Don't Move Mzuni

In a recent news report the Vice Chancellor Professor Landson Mhango is reported as having said that Mzuzu University is not in a hurry to relocate to another campus. This is the right decision although it still begs the question: should the university relocate in the first place?. The model of universities as isolated, elite places that provided all the social facilities to students – accommodation, sports facilities, health and entertain facilities – is no longer valid if it ever was. This is particularly the case for a university like Mzuni which relies on fee paying students. It will serve considerable amounts of resources if it relies on the services that the city of Mzuzu as a whole provides to its citizenry. Students’ fees can then be concentrated on teaching facilities. It is also easier for students to find accommodation within the city and transport than in some isolated campus outisde the city limits. One has only to visit Makerere, Nairobi and Addis to see the advantages of locating the universities within the city and compare the difficulties that isolated Unima or Buanda have. . One can sustain a whole range of night classes and enrol much larger numbers of students in a city university as one is likely to be much less constrained by student housing requirements. What Mzuni ought to be doing now is demanding for more space from the city authorities or government around where it is located now.

Malawi's parlous educational system

 

Going by the recent UNESCO report on education (http://www.unesco.org/en/education/efareport/resources/statistics/statistical-tables/), our educational system is a terrible failure and needs urgent and massive overhaul.  Although our school enrolment ratio in the first year is quite high (145%), 22 percent of the pupils drop out. For all grades the dropout ratio is 64.3 percent.  Compare this with 33.7% for Zambia and 18% for Namibia. Only Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Rwanda performed worse than Malawi. All in all only 34 percent complete primary school.  And only 52% of these make the transition to secondary education. Our net enrolment ratio in secondary school is 24% as compared to 37% in Zimbabwe, 42% in Kenya and 55.9 in Botswana. In terms of internal efficiency of the system. While as in 1999 5.8% of the students were repeaters in secondary schools, the number had jumped to 9.4% by 2006.

Tertiary education is scandalous. The entire system of tertiary education enrolled 5000 in 2006 (up from 3000 in 1999). Compare this with 9,000 for Lesotho (population 1.8 million) and 25,000, for Rwanda (population 8.8. million), 33,000 for Mali (population same as Malawi),  13,000 for Namibia (population 2 million). If we take Lesotho as a benchmark, then we ought to at have at least 54,000 students in our tertiary system!

 

These low levels of enrolment at tertiary level eventually show up as poor performance in our secondary and primary schools (lack of qualified teachers) and poor performance of the civil service  due to lack of qualified middle level staff. In any case with these levels of human capital we are unlikely to transform our economy from a raw material producing one to an industrial one. 

2008 MCSE results Malawi

The new MCSE results provide interesting reading. Firstly, the failure rate is ridiculously high. It points  not only to  the need for better teachers and facilities for our schools but also to the need for strict regulation of these schools. Secondly, the performance of our so-called “community schools” is shameful and a betrayal of the young people who have to go to these places in search of knowledge. If there is any case for empowering local communities, then this is it. We need to enhance the pride and competitiveness of local communities to improve the situation by giving communities a greater say in the affairs of these “community schools".

Thirldy, the league table of the top performers is also revealing about the perfornace of different institutions. Likuni Boys tops the list followed by Phwezi. The list also suggests the important role being played by missionaries (especially the Catholics). Of the top twelve (with at least 3 students) 9 are Catholic. One is Anglican. The shameful part is that only one of these is government (Euthini). The performance of Phwezi suggests that well run private schools can compete.

The success of the Catholics raises questions about the role of the many sects that have blossomed in Malawi some of whom are running schools. Can't they allocate as much time to their followers' minds as they do to their souls and pockets?

If the Catholics put in the same effort in their university as they have in their Secondary schools, then UNIMA better wake up.

School	Students	Affriliation
LIKUNI BOYS	10	Catholic
PHWEZI BOYS	9	Private
MARYMOUNT	8	Catholic
ST JOHN'S	8	Catholic
LUDZI GIRLS	6	Catholic
CHAMINADE	5	Catholic
MARIST	4	Catholic
STELLA MARIS	4	Catholic
EUTHINI	3	Government
MALOSA	3	Anglican
MTENDERE	3	Catholic
ST PATRICK'S	3	Catholic
CHARLES LWANGA COMMUNITY	2
LIVINGSTONIA	2
NANKHUNDA SEMINARY	2
VIPHYA (Pvt)	2
ARMY	1
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	1
BLANTYRE	1
CHICHIRI	1
CHIPASULA	1
CHISAPI (Pvt)	1
El SHADDAI (Pvt)	1
KAPHUKA (Pvt)	1
LIKANGALA	1
MULANJE	1
MWANZA	1
NAMITETE	1
NEW ERA BOYS' (Pvt)	1
NKHAMENYA GIRLS	1
PIUS XII SEMINARY	1
PROVIDENCE	1
ROBERT BLAKE	1
ST MARY'S	1
ST MICHEAL'S GIRLS	1
PAUL THE APOSTLE SEMINARY	1
UMBWI	1
WILLIAM MURRAY	1
ZINGWANGWA	1
ZOMBA CATHOLIC	1