
AvClssSze	105	120	80	63	50	40	52	32
NoEngBks	20	20	0	10	20	10	8	12
Tchrs	1xT21xT3		0*	1xT21xT21xT21xT32xT2
	1xT4

* Other teachers taught this class 1 period each daily