LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Action Aid Malawi is not happy with some of the country’s private schools which become more entrenched into business than being institutions that must provide education services.
The organization observes that such scenario is a departure from the Abidjan Principles that obligates governments to provide quality education and play an active role in the regulation of private provision of education.
The organization has since asked the Government of Malawi–a signatory to the Abidjan Principles–to regulate the private education system in the country to see if it is contributing to the quality of education.
Action Aid Malawi Executive Director, Assan Golowa, said this in the Capital Lilongwe during the launch of a report done by Action Aid International tittled: Private Education and Compliance with the Abidjan Principles; the Case for Malawi.
“Private schools must complement what government does. Let us make sure that private education abides by principles of basic and tertiary education that focus on quality and access to the education process.
“Government must ensure that the provisions of the Abidjan Principles are followed when implementing education activities in the country. The design and implementation of interventions in education must abide by these principles,” said Golowa.
He was commenting on the contents of the report, that, among others, state that the chronically underfunded public education system which has been the case for 40 years in many countries, has left people disillusioned and those who can afford turn to private and the systems end up stratified based on the ability to pay and the aims of education are undermined.
The report further says education can be equalizing force but becomes powerful force for entrenching inequality and injustice and children in rural areas, those living in poverty, especially girls become further excluded.
“Unless we take action on financing public education, we will be continuing to create the push factor from the public education system and privatization will continue in one form or another,” it says.
In his remarks, Director of Planning in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Dr Rodwell Mzonde, said the report is relevant to Malawi in view of the increasing demand for education in the country.
He acknowledged the existing challenges affecting the education sector such as poor infrastructure and shortage of learning and teaching materials, saying these are compromising the quality of education.
“That is why we are building school blocks across the country. Under the Malawi Education Sector Improvement Project. We want to build school blocks in 500 primary schools. We are also building 14 city primary schools in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba,” Mzonde said.
He added that government is already regulating private education with a focus on many important things such availability of qualified teachers and decent infrastructure.
The Abidjan Principles were adopted on 13 February, 2019 in Ivory Coast, developed at a time of rise in the privatization and commercialisation of education.
They help governments and other state actors to understand what human rights law says about state obligations in the provision of quality public education.
The principles provide a framework for evaluating forms of private provision, giving attention to how this can be assessed in relation to states obligations as regards to the right to education.
They articulate the obligations of states to provide public education to the maximum of their available resources.