Transforming education for children across Malawi

Why our work is needed

Here in Malawi, children are facing huge barriers to education. Most are living in poverty and their parents simply cannot afford to buy the textbooks, notepads, pens or clothing they need for school. Children are having to share materials with other students or, worse still, families are having to make the heartbreaking choice between feeding their children or buying them a school uniform. 

For those who do manage to go to school, the poor conditions, overcrowding, and lack of teachers and resources make it incredibly hard to get a good education. Schools here have no running water or electricity. Children sit on bare concrete floors, in crowded classrooms with few learning materials.  At one primary school I work in, there is just one teacher for a class of over 200 students. Can you imagine? My VSO colleagues in the UK say it’s like having seven of your classes crammed together in one room. The teacher cannot possibly support every child, so their progress suffers. Sadly, it’s the students who need the most support who end up being left furthest behind. 

As a result of the situation here, many children drop out of school without the ability to read, write or count. I found out that around two thirds of students don’t finish primary school in Malawi, which is appalling.  Even those who do complete their schooling often do so without the skills needed to build a good life for themselves in the future. It’s no wonder that many children find themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty. But, with you standing with us, we know it’s possible to change the path for these children. I’m very excited to share with you the work we’re doing in Malawi to support children in accessing a quality education.

How we are creating change

To tackle barriers to education, VSO has built special learning centres in 338 primary schools across 16 districts of Malawi. Each centre is equipped with tablet devices that have modules on literacy and numeracy to help children learn how to read, write and count. Because everything in the learning centre is solar powered, the tablets even work without internet or grid power. 

I often think how amazing it would have been to have had these tablets when I was a child. They use fun tasks such as puzzles and picture matching to keep children engaged and even have a ‘digital teacher’ to instruct them on what to do. The students here are so excited to use them, I love watching them race over to the learning centre when it’s their turn! 

Alongside these educational tablets, VSO volunteers like me are working closely with teachers in each school to provide guidance, support and mentoring. I really enjoy getting to work alongside the teachers here – we are learning so much from one another. What’s amazing is this combination of volunteer support and the new tablet technology is making it possible for children to access high-quality one-on-one style learning at their own pace, no matter how big their class is. Already we can see this is accelerating children’s progress, raising school attendance, and significantly improving their ability to read, write and count. 

Currently the learning centres are used by students in standard class 2 (ages 7-9), but our aim is to expand the project to eventually reach more year groups across nearly 6,000 schools. Thanks to VSO supporters like you, our goal is to get these tablets into every primary school in Malawi in just five years. Doesn’t that sound amazing?

A bit about me and my role

I grew up in the central region of Malawi, with my eight brothers and sisters. School for us was not so different as it is today – but, back then, our parents had to pay for our education. This was a big challenge, and for many families, school was simply not an option. Thankfully, education in Malawi is now free, but it isn’t mandatory and conditions still have a long way to go. 

When I finished school, I became a primary school teacher for 13 years, before spending another 18 years as a primary education advisor. I always really enjoyed the teaching. It’s where I felt most comfortable, and being respected by the students and wider community was really rewarding.  I decided to join VSO when I heard about a pilot of the education project happening in the central region of Malawi where I lived. The more I learnt about what VSO and their partners were hoping to achieve here, the more I knew I had to be a part of it.  

In my role as VSO Education Specialist, I work with 17 different primary schools across Malawi. This means there’s a lot of travelling with my job and every day is different. I recently visited a school in the rural Malawi and helped out in the new VSO learning centre, supporting students with their tablets. I then spent some time with the class teacher, Peter, to provide support and guidance with the lesson. It’s currently very hot and wet out here so the learning centre provides a much more comfortable place to learn than the hot, stuffy classroom with rain coming in through the roof!

I love seeing children using and benefitting from the learning centres. The best thing about my role is monitoring and supporting how the children change their behaviours as they learn new skills. It makes me feel very proud to be part of this VSO project. I’ve met many students who would be struggling to learn, and might not be coming to school at all, if it weren’t for the work we are doing here. Work that you, as VSO supporters, are making possible. One of the students I work with, Memory*, loves her new learning centre and asked me to share her story with you…

Memory's story

Like a lot of children in Malawi, 7-year-old Memory has grown up in poverty. She lives in a remote village with her parents and sisters, in a small home with a cement floor and an iron sheet roof. A lot of adults in her village didn’t finish school and, without an education, the opportunities available to them were limited. Many had little choice but to become subsistence farmers which is a precarious way of living. If their crops fail to grow due to drought or flooding, or because someone needed to work the farm is injured, they will go without food. Memory even knows some children in her village who – like their parents – have never gone to school, or who have had to drop out. The terrible reality is that, by missing out on school, these children are likely to become trapped in the cycle of poverty that has affected so many generations before them.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Despite her family’s own challenges and the hour-long walk each morning, Memory attends one of the primary schools I volunteer in and visit regularly. She’s in Peter’s class 2, with 200 classmates. She says she finds it too big and crowded – and doesn’t like how cold it gets in winter – but loves to learn. When the learning centre was built in her school, Memory was so excited! She enjoys going there and says the tablets help her to read, count and do puzzles. Her favourite thing to do on them is read and write, and often talks to her friends about how they are helping them to learn. Since using the tablets, Memory is really excelling in her learning and is now one of the top ten students in a class of over 200! Memory dreams of becoming a nurse one day so she wants to keep coming to school and learning as much as she can. Thanks to your incredible support, we can help make Memory’s dream become a reality.