2.1 General
2.2 Linguistic background
2.3 Educational background
Malawi and Zambia are both southern African countries, with a common border of some 300 miles. They have to some degree shared social, cultural and historical backgrounds, and both were British colonies in the late 19th century, gaining independence in the 1960's. Malawi is a predominantly rural country with an estimated 10% to 15% of the population (personal communication, MoE, Malawi, 1995) living in urban areas, principally Lilongwe, the capital and Blantyre, the commercial centre. Zambia is more heavily urbanised with some 43% of the population in urban areas (Chidumayo et al, 1989: 7) especially in the copper mining area, and the capital, Lusaka.
Both Malawi and Zambia are economically weak, with limited infrastructures, particularly outside the urban areas. The bulk of the primary education budget in both countries is spent on salaries (in Zambia, 97% [MoE, Zambia, 1992: v]). This means that there is very little remaining to be spent on book provision or school maintenance. Urban schools usually have running water, and may have electricity. Rural schools generally have neither, water being drawn from a well or bore hole.
Poverty is widespread in both countries, and affects a child's education in a number of ways: firstly, children may not go to school if the family has insufficient food; secondly, there are the direct costs of school attendance (books, pens, etc.); thirdly, there is the indirect cost of attendance at school in that the child's productive work (e.g. herding, casual labour, hawking etc.) is lost to the family. In terms of belief and practices, the majority of people in both countries are extremely religiously observant: the influence of Christianity is strong, and apparent in most schools, although both countries (particularly Malawi) have a significant proportion of Muslims. There are nonetheless varying degrees of adherence to traditional beliefs and practices.
There does not appear to be any published work on literacy practices in society generally in Malawi or Zambia. Informal surveys on reading among primary school teachers in Malawi and Zambia suggest two things: first that relatively little non-work related reading takes place, often because material simply is not available; second, within the reading that does take place, reading of the bible or religious books is overwhelmingly the most frequently claimed activity, particularly among female teachers. This may be done in English, or in a local language (particularly in Malawi). The reasons put forward for such religious reading include "for consolation", or "to understand God's message better". Reading newspapers comes second, with most teachers reading them "for information". Light romantic fiction also appears to be popular when teachers can obtain it, but in practice most reading is oriented towards information or self-improvement. There appears to be little reading for enjoyment, although this may be a function of low salaries combined with a scarcity of books, rather than an indication of preferences.
Kashoki (1990: 109) claims that Zambia has "approximately 80 Bantu dialects" grouped into "slightly over 20 more or less mutually unintelligible clusters or 'languages'". Seven languages are officially designated as subjects to be studied in schools. These seven, and the proportion of speakers of each, are estimated (Kashoki, 1990: 117) to be as follows:2
2 The names provided here are strictly speaking those of the peoples (Chewa, Bemba, Lozi etc.). To indicate the language of a people the prefix Chi- (or Ici-, Si-) is used giving Chichewa, Icibemba, Silozi etc. The convention in Zambia is not to use these prefixes when writing in English, whereas in Malawi they are used. This text follows Zambian practice when discussing Zambia, and Malawian when discussing Malawi.
Table 1: Estimated Distribution of Seven Officially Designated Zambian Languages
|
|
Bemba |
Kaonde |
Lozi |
Lunda |
Luvale |
Nyanja |
Tonga |
|
L1: |
30.8% |
3.4% |
9.3% |
2.9% |
5.9% |
16.0% |
16.1% |
|
L1+L2: |
56.2% |
7.1% |
17.2% |
5.3% |
8.1% |
42.1% |
23.2% |
L1 = first language speakers
L1+2 = first and second language speakers
English is the L1 of 0.1 % of the population, mainly white.
There are said to be 35 indigenous language varieties in Malawi (Sichinga, 1994), while Grimes (1992: 295-297) lists 12. Discrepancies are due to difficulties in classification. The estimated distribution of the principal languages is as follows (Sichinga, 1994):
Table 2: Estimated Distribution of Three Main Malawian Languages
|
|
Chichewa |
Chiyao |
Chitumbuka |
Others |
|
L1: |
27% |
19% |
11% |
43% |
|
L1+2: |
80% |
20% |
15% |
not available |
Chichewa and Nyanja are different labels - which came about for historical and political reasons - for what is essentially the same language (Kashoki, 1978: 45; Kishindo, 1990: 59). It is spoken by the Chewa people on both sides of the border, as well as by many non-Chewa. There are minor differences between the "standard" forms of the languages in spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary.
Primary education in Zambia consists of a 7 year programme available to all children between the ages of 7 and 14. Many children, however, especially in rural areas, start school later. It is in principle free although in practice families may have to find money for writing materials, or for the parent-teacher association. In some cases teachers insist on children coming to school in uniform and shoes, both of which items represent a significant outlay for poorer families. In addition lack of classroom capacity means that many thousands of children simply cannot get a place in a government school. Durstan (1996) cites a compound school in Lusaka where 1,500 children applied for 200 places in year 1. According to the 1990 census an estimated 656,000 children aged 7 to 13 are not in school (cited in Durstan, 1996: 18).
Classes in urban areas average around 50, but are smaller in rural areas. About 15% of teachers are untrained (MoE [Zambia] 1992: 163), and these are concentrated in rural areas. Classroom shortages mean that many classes are held outside; urban schools have 2 or even 3 shifts daily to cope with numbers. Many classes have inadequate book supplies with the teacher often having the only book.
Material conditions in schools are very poor, particularly rural and urban compound schools. Doors are frequently missing, windows invariably broken or absent, and the roof sheeting has sometimes disappeared. Urban schools have piped water, and a handful have electricity; rural schools generally have neither, water being obtained from a well or bore hole, or in some instances carried in by the children. The number of desks is normally inadequate, with pupils frequently sitting on the floor (MoE [Zambia], 1992: 19). Theft and vandalism are widespread. Although conditions have improved since the early nineties, material provision remains generally poor, and many schools are in a dilapidated condition. However, there are exceptions, and much seems to depend upon the commitment of the head teacher, and support of the local community.
At the end of grade 7 there is a national examination which selects pupils to go on to secondary schooling. In 1991/92, 12.7% of pupils went on to conventional secondary school (grades 8-12), while a further 13.6% went to basic school (grades 8 - 12). Basic schools are attached to an existing primary school, and are generally held to offer "an education that is of inferior quality" (MoE, Zambia, 1992: 72).
English is, officially, the language of instruction in primary education from year 1 for all subjects apart from spiritual instruction and the teaching of the local language itself (one of the seven mentioned above). In practice little importance is accorded to teaching local languages largely because they do not feature in the selection examination for secondary school (MoE [Zambia], 1992: 45). Nonetheless local languages are "unofficially" used for instruction in the classroom, especially in the early years, and the extent of English usage varies. The typical pattern in many schools is that English, being the language of the textbooks, is used for reading, writing, and answering questions from the textbook, while a local language is often used for other purposes, such as explanations and instructions.
There are 8 years of primary schooling in Malawi. Children may officially start at age 6, although in practice there is considerable variation and children aged 16 may occasionally be found in the first year. Until 1994 children paid school fees which varied in amount depending upon year and rural/urban location, but in no case amounted to more than the equivalent of £2 ($3) per year. From 1995 free primary education was instituted. However, as in the case of Zambia, there may be "hidden extras" which inhibit enrolment, while many rural children live too far from school to make the daily journey. Classes numbers, particularly in urban areas, are enormous, with over 100 pupils per class being frequent. The mean class size for 5 schools visited in 1992 was 99.3 (Williams, 1993a: 7), while between 1994 and 1995 there was a 51% increase in the school population (1,895,400 to 2,860,800).
As in Zambia, schools are in very poor material condition. Many schools have no windows, door or roof sheeting, especially in rural areas. Electricity is extremely rare. Given the enormous size of classes, there are, unsurprisingly, shortages of books and desks. In 1995 there was a 26,500 shortfall in classrooms, which means many classes take place out of doors. There are also large numbers of temporary classrooms, constructed by the pupils of grass and bamboo. Such classrooms normally do not have desks. Theft and vandalism are reported to be an increasing problem.
The language of instruction for the first 4 years is Chichewa, with English as a school subject3; for the last 4 years English becomes the language of instruction with Chichewa as a subject. In practice some teachers are said to introduce English from year 3, and New Malawi Arithmetic (n.d.) is in English from that year onwards, according to Mchazime (1989: 3). However, officially it is only from year 5 onwards that English is the medium of instruction, with Chichewa taught as a subject. As in the case of Zambia, local languages are in fact used to varying degrees throughout the primary school.
3 The time allocation for English at the time of this research was 5x30 minutes in years 1 and 2, rising to 7 x 30 minutes in years 3 and 4.
According to the Ministry of Education [Malawi] (1991: 30) some 30% of teachers are untrained, but with massive recruitment since 1995 of teachers, the true proportion of conventionally fully trained teachers is uncertain. Most of those that were trained in the past had received a full time two-year training course in one of the seven teacher training colleges, with a smaller number following an intensive one year programme, or a three year vacation only sandwich course. However, with the introduction of free primary education, emergency programmes have been put in place, including the MoE's Malawi Integrated Inservice Teacher Education Project, in response to the sudden expansion.
In Zambia primary teachers are trained over two years in one of 10 Teacher Training Colleges (or in the one in-service teacher training college). In 1990 some 15% of the teaching strength of approximately 35,000 was untrained.
In both Malawi and Zambia the normal teacher training college syllabuses are closely tied to the teacher's guide for each subject, and this rigid approach means that teachers may not have been prepared to be flexible in their response to the problems that individual children may face. In brief "the development of problem solving skills, essential to the student (teacher) who is to cope with difficult and diverse classroom conditions is neglected" (MoE, Zambia, 1992: 10.4).
