188 • Abolishing School Fees in Africa
(Maganga and Mkandawire 1988; Kadzombe 1988; Kainja and Mkandawire 1989; Davidson and Kanyuka 1990; Hyde and Kadzamira 1994). Although primary education was made free and all forms of fees abolished in 1994, many poor households still find the cost of schooling prohibitive. Post-FPE literature identifies the lack of proper school clothes and of money to meet the cost of school essentials, such as learning materials, as significant causes of dropout among primary school children (see, for example, Burchfield and Kadzamira 1996; Chimombo 1999; Kadzamira and Chibwana 2000; Rose 2002). Although the government committed itself to meet all the costs of education, public spending has been insufficient, and Malawi households continue to bear a considerable share of both recurrent and capital costs of primary education (World Bank 2004). Survival Rates. A major and persistent problem with Malawi’s primary education system is its failure to retain pupils once they have enrolled in school. While the majority of children have access to school as a result of FPE, retention rates (which were already low before primary education was made free) have remained very low. Analysis of cohorts that entered school between 1990 and 2005 reveals that between 70 to 80 percent of each cohort did not complete the full eight-year primary education cycle; the majority dropped out during the cycle (see figure 5.5). Approximately one-third of the 1990/91 cohort graduated from primary education; survival rates were higher for boys (32 percent) than for girls (27 percent) (see table 5.7 and annex table 5B.3). Between 1991/92 and 1993/94, survival rates declined from 26 percent to 16 percent. The decline is surprising as it occurred when targeted attempts to abolish school fees were introduced, including the GABLE Program school fee waivers, which should have improved access and retention of children in primary schools. In the period after FPE, survival rates have fluctuated between 14 percent and 28 percent. Given the pupil flow rates for 2005, it is expected that only 17 percent of children will complete primary school. Thus, the survival rates have not improved radically since the introduction of FPE; at worst, they have deteriorated from their 1990 levels and remained low despite the many interventions, such as improvements in infrastructure and teacher supply and curriculum reform. Though FPE has brought significant quantitative gains, very few children in Malawi complete primary schooling even in the fee-free schooling period, suggesting that quantitative gains are not sustained throughout the system. Despite the low survival rates, the absolute number of children expected to complete primary education did increase after FPE, and