Promoting a Self-reliant Approach to Basic

Education Development in Africa Through

Research and Dialogue

An investigation into the relationship between selected

donor educational inputs and rates of achievement at
the basic education level in the South Western
Educational Division in Malawi

A research proposal by

Demis Kunje

Dorothy C Khonje

Nellie M Mbano

July, 2005

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Introduction

In Malawi, free primary education was introduced in 1994 soon after attaining a
democratic government. Enrollments soared from 1.2 million in 1994 to 3.0 million
in 1997. This rapid increase in enrollment brought about an unprecedented stress on
the existing resources in the sector. Pupil-teacher ratios, pupil-classroom ratios,
pupil-text book ratios and most other educational indicators reached unacceptable
levels. The quality of education was thus seen as having plummeted while increased
access seemed to have been the only gain. In an effort to address the problem MoE
recruited about 20,000 temporary teachers and gave them a two week orientation
course before sending them into schools. Development partners were sympathetic
to the situation and they assisted the government in various ways. Policy documents
such as the PIF, the MPRSP, the HIV/AIDS in Education Policy and others have
been crafted to direct and support the Free Primary Education effort and the eventual
attainment of EFA goals.

In 2004, a decade later gains such as a decrease in the number of untrained teachers,
decreasing disparities between boys and girls, increased access and provision of text
books are noteworthy. However drop-out rates (15%), completion rates (30%),
attendance rates (12%) and pass rates (30%) seem to have remained at unacceptable
levels. The system seems little able to keep children in school and the children are not
able to reach acceptable levels of literacy and numeracy even when they stay on in
school. With efforts by various players to improve the quality of education it is
imperative that these are directed in a manner which brings about positive changes. This
requires deep insights into how the various efforts or inputs into education sector are
being integrated at the school level and how, among various variables, achievement is
being affected. In this study inputs to schools will be categorized as infrastructure,
community participation, school feeding, in-service training, teaching and learning
materials and advisory services. To study how these interact to affect achievement both
quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used.

Statement of the problem

Basic education is seen as a necessary condition for development. In addition, it is seen
as a right for every child. In Malawi the introduction of free primary education in 1994
resulted in increased enrollments without accompanying improvements in quality. The
issue of quality is being addressed in a piecemeal way, in trickles and in an uncoordinated
manner. Thus it is not known which inputs or combinations of inputs have impact on the
quality of education in general and on achievement in particular in different locations in
the country.

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Research Questions

This study is going to be guided by the following research questions:

1. What are the relationships between inputs namely infrastructure, in-service,

school feeding, teaching and learning materials, community sensitization and
advisory services on the one hand and the quality of basic education in terms of
levels of pupil achievement on the other hand?
2. What combinations of inputs are associated with pupil achievement in
mathematics, Chichewa and English in std 5 and std 7?
3. How are the donor - sponsored inputs in schools utilized to improve the quality of
basic education?

To answer these questions the study will take both a quantitative and a qualitative
approach to address the problem.

Significance of the study

This study is significant for several reasons. First, it will provide an understanding of the
relationships that exist between education inputs and achievements levels. Secondly, the
study will show the appropriateness of the educational inputs to our situation. Some
inputs seem to be brought into schools without the benefit of prior testing or verification.
For example some school buildings may not be appropriate to the weather in different
locations but there is a tendency for authorities to erect buildings of a standard
architectural design in the different locations. It would then be interesting to study how
such inputs are affecting performance in schools. Thirdly, it is hoped that this study will
give a clear picture of the minimum levels of resources required by different school
settings in order to bring about significant gains in achievement levels. Fourthly, through
the in-depth interviews the study hopes to uncover salient features of schooling that
matter in improving achievements. The study will provide thick descriptions of how the
teaching and learning environment is managed in relation to the improvement of quality
of education. Thus the study will help in the understanding of the usage of school inputs
which can be linked to quality improvements with respect to achievement. Fifthly, this
study complements the efforts made so far to find effective schools in Malawi by using
rigorous statistical techniques which have not been extensively used in previous studies.
These are all in consonance with the national strategic objectives of EFA goals 5 and 6
which aim at (1) creating a conducive learning environment for both boys and girls, (2)
promoting higher achievement levels especially for girls, (3) improving the availability of
teaching and learning materials and (4) promoting effective monitoring and evaluation of
education quality.

Limitations of the study

This study has several limitations which may affect the generalisability of the results.
First, some of the inputs may have aged as they may not be usable in some situations.
For example, teachers who went on specific in-service may not be using the training
because they are not given opportunity to use it. Secondly, the study may be limited in

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its analysis because of limited information gathered from the respondents due to their
inability to provide profound views of the situation at the teaching and learning
processes. Thirdly, some activities which occur at specific periods of the school calendar
may not be captured during the short period of visit by the research team. These and
other confounding circumstances may limit our understanding of the results but these are
generally overwhelmed and controlled by the research design.

Theoretical Framework

The causal status of relationships between school characteristics and effects is small
because of the correlative nature of research, lack of theory and flaws in
conceptualizations. Methods employed in research have a bearing on how much we can
judge school performance and policy concerns. Judgements about school performance
and relative effectiveness require careful analyses. For example school effectiveness
need to be specific as to what outcomes we are searching for, what time period and in
whose eyes. So school effectiveness may be seen as being relative to out comes, time
frame and student group. Therefore cause – effect relationships need adequate control of
other factors, a choice of a given range of outcomes, careful sampling and recognition of
the processes that are involved. This study intends to explore some of these through both
quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Review of literature

Educational research and development in Malawi

According to the Policy on educational research for MoE, the Government
recognizes that research is an important tool for organizational learning. MoE recognizes
that research findings enable it to frame policies and develop programmes based on
reliable and valid information. As such the MoE is interested in research that is directed
at identifying critical issues in the sector. Essentially, MoE regards Education
Management Information System (EMIS), monitoring and evaluation of programs and
basic or development research as the main sources of information for planning and
development purposes.

In principal the MoE relies and supports four main sources of research findings. First,
the MoE uses its own Planning Department to collect various data for its data base.
Secondly, the Ministry commissions research studies to be carried out on its behalf by
research institutions in the university or any other competent research bodies which may
include governmental education institutions. Thirdly, the Ministry makes use of findings
submitted by various stakeholders such as NGOs, development partners, the civil society
and other ministries as well.

In the past decade the research agenda for the education sector has mainly been guided by
the Policy Investment Frame work and the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper
(MPRSP) which are the two main policy documents. Recourse was also made to address
issues which have also been highlighted in other national policy documents which dwell
on cross-cutting issues such as the National Decentralization Policy, the National

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HIV/AIDS Policy and the National Gender Policy. Cooperating partners in the sector
have their own agendas on which researchers base their studies to inform the
stakeholders.

Past research
A multitude of research studies have been conducted so far in areas of teacher education,
girls’ education, HIV/AIDS and education, conditions of schooling, private provision of
education, policy analyses, evaluations of education programmes, classroom practice and
decentralization. Notable outcomes of these studies are the various sector documents
which out line new policies and strategies. The MoE has been able to reorganize itself
partly because of recommendations from such research studies. Furthermore the
curriculum has been undergoing review in response to similar findings. Therefore MoE
has witnessed changes in recent times meant to improve its effectiveness mainly through
such recommendations.

Of particular interest to this study is research that has focussed on school effectiveness.
Several initiatives have been undertaken to measure the levels of literacy and numeracy
of pupils at different levels both in primary school and in secondary schools. In 2001 and
2004, SACMEQ investigated pupil, teacher and school factors and how they related to
the achievement of minimum levels of literacy and numeracy. The main findings were
that the majority of the pupils in Malawi primary schools are performing below minimum
and desirable levels of reading and mathematical skills. When compared to pupils at
similar levels in the Southern African Region, pupils’ achievement in Malawi has always
been at the bottom of the list. A similar study by MIE(2005) in 12 districts shows that
learner achievement in four subjects at the primary school level was below expected
levels and that less than 10% of the learners were adequately prepared for the next higher
class they were to move into. NIPDEP(2003) showed that there were slight increases in
performance in mathematics and English after JICA introduced some interventions such
as infrastructure, teacher in – service and teacher support in schools. However the
achievement levels remained disturbingly low. The same study showed that class
teachers had problems getting right all tasks set for the pupils. However, PLAN(2005)
report of some increases in the percentages of pupils gaining mastery in Chichewa after
teachers in two districts had undergone some specific training. This shows that there is
some hope that achievement can be influenced in some ways and this provides a basis for
further enquiry into what best represents positive influences on achievement in the
Malawian context.

What is deficient in these studies is that they fall short of identifying how much each of
the interventions is influencing the changes. This study intends to isolate pupil, teacher
and school factors and determine the extent to which these factors influence achievement
in primary schools in Malawi. Such an analysis will go a long way in helping to
prioritorise school inputs in the quest for improved quality of education.

In conclusion, research is one of the tools which the Ministry is prepared to use in policy
formulation and to improve practice. Specifically research from a self – reliant

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perspective stands to provide the Ministry of Education with valuable insights into the
issue of sustainability especially in basic education.

Methodology
The research will be done in two phases and will use both quantitative and qualitative
methodologies. The first phase will use quantitative methods in order to investigate the
relationship between educational inputs and achievement. This will enable researchers
identify if there is any association between inputs and achievement. Apart from data
which will be collected specifically for this project, raw data from SACMEQ and
MLALP will be sought and subjected to similar statistical analyses in order to provide
solid evidence regarding school effectiveness. In the second phase case studies of
successful and less successful schools will be carried out in order to investigate how
various inputs in a school are utilised to improve the quality of education. It is hoped that
the use of a combination of survey and case studies will enable the researchers to get a
broad picture of how inputs may be impacting on achievement, and a deeper
understanding of the process of implementation at school level.

Phase 1: Is there any relationship between donor supplied educational inputs

and achievements in std 5 and std 7 in primary schools in South West
Educational Division in Malawi?

The aim of this phase is to find out if there is any relationship(s) between education
inputs and achievements in primary schools. Thus a survey approach will be used to
document school profiles and achievements in literacy and numeracy after 5 and 7 years
of primary education. The data will be analysed to give general levels achievement.
Furthermore exploratory statistical data analysis techniques will be employed to find out
if there is any association between some school factors and achievement. Data from
SACMEQ and MLALP will be treated in a similar manner and the results will be
compared in order to verify the validity of any claims.

Design of the study

The schools will be categorized into four groups, depicting location in rural or urban
areas and donor support or lack of donor support to the schools. Donor Supported
schools are those schools that have had additional inputs from NGOs, whilst unsupported
schools are those that have received inputs from the government only. Table 1 below
shows how the schools will be categorized.

Table1: Sampling frame for schools

Rural(160 schools) Unsupported

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 Donor supported
DIVISION (1) Urban(20 schools) Unsupported
Donor supported

The Sample

Firstly, one out the six education divisions which has a large prevalence of urban schools
will be used in order to compare with the large rural school population. From this
division a random sample of 180 schools will be selected. The sample from each category
will reflect the proportion of the schools in the categories. (South Western Division has
the largest proportion of urban schools compared to the other five Divisions. There are
536 rural schools and 68 urban schools giving a ratio of 8:1)

Instruments
The data to be collected will be teacher and pupil bio data, school characteristics and
pupils’ achievement. The following instruments will be used to collect this data:-

(1) School profile

The following data will be collected: Numbers of classes, pupils, teachers, classrooms,
desks, toilets, textbooks, reference material, enrollment by class, pass rates in national
examinations, additional inputs such as infrastructure, teaching and learning resources,
in-service training, community participation, school feeding and others.

(2) School achievement tests

Achievement of pupils who have had 5 and 7 years of schooling will be measured
through tests in English, Chichewa and mathematics. These subjects are chosen because
they offer a direct opportunity to determine reading and mathematical competencies
without confusing the understanding of concepts in various subjects. The study will use
std 5 and std 7 pupils because the std 5 pupils have shown some measure of perseverance
where most pupils drop out and that they are about to enter senior classes where they will
be required to engage in work which relies on a sound foundation in literacy and
numeracy. Standard 7 has been selected because this represents almost the end of the
primary school cycle and it is important to know what skills the graduates are equipped
with as they move on with life.

Data Analysis
First, descriptive statistics will be used to describe levels of achievement in literacy
(English and Chichewa) and numeracy in the sampled schools. Exploratory multi-level
statistical data analysis will be used to find out if there are any associations between the
various additional inputs and achievement.

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PHASE 2: HOW ARE THE VARIOUS INPUTS IN A SCHOOL UTILISED TO
IMPROVE RATES OF ACHIEVEMENT
The aim of the second phase is to study how schools utilize the resources available to
improve achievement in primary schools. Case studies of eight schools, one for each
category shown in Table 2 below will be carried out. Each school will be studied in-
depth for a period of one week.

Table 2: Sampling frame for case study schools

Rural Supported Successful

Not successful
Unsupported Successful
Not successful
Urban Supported Successful
Not successful
Unsupported Successful
Not successful

The research team will conduct one to one and focus group interviews with stakeholders
in the school such as head-teachers, teachers, pupils, parents and community leaders.
Furthermore they will conduct non-participant observation of what happens in the
classroom and the school in general. The focus of the study will be to understand how a
school manages the additional inputs in order to improve completion rates and
achievement. Table 3 gives a summary of the issues to be studied and the corresponding
instruments to be used.

Table 3: Instruments and target participants

Focus Methods
Community participation Interviews and Focus group discussion
Management Interviews and Focus group discussion
Teaching and learning Observations, Interviews and Focus group
discussion
In-service training Interviews with teachers
Use of resources Observations, Interviews and Focus group
discussion

Data analysis
The information collected from the various interviews and group discussions will be
triangulated, verified and organized thematically to bring out issues in the

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implementation. In the case of classroom observations the interactions will be analysed
using teacher and pupil activity profiles.

Time Frame

Phases
Year/phase Activity
1 Quantitative Study: Relationship between educational inputs and
achievement
2 Qualitative study: How inputs in the schools are utilized to improve
quality
3 Dissemination of findings to stakeholders

Phase 1

Dates Activities Actors

February/ March, Draft Research Proposal JICA participants
2005
April - June, 2005 • Report to University and Research Team
Ministry of Education
• Prepare for Stake holder’s
seminar
• Constitute Research team
• Solicit funding

July – August, 2005 Stakeholders seminars Research Team

One day for each
• Research community
• Ministry and Donors
• Teachers and community
• Draft instruments
September, 2005 Pre-testing instruments Research Team
September – • Recruiting and training research
October, 2005 assistants 3 Research Teams
• Data collection
November, 2005 Marking achievement tests Markers supervised
by research team
November Data entry, cleaning of data and data Data entry clerks
December, 2005 analysis
December, 2005 – Report writing Research team
January, 2006
February, 2006 Report presentation Research team
March, 2006 Presentation of report at reflective Research team
dialogue meeting

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