Education as an equalizer; my thoughts on the UNIMA selection list
Isn’t it ironic that in Malawi the most important equalizer when it comes to inequalities, also happens to be the sector that is facing some of the highest inequalities? Yes, I am talking about education!
Education has long been recognized as a human right necessary for the greater fulfillment of many others such as civic, political, economic and social rights. Although primary education is compulsory in Malawi, in my view I would argue that, equality and equity within the system is not. This is quite surprising given how research shows that education (particularly for girls) is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to reduce poverty and to catapult growth! Okay. Fine. But, what am I getting at with all this?
Well I recently caught sight of the newly released UNIMA selection list and one observation in particular struck a chord in me. But before I get into explaining all that, firstly let me start by congratulating all who have recently been selected to UNIMA to pursue studies in various programs! I am so excited for every one of you. Actually, I know how nervously expectant you might be feeling right now because 10 years ago (oh my days, it’s been a whole 10 years already??!) I too was selected for UNIMA and that set me on a whole trajectory (more than just academically) which quintessentially has contributed to the person that I am today.
Now back to the topic at hand, for those of you who have had the time to scan through that selection list, can you for a moment recollect with me what stood out to you. For me, what I noticed right off the bat was the schools where the successful applicants have been selected from – a majority of the selected students are from private high schools or mission secondary schools. Typically the selection list is often skewed in this manner every year, but this year you can observe with me that it is steeper skewed than most. Now, let me be forthright by applauding the selected schools for maintaining comparatively good standards for the benefit of whom they are educating. However, I cannot help but think that not everyone has an opportunity to go to one of those schools. In fact the substantial lot of adolescents in Malawi are currently enrolled in community day secondary schools (CDSS) where academic resources such as libraries and laboratories are in poor shape (if existent at all); where teachers are few and classrooms are overcrowded; where students are excluded from technologies such as computers and where school funding struggles to trickle from the top-down. If you read between the lines of the UNIMA selection list, you will see that it is telling a story – sadly it is a story of gaps and inequalities.
Let’s not give a deaf ear to this story because education inequalities between, for example, a CDSS in rural Malawi and a high school in a peri-urban suburb, is a rough but informative indicator that inequalities will/do re-surface in many other areas of our country and not just here on a university selection list. Education inequalities have a tendency to re-surface in people’s access and attainment of a long list of things such as land, property, information, employment, financial assets, resources and opportunity, just to name a few, as well as active citizen participation (or lack thereof depending on which side of the divide one falls); If you look closely at these mentioned here, they are all catalysts for development. Therefore, strengthening our system so that Malawi’s education disparities are narrowed is so RELEVANT for sustainable development not only for change in the present but for the generations following behind us!
What would it look like for all youth in Malawi to have equal and QUALITY education (because by no means should equality mean compromising quality – that would just defeat the purpose)? I think its about time at national and community level that we need to start to demand and prepare for it (the weakness with the 1994 FPE policy was not the lack of demand but the lack of preparation to meet the demand). But more than just asking ourselves what would it look like, I think the more important question is what would it take?
