The Education System in Malawi
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their female counterparts. Higher academic qualifications are also observed in urban settings, where 61 percent of teachers hold an MSCE compared to 54 percent in rural areas. Table 4.14: Teacher Qualifications and Training Status by Location and Gender (in %), Government-Funded Primary Schools (2007) Urban
Rural
Female
Male
Total
Academic qualification PSLCE
0.1
0.8
1.0
0.6
0.7
JCE
39.0
45.4
49.6
41.6
44.6
MSCE
60.8
53.6
49.4
57.7
54.6
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
97.2
90.5
94.2
89.7
91.4
2.8
9.5
5.8
10.3
8.6
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Diploma/degree Training status Trained Untrained Total Source: EMIS, 2007.
Almost all teachers are qualified32 (91 percent) with a small amount (9 percent) still untrained. The untrained are mostly volunteers (75 percent) and temporary teachers (13 percent)33 and as a result mostly located in rural areas (96 percent). Teacher mobility can create additional qualification imbalances between rural and urban areas, usually in favor of the urban. A majority of trained teachers (56 percent) went through the MIITEP, followed by the two year program (26 percent) and the one year program (13 percent). Teachers with the Malawi Special Teacher Education Programme (MASTEP) qualification are quite rare now. See Appendix 4.4 for a brief description of training practices in Malawi. Table 4.15: Types of Training among Trained Teachers (in %), Government-Funded Primary Schools (2007) MASTEP
MIITEP
2 Years of Training
1 Year of Training
Total
5.2
55.5
26.3
13.0
100
Source: EMIS, 2007.
TEACHER ATTRITION Being a primary school teacher is a relatively stable profession in Malawi; many teachers remain in the system until retirement. In 2007, 4,529 primary school teachers (working in government funded primary schools) left their schools, corresponding to an attrition rate of 3.2 percent. Among those, 14.3 percent retired, 37.2 percent passed away, and 7 percent suffered from prolonged illnesses. The two latter reasons could be related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Indeed, with a prevalence rate of 12 percent (see Chapter 1), HIV has a major impact on the labor force in Malawi. Teachers also left