The Education System in Malawi
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Parallel students have to pay substantially higher tuition fees compared to regular (TEVETA sponsored) students. It is hardly surprising that the relative parallel student intake is substantially higher in urban (Lilongwe, Soche, Mzuzu) than in rural areas (Livingstonia, Nasawa, Namitete, Salima). See table 6A.1 in Appendix 6 for more information. Even taking parallel students into account, the overall enrollment in formal TEVET is extremely low in Malawi compared to its SADC neighbors (see figure 6.2). Per 100,000 inhabitants, Malawi records only 35 students. These figures are substantially higher elsewhere in the region, between 110 and 130 in Lesotho, Mozambique, and Madagascar, and far higher in other countries. Botswana and Mauritius lead the group of countries (for which data were available) with 1,228 trainees and 1,561 trainees per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Even if the other public TEVET providers for whom enrollment is not recorded here were included in this calculation, it appears unlikely that Malawi would be able to climb up substantially in this comparative rating. Figure 6.2: TEVET Students per 100,000 Inhabitants in Selected SADC Countries
Source: Calculation using World Bank database.
TEVET Supply
Although enrollment data are lacking, or were not available for this study, the supply of TEVET in the many other provider systems, including NGOs, church run institutions, private commercial training schools, other government run schools, and training centers owned by companies, is presumably many times greater than the TEVETA/MOEST controlled programs. Table 6.1 provides an overview of these other provider systems. In a TEVET provider directory of 1999, a total of 162 training institutions were identified apart from the seven TCs. The total number of trainees