Quality learning or more numbers?

The return to multiparty politics in 1994 in Malawi brought dramatic changes in many sectors, including free primary education and community day secondary schools (CDSS), albeit with low investment in teaching and learning materials.

Some teachers who had a Malawi School Certificate of Education were promoted to teach in CDSSs.

Increased enrolment led to expanded access to tertiary education.

University of Malawi, the only public university between 1965 and 1998, has not only been unbundled into five universities, but does not just compete with its offsprings.

It also faces competition from Mzuzu University, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Nalikule and Domasi colleges of education and the Malawi School of Government.

Expanded access to higher learning is commendable, it has triggered a myriad challenges.

Among others, the public universities have been given different targets when it comes to total enrolment by 2030, some of the yardsticks sound unrealistic.

The expansion in enrolment need to correspond with the expansion of infrastructure.

However, this is not the case as infrastructure keeps expanding at a snail’s pace  that is not matching the growing numbers.

Among others, universities require quality teaching spaces, laboratories, studios, workshops, reliable ICT platforms for e-learning, decent students’ accommodation, staff offices and libraries.

 It is pathetic that in some public universities, a lecturer serves a class of 150 to 200 students, which compromises teaching and learning.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology requires a teacher-student ratio of 1:60 for primary schools and 1:40 for secondary schools, but there is no standard policy for public universities.

While the National Council for Higher Education guidelines recommend one lecturer for 18 students, this is far from being achieved.

Government continues to push higher education institutions to enrol more students each passing year without the corresponding recruitment of qualified lecturers and the matching expansion of infrastructure to accommodate the growing numbers.

Scarce teaching and learning resources, coupled with lengthy public procurement procedures, forces some lecturers to use their personal resources to purchase basic teaching aids, including reagents. 

The fatigue and burnout by overwhelmed teaching staff in public universities distorts the way  they relate to students and interact with them. Some ignore the unique needs of specific learners, skip some classes or resort to teaching online for practical lessons meant to be delivered face to face.

Such attitude swings should not entirely be blamed on members of staff, but the workload placed on them.

In the context of public universities with no defined or functional workload policies, some lecturers end up handling few students while others are teaching large classes.

Strangely, they get similar pay for the workloads which varies widely when it comes to teaching and marking scripts.

As a result, it is no surprise to hear of missing grades in public universities for students who wrote examinations or assignments and signed for them.

This is partly due to large numbers of students handled by the universities’ registries.

However, the institutions are making strides to mitigate some of these problems by employing part-time staff, assistant lecturers, expanding access through ODeL [open, distance and e-learning] platform, renting new campus to de-congest extra numbers of students.

However, funding shortfalls erode these efforts as institutions are required to raise their own resources instead of relying on government subventions.

Similarly, the ban on recruitment by public institutions also affects universities’ operations as they have to seek waivers to recruit additional part-time and full-time staff. 

While expanding access to higher education is  commendable, key stakeholders, including the line ministry, private sector and development partners, should work together to maintain quality and inclusiveness.

Producing half-baked graduates in the name of increased access to higher education does not add any glory to public universities, it undermines the very purpose of higher learning.

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