Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon

which you can use to change the world.”

BACKGROUND

Malawi is a small country in south-east Africa,

slightly bigger than Scotland but with three times its

population. It became independent in 1964 but has

struggled to develop.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a low life expectancy and

high infant mortality rates. HIV/AIDS is widespread. It suffered severe famine in

2003 but has in recent years increased its food production rapidly. It is

known as “the warm heart of Africa”

Scotland and Malawi

There have been strong links between

the two countries for more than 150 years.

This began with David Livingstone's journey to

Malawi in 1859 and has continued to grow

ever since with an ever increasing movement

of people and ideas between the two countries

which has continued to benefit both nations.

A formal partnership now exists between the two countries

(www.scotland-malawipartnership.org)

Malawi’s second biggest city, Blantyre, is named after the town in south

Lanarkshire where David Livingstone was born.

Millennium Goal 2

By the year 2015 every child will have completed a full course of primary education.

Recent Progress

Malawi has had some success in its attempts to

achieve Millennium Development Goal 2

that, by 2015, every child in the country

will be able to complete a full primary

education. These are some of the main

developments:

o Primary education is not compulsory but

every child is entitled to go to primary

school

o In 1994 primary education became

free to all children

o This increased attendance rates

immediately

o Literacy rate has gone up from 76%

to 86% since the year 2000 (15-24 year

olds)

o As many girls as boys are enrolling in

primary school and almost as many girls

are literate.

In 2011 the government of Malawi:

o increased the number of teachers and

assistant teachers being trained

o began a policy of building an extra 1500

classrooms per year

o started to give extra assistance to rural

schools

o made school uniform optional

Billy and Eilidh quizzing the Deputy Minister

of Education in his office in Lilongwe,

February 2012

CURRENT PROBLEMS

It was ambitious of the Malawian government to make primary education free but it

has since found it very difficult to support this with sufficient trained teachers and

classrooms.

These are the main problems:

CAUSES OF THE

PROBLEMS

Why does Malawi have these problems?

Malawi does not have enough money because

the country doesn’t produce expensive goods – just primary goods

which fetch low and unreliable prices

70% of the country’s exports is tobacco and its price varies a lot

other countries place restrictions on what Malawi can sell abroad

it has to spend a lot of its money repaying debts to other countries

it is prone to natural disasters, especially drought,

which some say is due to the climate changing

Because Malawi does not have enough money,

it has not been able to train all its teachers.

Because it does not have trained teachers, pupils are not taught well and drop out. Because Malawi does not have enough

money, it has not been able to build

enough classrooms so many classes

have to be taught outside which is impossible in the rain, so pupils drop out. Because Malawi does not have enough money,

it has not been able to build toilets in every

school. This puts off many girls from attending school.

1 b

a

c

d

e

2

3

4

CAUSES OF THE

PROBLEMS - LOCAL

5 Although there are no school

fees there are often hidden

costs eg school uniform,

books to buy or a school

development fund to be paid.

So the poorest children do not

attend school but go out and earn

money instead.

6

Many schools do not

know the educational

policy and still insist

that pupils wear

school uniforms.

7 Many children from poor

families do not have

breakfast.

They are much more likely to go

and earn money to get food than

go to school.

8

In many areas it is

normal for girls to

get married early. It

is also the culture

that girls should look

after younger

siblings when they

become teenagers.

So they drop out of

SOLVING THE PROBLEMS

In many ways life in Malawi is improving

and the country is developing. But

education at the moment is not. In our

opinion, if more Malawian children do

not go to school and stay at school, then

the country will find it much more difficult

to improve in future and may slide back

into further poverty.

Research says that education is the

route out of poverty:

- for an individual,

- for a region, and

- for a whole country

We think there are a few ways we can all help.

Two of the main problems are that it still costs money

to go to school in Malawi and the country does not

have enough teachers. It would help if we urged the

Malawian President and Minister of Education to do

everything they can to invest more in education.

We shall also tell our Prime Minister and Department

for International Development.

You can download our petition here (http://s1challenge.blogspot.co.uk).They will all be sent

together to the Malawian High Commission to be forwarded to the Malawian President.

“Forget sending money; forget

volunteering; the best way to help the

Developing World is to lobby on their

behalf. This is the one thing we can do

better. To put it bluntly, we carry

more clout.”

Fairtrade sells:

Sugar Peanuts

Macademia nuts, and

Tea All from Malawi

You can sponsor a school in

Malawi with Mary’s Meals

(www.marysmeals.org) . The

money is used to feed the

children with porridge each day.

A free nutritious meal is a great

incentive for them to go to

school. Alternatively your money could be used to build the kitchens they need at the

schools.

Many people are too poor to keep their children in

school. If families had more money, more children would

go to school.

If you sponsor a Malawian child with ActionAid, the money goes to the whole community there, not the child.

Instead of giving money, you could give the local people a hand up not a hand out. You can lend money to people in Malawi wanting to set up businesses, using micro-financing organizations such as www.kiva.org or www.microplace.com . The latter company pays interest on your loans.

The more we buy, the more they sell, the better-

off the workers should be. Their companies should make more money and the government can collect more taxes from them.

It would be particularly good to buy ethically-produced Malawian goods, such as Fairtrade goods.

It is well documented that some companies in Malawi employ children – some as young as five. This goes on especially on the tobacco farms.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/sep/14/malawi-child-labour-tobacco-industry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8218253.stm

Channel 4 made a programme on child labour in Malawi.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2010/episode-4

We do not know which tobacco companies

employ child labour in Malawi.

But, please write to the big tobacco

companies asking them whether the

tobacco they use is grown on farms using

child labour. It lets them know that we are

taking an interest.

www.scotland-malawipartnership.org

http://www.nyasatimes.com

01 June 2012

Malawi's new president sells off

presidential jet and 60 Mercedes

Joyce Banda, Malawi's new president, has

announced the presidential jet and fleet of 60

Mercedes limousines would be sold in a

move applauded by a British cabinet

minister as an example to other African

leaders.

It’s beautiful. It’s exotic. It’s different. And a holiday in Malawi gives lots of jobs to Malawian people – in hotels, restaurants and shops, in construction and in transport. And these people and the hotels, restaurants and shops will all pay taxes, so the government will have more money.

Lake Malawi, the lake of stars –

the big blue

Explore the endless turquoise blue

waters of tropical fish, golden beaches

and breathtaking sunsets

Mulanje – the magical mountain

Tea estates, rock pools, crystal clear

streams and abundant wildlife on an

island in the sky.

Luangwa Game Reserve – the jungle

out there

Watch the creatures of the night, live

the untouched wilderness as the

elephants cross you for a cooling drink.

Zomba Plateau – the idyll lost in time

Break away from the savannah, discover

an Africa of abundand rain, waterfalls

and an unusual ecosystem

You might prefer to support wider campaigns which help Malawi as well as other

developing countries.

Poverty/the MDGs www.endpoverty2015.org

Health www.gatesfoundation.org

Mothers www.whiteribbonalliance.org

AIDS www.worldaidscampaign.org

Unfair trade www.maketradefair.com

Debt repayments www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

Gender www.girleffect.org

Toms Shoes www.toms.co.uk Elephant juice www.elephanjuicefood.com

The Global Campaign for Education

A few words from Eilidh Naismith and Billy Davidson, Young Ambassadors for the Global Campaign For Education

Hutchie supports the Global Campaign for Education. Research has shown

that, in every Developing country, when more children attend school:

the prospects for the child improves,

the prospects for the local community improves and

the prospects for the whole country improve

The GCE is a global organisation working to ensure quality education for all; they fully believe this aim is achievable. The organisation was set up by teachers’ unions, child rights campaigners and charities. There are now more than 100 countries involved who all want to ensure education for all.

They want to put pressure on all world leaders to make sure they keep their promise that by 2015 every child receives a quality primary education. There are still 67 million children not getting an education.

The GCE run various campaigns and competitions, our school takes part in the

Send My Friend to School Campaign of which the aim is to raise awareness of

global education in schools across the UK. We want schools across the UK to get

involved and help us to reach the target by 2015!

We currently have the honour of being the Young

Ambassadors for the Global Campaign for Education

for 2012.

As ambassadors we took on a year of engagements

such as writing articles for newspapers and

magazines, writing blog posts, speaking to politicians,

making speeches and presentations as well as

spreading the word and trying to get schools involved in the Olympic – themed

2012 campaign. Our first task was to find out more about the barriers to education

and travel to Malawi where less than half of Malawian children finish even a

basic primary education. We only have space to mention four children we met, but

our visit can be seen on video at: http://youtu.be/ivsVfT5qlcs