The Education System in Malawi
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non educated woman to 3 percent for a woman who has completed secondary Form 4 (grade 12). The MICS asked mothers with children under the age of five who had had a fever in the two weeks prior to the survey whether the child had been taken to a health facility during the illness, and if so, what the medicine was given. An analysis of the data indicate that at the national level, the average probability of using antimalarial treatment for children under five is very low, which is a concern in itself. However, one important finding was that mothers with a low level of education are less likely to provide appropriate antimalarial treatment to their children. While a child of a non educated mother has a 10.7 percent chance of receiving antimalarial treatment, the chance rises to 16 percent for the child of a mother who has completed Standard 8, and to 20 percent for a child with a mother who has completed Form 4. Age at first birth is slightly higher in Malawi for older women than for younger ones. But in contrast to the younger generation, the behavior of older women was less likely to be influenced by the duration of schooling. For the older generation [40–49] no difference has been noted according to the level of education. In the younger generation, a non educated woman is likely to have a first child at an average of 17.8 years, whereas this age is 19 years for a woman with a PSLCE and 19.8 at the end of the upper secondary cycle. Compared to other countries, age at first birth is relatively low in Malawi. With an increasing level of education, the interval between two consecutive births is expected to be longer. In Malawi, this assertion is especially true for the secondary and higher levels of education, which indicates that primary cycle schooling alone does not have a strong positive effect on birth spacing. Women need more years of schooling to start significantly increasing the time span (currently an average of 3.4 years) between births. Education also helps to reduce the total number of births women may have. The average number of live births of a 49–year old woman is rather high in Malawi (6.9 births). A non educated woman gives birth approximately eight times in her life, and this figure does not vary substantially for women who have had primary education. Everything else constant, eight years of schooling helps reduce this figure by about 0.6 points only, while 12 years of education correspond to a reduction of 1.5 points. After 16 years of education (secondary school plus four years of higher education), the average number of births drops by 2.8, which means an average number of 5.3 children for each highly educated woman. Despite the impact of education, these figures for Malawi remain high compared to other countries with similar characteristics. The fight against HIV/AIDS is a major national challenge in Malawi given its high prevalence in the country. The MICS was an opportunity to ask both men and women about their knowledge of the disease. The results indicate that people with a lower level of education score lower in their knowledge about HIV/AIDS than do the more educated. There is no doubt that schooling can help strengthen people’s understanding of the disease. Literacy is probably the most important outcome expected from education, especially in the primary cycle. The MICS required respondents to read a short sentence in English, Chichewa, or Tumbuka. Although literacy comprises more than