Education in Malawi

In Malawi, less than 20% of children ages 7 to 14 have basic literacy skills and even less have basic numeracy skills.

The lack of foundational learning contributes to students being more likely to repeat a grade or drop out of school. The government is working with GPE and other partners to ensure quality foundational teaching and learning for all girls and boys.

Malawi’s Partnership Compact describes plans for affecting transformative change. A focus on improving school readiness commits to improving access to inclusive and quality early childhood education through piloting an initial rollout of pre-primary preparatory classes.

To deliver inclusive foundational learning, Malawi will also focus on early primary grades by training teachers on formative classroom assessment and inclusive pedagogy, revise the curriculum, develop a standardized remediation program, reduce class size through infrastructure, and develop systems for safety and protection of girls and vulnerable children.

Education system capacity strengthening focuses on better teacher management, government coordination and financial management, and data collection and use.

As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting:

• The Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) for the 2024-2026 period. This builds on previous support from the Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF).
• Transnational Networks Advocacy Capacity strengthened for improved ECDE legislation, policies and measures in Southern Africa (TRANAC) led by Zimbabwe Network of Early Childhood Development (ZINECDA) for the 2023-2026 period.
• The Kuyenda Collective led by Forum for African Women Educationalists Malawi (FAWEMA) for the 2024-2026 period.
• Girls Education Advocacy in the Region - Phase 2 (GEAR 2.0) led by Girls Activists Youth Organization (GAYO), Malawi for the 2024-2026 period.
• Pamodzi for Inclusive Education in South-East Africa (PIESEA) led by Rays of Hope for the 2021-2024 period.

Learn more

• Malawi is part of the KIX Africa 19 hub.
• KIX ongoing research projects:
  • Africa Regional Education System Resilience Observatory
  • Scaling inclusive ECCE and school readiness through sign language rich environments for deaf learners
  • Scaling-up innovative gender, inclusion and safeguarding approaches in education: Evidence from Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia
  • Lifting barriers: Educated boys for gender equality
  • Unlocking data: Scaling up uses and users of data in education systems
  • Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE): Bridging the local, national and global
  • Inclusive child to child learning approach: Scaling up inclusive play based learning for smooth transition from pre-primary to primary school
  • Observatory on COVID-19 Responses in Educational Systems in Africa
  • Using data for improving education equity and inclusion – MICS-EAGLE

Learn more