Understanding the causes of school drop-out in Malawi

Education is a major route out of poverty for individuals and nations. In Malawi, one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, initial enrolment in school is high, but half the children drop out by the end of year 6, and only a third complete the 8 years of primary school. Drop-out in adolescence is higher in girls than in boys, and often follows early pregnancy and marriage. Using data from a large population-based study with annual surveys in northern Malawi (> 10,000 children), and a study that has followed >2500 adolescents over time in southern Malawi, we propose to explore the pathways to drop-out and their causes.

Important questions that we will address include:

Do girls drop out of school because they are pregnant, or do they get pregnant because they were already disaffected with or failing school?

How far is an adolescent's own school behaviour influenced by the schooling or sexual behaviour of their peers or siblings?

What attributes of the schools, of families and of the community reduce drop-out?

This research is a collaboration between academic researchers and those working in the Ministry of Education in Malawi, at national and district levels, allowing lessons learnt to influence education policy and practice.

The academic beneficiaries and dissemination are discussed above.

The ultimate beneficiaries of this research are the children and adolescents in Malawi, who will benefit from any changes in policy and practice that are made based on the findings.

The main aim of the project is to work in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) in Malawi and other stakeholders to inform and influence the three priority areas of the MoEST's National Education Sector Plan (NESP) 2007-18. The three priority areas are improving: (i) access and equity; ii) quality; and iii) governance and management of schooling in Malawi. The project will contribute to meeting MDG 2 (universal primary education) and MDG 3 (gender parity in primary and secondary education).

Findings from this study will benefit a wide range of stakeholders within Malawi, in the UK and beyond. The MoEST, who are the non-academic partners in this study, are critical players who are best positioned to influence and establish priorities in education policy, resource allocation and service delivery in Malawi. They have collaborations with a broad spectrum of stakeholders across the board. These include bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors (UN, World Bank, JICA, CIDA, DFID); organisations involved in improving the quality of secondary education and it's delivery through the Private Sector (e.g. PRISM-Private Schools Association of Malawi); non-governmental organisations who are actively involved in bridging the gaps in service delivery and advocating for improving access and delivery of schooling in the country, who are part of larger Civil Society Networks (e.g the CONGO-Coalition of NGOs in Malawi, FAWEMA- Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi, SACMEQ- South African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality). Our collaboration with the MoE and its partners provides an opportunity for the study to reach and disseminate study findings to a large network of education stakeholders which will help influence, engage and jointly shape education interventions and policies in the country.

Study activities include dissemination of project progress, findings and recommendations through District and National level stakeholder platforms (District Executive Meetings, Consultative meetings, Primary Education Advisor meetings and Sector Review meetings), where policies and implementation plans are shaped. Study findings will be disseminated through an end-of-project Dissemination workshop, which will bring together a wider group of education stakeholders and partners who are engaged in the education dialogue; policy briefs, which will be circulated through the MoEST and partners (local, international); open-access publications; and presentation of project findings at public lectures, conferences, poster exhibitions.