School-Age Children
Quality learning and protection
The Challenge
While free primary education has led to 88 per cent net enrolment in primary school, the completion rate for primary school is just 33 per cent. Girls (38 per cent), children living in an urban area (65 per cent), and the wealthiest households (67 per cent) have a higher chance of completing primary school than boys (29 per cent), children in rural areas (27 per cent) and children in poorest households (11 per cent). Of children of lower secondary school age, 12 per cent attend lower secondary school or a higher level. Poor educational outcomes have been partly driven by school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic and teachers’ strikes.
The lower secondary school completion rate is low (23 per cent), especially for children living in the poorest households (3 per cent). Only 10 per cent of children of upper secondary school age attend upper secondary school or a higher level. The upper secondary completion rate is very low (4 per cent), especially for poor households (less than 1 per cent for children living in households in the first three wealth quantiles).
The dropout rate of girls in secondary education increased from 6.4 per cent in 2020 to 9.5 per cent in 2021. For many girls, dropping out is common due to child marriage and teen pregnancy, with a 50 per cent child marriage rate, a 29 per cent teenage pregnancy rate, and 20 per cent of girls experiencing sexual abuse before the age of 18. Closure of schools, coupled with limited household economic resources during the COVID-19 period, contributed to an 11 per cent increase in teenage pregnancies, with over 40,000 teen pregnancies and 13,000 cases of child marriage reported between January and August 2020. Parents’ and caregivers’ lack of support and negative attitudes towards girls’ education also contribute to high dropout and low school completion rates.
Only 19 per cent of children between 7 and 14 have foundational reading skills in either Chichewa or English, while 14 per cent of 7- and 8-year-olds can read a short story at the required level, 11 per cent are able to correctly answer literal comprehension questions related to the story, and 9 per cent are able to correctly answer inferential comprehension questions related to the story.
Thirteen percent of children between 7 and 14 have foundational numeracy skills. The learning poverty has been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19 and requires urgent foundational literacy and numeracy interventions to prevent the ongoing generational loss of children to poverty and unemployment, further driving negative socio-economic conditions and poor economic development.
A 2016 Malawi Human Rights Commission public inquiry into the status of children’s rights shows that corporal punishment is being administered in schools at unprecedented levels. Learners are slapped, kicked, whipped, pinched and hit.5
Learners do not always consider corporal punishment as violence and even deem it acceptable. Teachers have a limited concept of violence, particularly of a sexual nature, so may not act on cases of this nature. Some teachers also do not view sexual harassment or assault of girls as abuse or severe enough to warrant intervention.
The Solution
Under School-aged Children, the educational needs of children in and out of school are addressed. UNICEF believes every child in Malawi – regardless of who they are, where they live, or how much their family earns – has the right to go to school and learn.
Under School-aged Children, UNICEF aims to achieve the following results:
- Scale up early childhood education and strengthen the linkage between early childhood and primary education to ensure the most disadvantaged children are ready to enter primary school.
- Provide remediation in foundational literacy and numeracy classes in targeted primary schools in remote rural areas.
- Enhance adolescent skills and employability, particularly alternative and multiple pathways to learning and skills training opportunities as well as non-formal or second-chance education.
- Strengthen pre- and in-service teacher education through continuous professional development in targeted schools.
- Ensure that school children are safe from exploitation and harmful practices, such as violence, while benefiting from integrated social services.