Malawi Education Sector Improvement Programme (MESIP), components 3.2 and 3.3

The Malawi Education Sector Improvement Project (MESIP), funded through the Global Partnership for Education, aims to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of primary education. One of its five objectives is to improve learning outcomes, accountability, and cost-effectiveness at school level, within which, CGA led two subcomponents:

• Subcomponent 3.2: School data collection and usage - covering 1200 primary schools or 21% of the total primary schools in Malawi, implemented in the 34 Education districts;
• Subcomponent 3.3: Improving community involvement in schools, especially targeting retention of teenage girls - covering 150 school communities across 8 districts’

Under the project, we developed a tablet-based app for zonal EMIS officers to monitor pupil and teacher enrolment, attendance and use of time, with automated reports to local and national government. For 3.3. we developed a two-way voice and SMS platform to enable the Ministry to communicate with and receive messages from community members on issues affecting education service delivery in their area.

Output

The project has assisted the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to monitor the attendance of both teachers and students and the distribution of teachers to enable allocation of resources based on accurate data. Further, the Ministry and communities can now communicate via SMS and voice messaging, which is expected to result in improved community involvement in the learning activities of their children and greater school accountability.