The role of education financing in the provision of quality primary education in Malawi

Abstract

Since the Malawi government introduced free primary education in 1994, the share of education in the national budget has steadily increased from 14.9% in 1992/93 to 24% in 1993/94. The free education policy resulted into massive increases in primary enrolments, although, while the nominal share of expenditure has increased, the quality of provision has gone down. This has resulted in an inadequacy of teaching materials. insufficient classrooms leading to overcrowding, and shortage of teachers. These results indicate that classrooms are overcrowded which makes it hard for all pupils to follow the teacher during class hours. Furthermore, some teachers are under-qualified and they are therefore already not very effective educators. Historically, public expenditure on education has been low but the situation has worsened with the introduction of free primary education. The policy places first priority on quantitative and qualitative improvement of primary education. To this effect, it is anticipated that enrolment will increase from the present Net Enrolment Rate (NER) of 71 % to 90% by 2005. This will increase expenditure on education further since this will mean more classrooms, more teachers and more books. The major issue in this paper is to link the financing aspect of education and the quality of services provided at primary level. The study really shows that these are interrelated then it is necessary to map out strategies of improving quality from the financial point of view. The problem arises when financing is external from the education system while quality is an internal aspect (within schools). The central administration decides the allocation based on the core activities and this put constraints on the school since there is not much room to manoeuvre in terms of innovation and school based programmes. Therefore, it is necessary to explore alternative ways of financing education; other sources of revenue from this sector must be sought. This paper will analyse education financing in Malawi and its problems in Chapter One, focusing mainly on the education reform process that took place between 1992/93 and 1994/95. Chapter Two deals with the description of the primary education system changes and policies. In Chapter Three I will review the literature on different methods of financing education and alternative ways of financing education in Malawi focusing mainly on human resources and Political considerations of decentralising the budget to the lower levels. Chapter Four deals with possible solutions and proposals and how to evaluate the system of financing. Finally, recommendations and conclusions appear in Chapter Five.