PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT: AN ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE PROVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN MALAWI

Abstract

This study was done in the South Eastern Education Division and it aimed at assessing community participation in the provision of secondary education in Malawi by examining community involvement in the operations of distance education centres (DECs) and community day secondary schools (CDSS). The following specific objectives guided the study: To investigate the Ministry’s and the people’s understanding of the concept of CDSS; To identify the source of the initiative to establish DECs in the areas; ~ To characterize the nature of community participation in the establishment of the DECs; To determine the level of community participation in the management of the DECs; To investigate changes, if any, in community participation brought in by the change in status from DECs to CDSSs. The study employed qualitative methods for data collection through key-informant-interviews with school personnel and community members, and focus group discussions with students and community members; and observing the situation that prevailed in the schools visited. Six schools were purposively selected due to their location, to represent the rural and urban / semi-urban factors and their accessibility by car. The District Managers in the districts where the schools were located and officials from the Ministry Headquarters and the Malawi College of Distance Education were also interviewed. The major findings of this study were that the concept of CDSS was fully understood by officials from the Ministry of Education Headquarters but as we moved down the hierarchy of education offices the concept was not as fully articulated since the different levels emphasized different aspects of the concept according to the functions of their offices. The concept became more and more diluted as we moved down to the communities until in some groups it was not known at all. It was established that DECs were established through community initiatives and communities were involved in infrastructure development and their running through school committees. However, the way the DECs were run varied from centre to centre as there seemed to be no supervision from education authorities after their establishment. The conversion of DECS to CDSSs brought major changes in community participation in the activities of CDSSs. The major areas in which the communities participated were taken over by government as entry to CDSS was by government selection and all the fees paid by pupils went to government, depriving school committees of funds to carry out development projects. The conclusion reached by this study was that community participation had played a major role in the provision of secondary education in Malawi. However, the participation ranged between non participation and token participation. There was no deliberate effort by government to empower communities to achieve genuine participation which would make communities partners with government in decision making, hence the change from DEC to CDSS without proper consultation with communities and this brought in problems of community participation in CDSS.