Teacher Development Unit
SAIDE

Context:
While collecting information for this global distance education network, SAIDE held several interviews with organisations in Southern African countries. Impressions of each country were generated to give some introduction to distance education and technology use in the area. Each interview has also been written up separately as a case study.

Source:
SAIDE country visits conducted in 1999

Copyright:
Permission granted

Interview with Mr. J. Mitengo - 16 July 1999

Teacher Development Unit

Background to the Project

When the Malawian government decided to introduce free primary education on 29 September 1994, an immediate shortage of primary school teachers was experienced. Primary school enrolment shot up from 1.9 million pupils in 1994 to 2.9 million pupils in 1996 and reached 3.2 million in 1998. In addition, the conversion of Distance Education Centres (DECs) into Community Day Secondary Schools meant that more secondary school teachers were urgently required, and many primary schools teachers were therefore seconded to secondary schools. To alleviate the shortage of primary school teachers, government recruited 22 000 untrained teachers to teach at primary schools. Most of these teachers had only completed their Junior Certificate examination and only a few had passed their Malawi School Certificate of Education.

In the beginning of 1997, more than half of Malawi’s 50 000 primary school teachers was untrained. MIITEP (Malawi Integrated Inservice Teacher Education Programme) was established in February 1996 to increase the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools in Malawi, and to enhance the knowledge and skills of previously untrained primary school teachers. The Programme was launched on 6 January 1997.

The programme is offered free of charge. After successful completion of the programme, teachers obtain the Primary Teacher Education Certificate. The duration of the programme is two years, and the student study hours is estimated to be 1 170.

On recruitment, the 22 000 untrained teachers were sent on a two-week training course at various teacher training colleges. The Teacher Development Unit of the Ministry of Education organized this orientation and training programme.

During the first two-week training period, college tutors trained teachers in basic teaching skills. After completion of this initial training, teachers were sent back to schools to start teaching.

The MIITEP training programme is based on an inservice training model. It consists of three parts:

• Residential face-to-face component: a cohort of 3000 students at a time is sent back to the colleges for three month of intense and rigorous training by college tutors;
• Self-study: Once this three-month training period had been completed, teachers return to schools where they commence with the second part of the training programme, which comprises of self-instructional, print-based materials.
• Group work, peer support and tutorials: Some parts of the materials are to be studied in groups and through seminar work. Teachers study the materials before going to a teacher development centre in their district, where they are assisted by a Primary Education Advisor through means of seminars and workshops.

Course materials are developed by the Malawi Institute of Education. The MIE contracts staff from the teacher training colleges to write the materials. The World Bank funds the materials development and the German funding agency GTZ provides technical assistance in materials development. So far, five teacher’s manuals have been developed.

Support for teachers are built in to the programme in two ways. First, teachers are being assisted by head teachers and senior school staff, in what is regarded to be an informal mentorship programme. Second, the Primary Education Advisors meet regularly with teachers at the teacher development centres, where they support teachers with both questions on the practical implementation of the theoretical knowledge and problems teachers have experienced with the course materials itself.

Currently, self-instructional print materials is the main form of delivery. It is, however, envisaged that radio broadcasts may be incorporated in the near future to supplement the texts.

By July 1999, five cohorts of 3000 teachers had commenced with the training and one cohort of 3000 teachers had already completed the training and was awaiting their results. The next intake is planned for September. The programme will be revised once the training of the 22 000 teachers had been completed. It is, however, envisaged that 3 000 new teachers would have to be recruited each year to be able to meet the demand for primary teachers. Against this background, it is planned that the same model will be used to train these recruits. They will go through the two-week Primary Teaching Skills course, before commencing with the formal training comprising of a residential component, self-study and group work.