File image: MANEB
Each day, eight-year-old Wishes Banda roams Kadambo Village at Traditional Authority Masasa in Ntcheu District, his small hands clutching bundles of firewood for sale. While other children are in class, Banda is out making ends meet, as his grandmother cannot afford to send him to school.
He is not alone in this unpleasant situation — his three other siblings are also not in school. “Apart from fees, my grandmother cannot afford to provide us with learning materials, so she stopped sending us to school,” Banda bemoaned.
Together with his six siblings, they live with their grandmother, Lizenia Kefa, in Kadambo — who survives on subsistence farming and occasional piecework. Kefa took the children in after their parents divorced a few years ago. With limited resources and many mouths to feed, education has become a luxury that the family cannot afford.
To accelerate development and alleviate poverty, Malawi introduced free primary education in 1994. However, learners in some parts of the country are still required to pay various costs such as registration, examination, report cards, development fund fees, and many more — which keep poor children like Banda out of school and ultimately drop out. The country records a high rate of out-of-school children and a 2021 report by the National Statistical Office revealed that two-thirds of children did not complete their primary education.
A race against time
On 01 January 2016, Malawi and other nations fully endorsed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was approved a year before 2016 at a historic UN Summit.
Under this level comes Sustainable Development Goal number four, which seeks to ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education among other targets. Malawi is racing against time to meet this landmark state. The foresight appears rather dark and wanting.
We have established that learners in some parts of Malawi are paying a maximum of K2,000 per term in fees — a sum that is above the reach of many, particularly those in rural areas.
“If we do not pay school development fund fees, we are not allowed to sit for final examinations,” bemoaned Esther Dumbo, a Form Three student at Matenje Primary School, who is also Speaker of Salima Children Parliament.
National Chairperson for NGO Coalition on Child Rights, Desmond Mhango, argues that the status quo is fueling child marriages.
“Schools are creating user fees, collecting money from school-going children who come from less privileged families, and in the process denying them their constitutional right to education,” argued Mhango.
Ripple effects
Some of the ripple effects of school dropout include early pregnancy and marriage. For instance, MBC has learned that more than 250 cases of child marriages have been reported in Salima this year alone. District Social Welfare Officer, Edgar Kasiyafumbi, attributes this alarming situation to poverty and peer pressure.
“We are working with our partners to terminate unlawful arrangements,” Kasiyafumbi said.
UNICEF findings show that Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with approximately 42 percent of girls married before the age of 18, and 9 percent below the age of 15.
Additionally, recent findings by the National Statistical Office, National Planning Commission, and United Nations reveal that nearly 70 percent of children in Malawi experience different forms of socioeconomic deprivations that classify them as multi-dimensionally poor.
A 2024 Child Multi-Dimensional Poverty Policy Brief report urges the government to develop a minimum package of social services that addresses the key issues affecting children. The report also emphasises that all children are struggling to access sanitation services, with education and housing being the next most pressing challenges.
In a recent written communication, the Ministry of Education acknowledged exorbitant user fees that schools are collecting from school-going children in some parts of the country. The memo, addressed to all head teachers and District Commissioners and other education stakeholders, highlights the existence of examination, summer school and report card fees.
The Ministry’s spokesperson, Mphatso Nkuonera, told MBC that the government’s stance on the issues raised remains unchanged and warned schools against charging excessive fees. “Access to primary education is free across the country,” said Nkuonera. “Government is concerned with the tendency of some establishments which are collecting school reports and summer school fees.”
Enock Phale, legislator for Salima North West, is among those advocating for the elimination of the development fund payment in primary schools, arguing that it is preventing more children from attending classes.
Child rights advocates believe the government must urgently operationalize the National Children’s Commission to crack down on abusers and rescue many children from the jaws of child marriages.
For Banda in Kadambo, his dreams of becoming a soldier to serve his nation are, for the time being, hanging by a thread.
By Charles Chindongo
