School in Malawi

School in Malawi is very different from school in Switzerland. As I have mentioned before, secondary school is not free in Malawi, and many Malawians don’t attend because their parents can’t afford it. As a result of this, the students are eager to learn and are very respectful towards the teacher. They don’t mind if the lesson takes 5 -10 minutes longer, or even if we have a lesson at a time where they would have self-study. That’s another thing: the students have so called self-study lessons where they sit in the classroom without a teacher working on homework and studying. This includes two hours in the evening (from 6-8 p.m.) and usually one lessons a day. On top of that, teachers sometimes just give the students something to work on, on their own during regular lessons, and then they go do something else (like checking football results, topping up their phone, etc.). And this actually works quite well: The students work on the assignment they were given and don’t goof off (at least not as much as they would in Switzerland). One of the reasons for the students discipline is that being brilliant at school is often the only way out of poverty. Their parents are paying a lot for school so most of them are also pressured by their parents to do well in school.

Another thing that is very different from the Swiss system is that none of the teachers at the school actually wanted to become a teacher. When you apply for University in Malawi, you can note your first, second and third choice of what you want to study. Then, however, the government gives you a spot at university according to your grades. You can either choose to accept that spot, or not go to university and this spot will be given to someone else. Usually, people will take the choice they are given, as it is very difficult to turn a university spot down, because of a lack of other possibilities.

The teaching is also very different from Switzerland. The students don’t have any textbooks, only the teacher has one. Much time is lost by writing exercises on the black board and the students copying them. As homework, you can give them a book with an exercise and they will copy them – one after the other – into their booklets. When they are done, they bring you the book back.

Starting next week I will also teach sports every day: touch rugby, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, netball (a sport that is mainly intended for girls), and football (soccer).