CICE Hiroshima University, Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol.24-2 (2021) pp.

61 ～ 76

The Impact of COVID-19 on Primary Education in Malawi:

Exploring Policy Responses and Practices
Lizzie W. Chiwaula
Research Fellow, Centre for Educational Research and Training,
Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

Esme Chipo Kadzamira

Research Fellow at the Centre for Educational Research and Training,
Chancellor College, University of Malawi

Elizabeth Selemani Meke

Senior Research Fellow and Acting Director at the Centre for Educational Research and Training,
Chancellor College, University of Malawi

Abstract
This paper explores the effects of Covid-19 on primary education in Malawi and
focuses on policy responses and practices. Covid-19 caused major disruptions to
the education system including loss of learning due to school closures. In response
to the pandemic, the Malawian government developed policies and strategies to
prevent the further spread of the pandemic and to ensure the continued learning
of pupils. The policies on continued learning include measures to decongest
classrooms and schools, remedial learning and remote learning. The Covid-19
prevention measures include social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing.
However, these measures are being implemented in an already challenged
education system characterized by low learning outcomes and inadequate
resources.

This paper therefore examines how the policies and strategies are being
implemented and their impacts on primary education in Malawi. This paper uses
document analysis to understand the policies and analyses some primary data to
gain insights into current practices.

Keywords: Covid-19, School closure, Decongestion, Social distance,

Remedial learning.

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1. Introduction

1.1. Background on the study

The overarching goal of the National Education Policy of Malawi is to promote
equitable access, relevance, quality and improved governance and management of the
education sector to contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development and poverty
reduction (Ministry of Education (MoE), 2016). However, the emergence of the Covid-19
pandemic disrupted the education system and compounded the already existing challenges
that the education system in Malawi faces. Such problems include but are not limited to
large classes, inadequate numbers of teachers, limited classrooms and inadequate teaching
and learning resources.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), first identified in Wuhan, China in December
2019, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March
2020. Since then, Covid-19 has spread to many countries worldwide, affecting millions
of people. As of 17 January 2021, there were over 93 million reported cases globally
(WHO, 2021). In Malawi, the first three cases were confirmed on 2 April 2020; and as
of 20 January 2021, approximately 14,851 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed by
the government (Ministry of Health (MoH), 2020/21). The World Health Organization
advised the entire world that there was a need to enact social distancing as one way of
reducing the spread of the disease. With this advice, countries started taking measures that
would enforce social distancing; and these measures included directives implementing
lockdowns, whose extent varied from country to country. Most countries including
Malawi closed all schools and educational institutions in an attempt to limit the spread of
the pandemic. The government of Malawi ordered a closure of all schools and educational
institutions on 23 March 2020 in an effort to protect learners, teachers and parents from
the pandemic and support national efforts in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus
(MoE, 2020 a). In Malawi, the schools were closed for a period of 5 months for final-year
learners and 6 months for the rest from March to September 2020.
Temporary school closures in more than 180 countries kept nearly 1.6 billion
students out of school, further complicating global efforts to reduce learning poverty,
which is defined through deprivations of schooling and of learning in terms of learner
enrolment and minimum proficiency based on a desired and agreed set of competencies1.
Data from the World Bank and UNESCO showed that 53% of children at the end of
primary education in low- and middle-income countries already suffer from learning
poverty (World Bank, 2019). In Malawi, school closures affected over 5 million learners
in primary schools.
Studies around the world have examined the impacts of school closures on
education. The most notable impact widely mentioned in recent research is the loss of
learning. Pedro, Hasan, Goldemberg, Iqbal, and Geven (2020) conceptualize learning loss
1
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/163871606851736436/Learning-Poverty-in-the-Time-
of-COVID-19-A-Crisis-Within-a-Crisis

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as learning that does not occur while schools are closed and the already acquired learning
that is lost or forgotten when students lose their engagement with the education system.
UNICEF (2020) highlighted that the longer vulnerable children are out of school, the less
likely they are to return and that children from the poorest households are almost five
times more likely to be out of primary school than those from the richest households. In
addition, being out of school increases the risk of teenage pregnancy, sexual exploitation,
child marriage, violence and other threats. Furthermore, Viner (2021) adds that prolonged
closures disrupt essential school-based services such as immunization and school meals
and disrupt the important roles school plays in child protection.
Other studies examined the opportunity costs of school closures in terms of the
future productivity of students and found that school closures have a large cost in terms
of lost future productivity. Peet, Fink and Fawzi (2015), cited by the National Planning
Commission (2020), noted that one year of schooling increases wages by 12% on average
in Malawi. It was further estimated at the time of the study that the value of the loss
of future income was $861 per student, which translated into USD 5.2 billion if school
closures continued for 9 months given the enrolment of approximately 6 million Malawian
children in primary school. Pedro, Hasan, Goldemberg, Iqbal, and Geven (2020) estimate
that globally, a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a
present value of $10 trillion. According to this number, the world could lose as much as
16% of the investments that governments make in this cohort of pupils’ basic education.
With school closures due to the pandemic, different governments worldwide
responded differently to ensure continued learning. This includes broadcasting educational
programs on national television; encouraging online learning through virtual classrooms
via Google Classrooms, Zoom and Microsoft Teams; creating websites for online
education; creating portals for learners and their parents; establishing virtual consulting
spaces; and initiating home study programs, mobile learning, and printed materials for
the most vulnerable students (Reimers, 2020; World Bank, 2020). Unfortunately, with
the poor technological infrastructure in Malawi, the provision of primary education was
limited to radio programs and television broadcasts. In Malawi, schools reopened on
7 September 2020 after 5 months of closure. In preparation for school reopening, the
government established policy responses and measures to promote the safety of learners
and quality education in the midst of the pandemic. Against this background, this paper
seeks to examine how policies and strategies are being implemented and their impact on
primary education.
Aims and Objectives
This paper explores the effects of Covid-19 on education in Malawi with a focus on
policy responses by the government to provide primary education during the Covid-19
epidemic, including the practices in primary schools.
Specifically, the study is guided by the following objectives:
i. To highlight the government policy measures in response to Covid-19 in
education,

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ii. To document the implementation of the policy measures in response to Covid-19

in primary school education and
iii. To examine the effects of Covid-19 on primary education in Malawi.
Research Questions
i. What policies/measures has the government established to ensure the safety of
learners and the quality of education amidst the Covid-19 pandemic?
ii. How are primary schools implementing government policies/measures to
ensure the safety of learners and the quality of education amidst the Covid-19
pandemic?
iii. What have been the effects of Covid-19 on primary education in Malawi?

2. Methodology

This paper is primarily based on desk research that synthesized available

information in Malawi to gain an understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic has
affected education in Malawi and how the government of Malawi and the Ministry of
Education in particular responded to the pandemic. The global literature on Covid-19
supplemented the information gained from internal Covid-19 documents. Specifically,
the literature search focused on areas such as school organization, class organization,
teaching and learning processes and the impacts of school closures on learner enrolment
and dropout. Furthermore, the desk review analysed the policy responses of the Ministry
of Education to the pandemic and concentrated on measures related to remote learning
during the school closures, decongesting schools and classes when schools reopened,
remedial learning to compensate for the lost learning during the school closures, and
general policy guidelines that intended to protect the learners and school staff from
spreading or contracting the coronavirus.
Although this study’s method was desk research, an effort was made to interview a few
teachers, learners and Primary Education Advisors (PEAs) in Malawi to obtain an insight
that supplemented the authors’ knowledge of what occurred on the ground regarding the
implementation of the policy measures that the government of Malawi established.

3. Discussion of findings

The discussion of the findings focuses on the policy responses to the Covid-19
pandemic in primary education in Malawi, the implementation of government policy
measures and guidelines for Covid-19 prevention in primary schools and the impact of
Covid-19 on education.

3.1. Policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in education in Malawi

As stated earlier, the first step that the government enacted regarding education was
to close schools, which were later reopened after 5 months. In June 2020, the government

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established the National Covid-19 Preparedness and Response Plan focusing on the
intended responses to Covid-19 by different sectors including the education sector. This
was in preparation for the reopening of schools. According to the Government of Malawi
(GoM) (2020), some of the specific objectives of the education sector were to promote
the safety of learners and teachers through safety measures and decongesting classes
once the schools were reopened. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education developed some
guidelines to be followed by learners, teachers and all other stakeholders in schools (MoE,
2020a). This was done to curb the spread of the coronavirus in schools. The guidelines
focused on the following areas: training, quality instruction, social distancing, sanitation
and hygiene, the use of face masks and disease monitoring and management.
a) Training
Training was provided to ensure that before schools reopened, head teachers,
teachers, other school staff, learners and the community were familiar with the Covid-19
guidelines and that they were aware of how to prevent the further spread of the pandemic.
The training followed a cascade model and spread to the grassroots’ levels in communities
through school structures such as the Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), School
Management Committees (SMCs), mother groups and chiefs. Reports indicate that
training was performed and that all stakeholders were aware of the guidelines. Teachers
were also trained on how to conduct remedial learning to compensate for the lost learning.
However, compliance and adherence to the guidelines remains an issue in most schools.
b) Quality instruction
It was the Ministry of Education’s interest that in order to compensate for the
learning lost during the long school closures, strategies should be enacted to ensure that
learners obtain quality teaching and learning when schools reopen. Strategies such as
remediation periods before and after school days, increased teaching and reduced class
sizes were advocated as policy measures to address the gap.
c) Social distancing
Social distancing is one of the widely publicized measures for the containment
of the spread of the coronavirus (Center for Disease Control (CDC), March 2020).
Therefore, it is important that learners and teachers in school enact social distancing to
avoid transmitting the virus among people. Hence, the Ministry of Education reiterated
in the Covid-19 guidelines on schools reopening that schools should maintain a 1-2
metre distance between learners in class and ensure that no more than 2 learners sat at
a desk. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education, among other things such as ensuring
social distancing, directed the following: schools should decongest their classes by
reducing class sizes to 40 learners per class, classroom breaks and start/end times should
be staggered to avoid crowds of learners, large gatherings such as school assemblies and
sporting events should be severely restricted, no unauthorized guests should be allowed to
enter the school premises, and arrival and departure times of learners should be staggered.
d) Sanitation and Hygiene
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (2021), sanitation and hygiene

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are fundamental principles of controlling the spread of the coronavirus. The Ministry’s
guidelines advocated for the following sanitation measures in schools: continuous
access to safe water in schools; hand washing stations at school entrances and outside
of classrooms and offices; washing hands with soap and water or rubbing hands with
alcohol-based hand sanitizer regularly; regular cleaning of surfaces, sanitation facilities,
classrooms and offices; sanitizing frequently touched surfaces; removing and disposing
of trash regularly; disinfecting classrooms and all other common spaces regularly; and
cleaning the school surroundings at all times.
e) Use of Face Masks
Masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets
from travelling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask
coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice (CDC, 2021). As a requirement by the
Ministry of Education, all learners, teachers and all other staff working in schools and
education institutions are to wear a mask that covers the mouth and nose properly. All
learners and staff were sensitized to the importance of wearing a mask, and head teachers
were expected to enforce adherence to the practice.
f) Disease monitoring and management
To ensure that the schools are safe for both teachers and learners, it is necessary that
schools are guided by the precautionary measures on disease monitoring and management
established by the government. Some of the measures directed by the government were as
follows: schools should have a designated quarantine area for isolating sick learners and
teachers; the health room should be cleaned and disinfected at least twice per day; schools
should have a structure/process for regular screening by Health Surveillance Assistants
(HSAs); and schools should monitor the temperatures of learners, teachers, and other
school staff and any visitors using a thermal scanner. Other measures were that teachers
should also monitor and track daily class attendance; learners identified as having a fever,
cough, or other symptoms consistent with Covid-19 should be isolated and HSAs should
be contacted immediately; and learners, school staff, parents and guardians should be
advised to remain at home and not to come to school when they are sick.

3.2. Implementation of government policy measures and guidelines for Covid-19

prevention in Malawi’s primary schools
Given the policy measures and guidelines enacted by the government to ensure the
safety of learners and the quality of education amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, this paper
sought to establish how primary schools in Malawi implemented such measures. Details
of these measures, which included decongesting schools and classes, remote learning,
remedial learning and others, are discussed below.

3.2.1. Decongesting of schools and classes

Given the challenges of large classes faced by most primary schools in Malawi,
especially in the lower grades of standards 1 to 4, where two-thirds of learners enrolled at

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the primary school level are concentrated, there was great need to decongest the classes to
ensure social distancing.
According to MoE (2020 b), most of the classes in Malawi range from 70 to 100
learners, which could encourage the spread of coronavirus given the way it is transmitted.
According to the Ministry of Education guidelines for reopening schools, the ideal class
size is 40 learners per class. Some of the suggested strategies to decongest schools and
classes that schools were encouraged to apply included the following: splitting large
classes using extra existing rooms like dining halls, open air classes and tents to increase
the amount of learning space; employing the double shift system whereby the large classes
should be split into two with one class in the morning and the other in the afternoon;
overlapping classes; recruiting more teachers; redeploying teachers, increasing teacher-
learner contact time; staggering the beginning and end of the school day; staggering break
times; and cancelling assemblies, sports games and other events that create crowded
conditions.
Given the different strategies for decongesting schools from which schools could
choose depending on their situation/environment, schools decongested classes using
different strategies. These vary from district to district and within districts from school
to school. Common scenarios were as follows. Some schools allowed standards 1 to 4
to attend classes once in two days. I.e., standards 1 and 2 attend classes one day while
standards 3 and 4 attend classes on the following day, and they keep alternating until the
end of the term. Other schools split a class (for standards 1 to 4) into streams and choose
which streams to attend school on which day. In the end, each stream attends class once in
two days. This strategy was used due to an inadequate number of teachers to cater to new
classes created in an attempt to reduce class sizes. Due to the same problem, it was not
possible to have all the classes on the same day. Some schools allowed standards 1 and 2
to attend classes in the morning and standards 3 and 4 to attend classes in the afternoon.
This meant attending classes every day but with reduced time. Such schools had adequate
numbers of teachers to cater to the different classes. It is worth noting that an adequate
number of teachers and classroom availability are also key to decongesting classes. With a
sufficient number of classrooms, learners can be split into a number of classes, but without
teachers to teach them, such efforts are unbeneficial. Therefore, with the current teacher
shortages in Malawi, decongesting is a daunting task. Interviews with some PEAs and
teachers revealed that in some schools with very high enrolment, for instance, over 300
learners in a class, it was challenging to reduce the class size to less than 40 learners per
class considering that the numbers of teachers and classrooms are inadequate in schools.
It is therefore imperative for the government to fast track teacher recruitment and enhance
teacher deployment to schools with inadequate numbers of teachers.
The study also observed that most of the schools had cancelled morning assemblies
to avoid crowding and reduce the spread of Covid-19. While schools are striving to
comply with these measures, there have been instances where adherence has been
hampered by large school enrolments, inadequate numbers of teachers, inadequate

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numbers of classrooms and minimal enforcement by some school authorities. Teachers

reported that it was difficult for schools to control learners during break time with most of
the learners playing around and creating crowded scenarios.

3.2.2. Remote Learning

To mitigate the negative educational impacts of long school closures due to the
pandemic, the Ministry of Education organized some distance learning opportunities for
learners to continue receiving their education at home. Remote learning frameworks
included the use of radio, television, internet and mobile technology (MoE, 2020 a). The
radio and television programs were mainly meant for primary school learners, and online
learning materials that demanded internet and mobile technologies were mainly meant
for secondary school learners and those in tertiary institutions. The use of textbooks and
printed study guides for rural primary school learners with limited technology during
the school closures was also explored (Department of Inspection and Advisory Services
report, 2020).

3.2.3. Remedial Learning

Before Covid-19, although schools and teachers were encouraged to utilize remedial
learning for learners who were falling behind, no formal guidelines were enacted,
and most teachers were not formally trained on how this could be done. According to
Ravishankar, El-Kogali Sankar, Tanaka, and Rakoto-Tiana (2016), primary education in
Malawi is characterized by low learning outcomes with learners progressing to higher
grades without necessarily having acquired basic competencies. Despite such evidence, no
effort to encourage remedial learning to support such learners seemed to have been made
by the education system.
As a result of Covid-19 and the long school closures, it was realized that many
learners were not accessing the remote learning strategies such as radio that had been
established. There was greater awareness among education officials that a large majority
of primary school learners will fall behind in their learning. This, coupled with the fact
that learning outcomes were already low, meant that there would be large challenges
when schools reopened. Under the guidelines for reopening schools during the pandemic,
the ministry identified remedial learning as one of the guiding educational principles.
The guidelines advised educators that schools should put the central focus on remedial
education and catching up and advised schools to maximize instructional time (by
extending timetables to accommodate daily remedial instruction periods) for learners
and make adjustments to timetables to accommodate remedial instruction before and
after classes (MoE, 2020 b). To facilitate the implementation of remedial education,
all teachers were trained and reoriented on remedial education strategies before schools
reopened. Schools were also instructed to conduct formative assessments during the first
week of reopening in order to assess learners’ retention during the school closures and
continuous assessment during remedial lessons to track progress.

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 The Impact of COVID-19 on Primary Education in Malawi: Exploring Policy Responses and Practices

The remedial learning strategy also outlined different roles and responsibilities
stakeholders were supposed to take. District education officials (directors of education,
youth and sports and district education managers) were tasked with the responsibility
of providing guidance to support learning recovery after reopening, provide training for
head teachers and primary education advisors on the guidelines and support remedial
lessons through providing teaching and learning materials. Furthermore, head teachers
were to be responsible for providing support to learners who had fallen behind during
the school closures with special attention to students from poor households, students
from disadvantaged areas and students with disabilities using strategies such as remedial
or catch-up classes, after school study classes, and/or learning during school holidays.
In addition, head teachers were supposed to ensure that the primary focus of remedial
programs should be on foundational skills, early literacy and numeracy. Head teachers
were also responsible for ensuring that blended learning strategies were developed,
such as school/home, especially for students with disabilities. Head teachers were also
to ensure that alternative learning approaches such as workbooks with lesson notes and
exercises were utilized.
However, the remediation periods were not possible in some schools because of the
shifting and staggering of classes that was adopted as a measure to decongest the schools
and classes. Unless the contextual factors are first addressed, it will remain a dream to
expect quality education in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

3.2.4. Sanitation and Hygiene

According to one of the PEAs, schools sought to adhere to the sanitation
measures, and the Ministry supplied necessities such as buckets of water and chlorine
for disinfecting surfaces. However, the schools experienced an inconsistent supply of
disinfecting materials and other necessary materials such as soap and sanitizers. This
resulted in sporadic disinfection of the surfaces and washing hands without soap.

3.2.5. Use of Facemasks

Various reports from the schools indicate that it has been difficult for learners to
comply with the requirement of wearing masks, especially in the early days of school
reopening. Some learners did not have face masks due to either a lack of seriousness of
their parents or due to poverty. Some complained of difficulties breathing, others with
underlying conditions such as asthma felt uncomfortable with the masks, and others just
hated the idea of wearing masks. It took much sensitization by the Ministry of Education
together with nongovernmental organizations for people to appreciate the importance of
children wearing face masks in school. In some cases, well-wishers donated face masks
to learners who did not have face masks. Teachers in some schools had to literally sew
facemasks for themselves and needy children. Mother groups were also taught on how
to design and sew face masks, which were also distributed to needy learners. However,
it was challenging for the mother groups to mass produce such face masks due to limited

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resources and since they were made by hand. Furthermore, regular washing of the
cloth masks appeared to be problematic, especially for boys. It is advisable that school
administrators and teachers work together and enforce adherence to the practice of
wearing masks in schools.

3.2.6 Disease monitoring and management

Reports on the ground indicate that although some schools are trying to implement
the measures provided on disease monitoring and management, there are cases where
coordination between the schools and the HSAs has been problematic as the HSAs do not
regularly visit the schools, especially primary schools. Most schools were also reported
not to have special rooms designated for isolating sick learners and teachers due to
inadequate and poor school infrastructure.

3.3. Impact of Covid-19 on education

3.3.1. Decongestion of schools and classes
Despite the fact that decongesting classes helps schools maintain a class size of 40
in an effort to enhance social distancing, it has greatly affected how schools and classes
are organized.
Decongesting classes has led to huge losses in learning time, especially in schools
where learners in lower standards attend classes once in two days, losing half of the days
in the entire term. For instance, when the schools reopened on 7 September 2020, learners
were expected to attend school for 74 days (excluding one day for the Mothers’ Day
holiday) before closing. However, those learners attending classes once in two days only
attended school for 37 days and lost 37 days of learning. Already, the schools had lost 2
weeks of the second term and 14 weeks of the third term due to the school closures. With
the adjustment made to the school calendar by the Ministry of Education, the number of
days for learning per year has also been reduced. It is well known that time spent learning,
or learning time, is one of the most reliable predictors of learning opportunities. Evidence
indicates that any interruption in schooling, including scheduled vacations, can lead to a
loss of learning for many children. Lavy (2015), cited in Cattaneo et al (2016), examined
international gaps in student achievement, estimated the effects of instructional time using
PISA 2006 data and found that instructional time has a positive and significant effect on
test scores. Clearly, Covid-19 has had impacts on the policy responses in the education
sector. Before Covid-19, it was emphasized in education policy that there should be 60
learners to 1 teacher in a classroom, but with the pandemic, the government emphasized
40 learners per class at the primary education level.
The study also found that teachers were not able to deliver as much work as they
would have in normal circumstances because they only taught the learners half the time
following the decongestion of the classes. This implies that the loss of learning time due
to Covid-19 also poses the danger of limiting the delivery of the curriculum to learners
within the specified time.

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In addition, learners who attended classes once in two days tended to lose the
knowledge and skills gained when they stayed at home. This confirms what other studies
found regarding learning time. Reimers (2020) stated that the interruption of one’s studies
causes not only a suspension of learning time but also a loss of knowledge and skills
gained. This is likely to exacerbate the learning crisis characterized by low levels of
learning with large numbers of students not acquiring the basics in literacy and numeracy
that already existed during the pre-Covid-19 period in Malawi.
Attending classes once in two days has also led to increased absenteeism among
learners, especially young learners in some schools. Young learners, especially those
whose parents do not have interest in education, end up being absent from school on the
days they are supposed to be in school while others end up showing up to school on days
they are supposed to stay home. This confusion would easily be solved by the involvement
of parents in monitoring children’s attendance in school at the time of Covid-19. However,
some schools were able to sensitize parents to the new norm of school attendance and had
fewer problems.

3.3.2. Remote learning

Despite the government implementing various remote learning platforms, the lack of
the necessary tools for remote learning made it extremely difficult for Malawian learners
and students to fully access and utilize the platforms that the government implemented.
Primary education advisors that were interviewed in this study indicated that the remote
learning strategies that the government implemented did not reach many learners as
most of them do not have access to the necessary tools such as smartphones and radios.
Additionally, most students come from rural and poor backgrounds where the opportunity
costs of schooling are high, making it unlikely that they would find space and time at
home to engage in home schooling. Although the government encouraged parents and
guardians to support their children’s learning at home, this was not always possible as
some parents/guardians in Malawi are illiterate. According to the 2018 population and
housing census, the literacy rate for those aged 5 and above in Malawi was 69%. Apart
from being illiterate, some parents are more often busy working in fields or engaging
in their small-scale businesses to sustain their livelihoods. Hence, learning at home in
Malawi cannot be guaranteed due to technological and economic barriers. Although the
government indicated that textbooks and printed study guides will also be distributed to
rural learners with limited technology, the extent to which this was done remains unclear.

3.3.3. Enrolment and Dropout

Primary school enrolment was universalized after the implementation of free
primary education in 1994. Gross enrolment rates have exceeded 100% since 1994;
however, during the same period, net enrolment rates have been below 100%, suggesting
that not all eligible school-age children are enrolled in school. In 2020, for example, the
fifth Integrated Household Survey (IHS5) estimated the NER to be 88% and thee GER

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to be 123% (NSO, 2020). Over the past five years, primary enrolment grew by 2.4% on
average. Primary school enrolment increased from 4,901,009 in 2015/2016 to 5,371,563
in 2019/2020 with female enrolment being consistently higher than male enrolment over
the period. The gap between female and male enrolment appears to be widening over
the period. Long school closures, in addition to disrupting learning, were also widely
expected to decrease the demand for education. Such disruptions are likely to have a
negative impact on enrolment. It is largely expected that enrolment might decrease
from pre- Covid-19 levels because of the socioeconomic shocks that households are
experiencing as a result of the pandemic. When schools reopened, there were reports
that Covid-19 was expected to have led to a deceleration of enrolment growth between
2019/20 and post-2020 school years.
With the school closures, there were fears of increased dropout when schools
reopened. The primary education system in Malawi is already plagued by the persistent
problem of high levels of wastage in terms of high repetition and dropout rates and low
completion rates, which have stubbornly continued to undermine the gains Malawi has
made since 1994 in increasing access to primary education.
Dropout rates in primary education in Malawi have been persistently high and
increased significantly during the pandemic. During the period when schools were closed,
it was reported that the incidence of teenage pregnancies and early marriages significantly
increased from the previous year. Figure 1 shows the dropout rates by standard for 3
periods. Generally, dropout rates were lowest in standard 2 across the 3 time periods and
higher for the rest of the standards. It is possible that Covid-19 may have exacerbated the
already high levels of dropout mainly as a result of school disruption causing the long
school closure period.

Figure 1: Dropout rates in Malawi primary school over the years

Source: Calculated using data from the MoE, Malawi Education Statistics, various years

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With Covid-19, the dropout rates were expected to have significantly increased from
previous levels. Schools remained closed for 6 months, and this raised fears that many
children would fail to report to school after their reopening. Anecdotal reports confirmed
these fears with some districts and schools reporting that many children, especially girls,
did not return to school after schools reopened. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
survey conducted by UNICEF reports that after schools reopened, 22% of primary school
children did not return to school. The major reasons given for not returning to school
after reopening included concerns that schools were not safe (54%) and pregnancy and
early marriage (17%) (UNICEF Malawi, 2020-2). A government-led Covid-19 rapid
assessment of teenage pregnancies and child marriages reported 13,000 cases of child
marriages and over 40,000 cases of teenage pregnancies during the period when schools
were closed between March and July 2020 (UNICEF Malawi, 2020-1). The cases
represented an increase of 11% in the cases compared to the same period in the previous
year. According to the report, the main reasons for this were cultural beliefs, lack of
economic and social alternatives for the youth and the desire to start a family (ibid).

4. Conclusion and way forward

4.1. Conclusion
Overall, Covid-19 caused serious disruptions to education service delivery and is
likely to have long-term negative impacts on learning outcomes. The pandemic has also
widened inequalities in access to education and in learning outcomes between children
coming from the richest and poorest households and between children from rural and
urban areas. However, the pandemic has resulted in some positive policy changes that
have the potential to improve the quality of education in the long term. For example,
in order to decongest classrooms, class sizes have been reduced. In addition, remote
education is once again receiving attention, and efforts are underway to develop remote
education as an alternative method of education delivery. Strategies for remedial learning
have been developed and teachers are focusing on how they can deliver remedial learning.
This important aspect of teaching and learning was not prioritized in the pre- Covid-19
period despite overwhelming evidence of low learning outcomes among learners.
Enrolment and dropout
The long period of school closure at the beginning of the pandemic is believed
to have resulted in high dropout rates, which disproportionately affected girls, children
from disadvantaged families and children from rural areas. During the school closures,
incidences of teenage pregnancy and early marriages escalated, resulting in early
dropout from school. Although official data on post-school closure enrolment are not yet
available, there were reports that after reopening, a significant number of children failed to
return to school. Anecdotal evidence suggests that after reopening, there was a decline in
enrolment compared to the pre- Covid-19 period. Unless strategies to sustain the demand
for education are implemented, the socioeconomic impacts of Covid-19 may force

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households to withdraw their children from school as a coping strategy. Covid-19 has the
potential to depress the demand for education as households seek to handle the pandemic.
Decongestion
The emergence of Covid-19 provided an opportunity for the government to think
outside the box. They devised strategies to ensure the safety of learners and the provision
of quality education. The government encouraged schools to decongest their schools,
including reducing class sizes to 40 learners, which was very helpful in maintaining social
distancing. The decongestion of classes varied from school to school with some schools
allowing learners to attend lessons every day but with reduced time while other schools
opted for learners in the lower grades to attend classes once every two days. However, this
created challenges given the inadequate resources such as inadequate numbers of teachers
and classrooms in the schools. This led to a great loss in learning time, which would
eventually affect learner performance. It also led to absenteeism of learners, especially
young learners.
Remote learning
It is clear that the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caught the education sector
in Malawi off-guard as structures for remote learning did not exist and were not fully
developed. As a result, very few learners and students benefitted from the remote learning
measures that were implemented. Hence, the long closure of the schools as a result of
the pandemic resulted in lost learning for many if not all learners. Cognizant of this
fact, when schools reopened, the government of Malawi implemented strategies for
compensating for the lost learning. Such strategies included remedial learning while in
school and remote learning when the learners were not in school during afternoon hours
the weekends. However, the following question remains: “to what extent have these catch-
up strategies been implemented?”
Remedial learning
The pandemic also led to the loss of learning, which experts say may not be
reversible. Schools were closed for 6 months, during which the majority of learners were
not reached by distance or remote education because structures and resources for distance
education were not fully developed. Although strategies for remedial education have
been implemented, there are fears that because of teacher shortages due to huge enrolment
numbers, these strategies may not be effectively implemented such that their impact on
learning outcomes will be minimal at best.

4.2. Way forward

Given the challenging environment of inadequate numbers of teachers and
inadequate school infrastructure such as classrooms in Malawian primary schools, there is
a need for the government to seriously invest in these aspects through recruiting teachers
and enhancing teacher deployment to schools with inadequate numbers of teachers if
quality education is to be provided amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. There is also a need to
enhance community involvement in the education of their children.

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As a long-term measure, it is also important for the government of Malawi to

seriously invest in technology that would support remote learning strategies not only
in times such as those presented by the Covid-19 pandemic but also as a means of
increasing access to education at all levels. Current government efforts in reviving
school broadcasting services are commended. These services should be made permanent
structures of the education system because they have the potential to reach rural children
and can be easily scaled up among the masses.
Finally, there is a need to strengthen the monitoring of the current remedial learning
strategies that have been implemented as they offer opportunities for further improving
learning outcomes among primary education learners.

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