Malawi education assessment activity report

Agency for International Development (USAID)/Malawi-supported assessment of Malawi"s basic education system has considerably broadened. The assessment"s initial purpose of examining the current programming and its response to key needs in the sector has expanded; now, it provides information and recommendations to further inform the education programming of Malawi"s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and its partners, which has yielded key priorities for the short and medium term. The assessment focused on the three following principal topics, which will also be considered in the context of the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) and ongoing MoEST and partner activities and programs in the sector: (1) teacher professional development; (2) HIV/AIDS education; and (3) decentralization and the Education Management Information System (EMIS). These principal topics encompass the following supplemental topics: (1) civil society, (2) gender (addressed within the principal topics), and (3) school environment. To complete the assessment, the Macro International Inc. (Macro) and the Centre for Educational Research and Training team conducted a 4-week, multiphase activity consisting of (1) initial consultation with the MoEST, USAID, and other key sector partners to review sector and project plans and reports; (2) in-depth consultations with education officials, teachers, students, and School Management Committee/Parent-Teacher Association (SMC/PTA) members in five districts representing USAID and non-USAID-supported schools and communities in the following northern, central, and southern regions (Rumphi, Dowa, Mchinji, Mangochi, and Phalombe); and (3) follow-up consultations with MoEST and education partners, including a dissemination workshop to review draft findings and recommendations. (Author abstract, modified)