“Good Practice to Improve Education” at Secondary School in Malawi: Focus on the Teachers’ Perspectives on Educational Problems and Views of Educational Values

This paper analyzed the field research resulted in “Good practice to improve secondary school” in Malawi. We conducted the field research at five secondary schools and asked teachers about their good implementations in the school. There are mainly 3 good implementations, which we exacted from field research’s results. First one is about utilizing PTA budged to improve quality of teaching. It is clear that some schools utilize the PTA budged for teachers who had good performance on quality of teaching, mainly based on students’ results on examination. The teachers are really encouraged to have reward and honored. Second one is about mutual aid activities. All of the target schools prepare common baskets for poor students. The target schools collected some stationaries and small money from the students, the teachers and community people and shared these things for students with tough conditions of learning. Last one is about fostering competitive culture in school. Most schools introduced the system, which is that high-performance students have priorities to have scholarships and good beds in their dormitory. The system encouraged them to compete to study among students. In the perspectives of pedagogy and long term, these good implementations could be recognized as bad practice. However, teachers utilize limited resources to improve quality of education as much as they can.本研究は科学研究費補助金（平成25－28年度　基盤研究B（一般））「途上国の前期中等教育における学校改善実践に関する国際比較研究」（研究代表者：吉田和浩）の成果の一部である

Exploring the Processes and Outputs of School Grants : The Case for Direct Support to Schools in Malawi <Special Issue : Study results of the Africa-Asia university dialogue for educational development network second phase>

In a growing number of countries of the developing world, there has been a shift in policy from fee paying to fee free education for the basic education level of schooling. This has necessitated the introduction of grants directly to schools to mitigate delays in procurement of goods and services by centralized education management systems. In Malawi Direct Support to Schools (DSS) was introduced in 2006 to enable schools purchase teaching and learning materials and perform small scale maintenance and rehabilitation. The research reported in this paper analyzed the processes and outcomes of DSS in the schools. The aim was to explore the mechanisms for grant administration, the challenges encountered and the impact of the grant on quality of education and grassroots participation in school management so as to inform the Primary School Improvement Plan (PSIP) grant which is to replace DSS. The findings of the study have shown that the mechanisms for grant administration are participatory and therefore conducive to accountability. The grant has helped improve education quality through ensuring that teaching and learning materials are available; improving the learning environment; increasing local participation in school management; increasing the financial management skills of head teachers and SMC; and improving parental attitudes to schooling. However the impact of the grant has been negatively affected by criteria for allocation, grant amount and delays in its disbursement

Developing Relevant Environmental Education in a Rural Community in Malawi

This article highlights how school science pedagogy can be reconceptualized to infuse environmental problem solving and social transformation into a rural community in Malawi. Historically, the environmental education curriculum in the country is teacher-driven and theoretically-oriented, thus offering limited references to the local communities. Through participatory action research, the science teaching and learning practices were reconceptualized to address local environmental challenges. In the process, learners became active agents in the local community to understand and address environmental challenges. By prioritizing environmental issues and concerns within the community through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools, the learners facilitated their own learning activities and developed class-community action plans. The ability to take action towards reforestation was empowering to both the students and community members, as the collaborative project demonstrated a community’s ability to identify issues of concern, take action, and work towards the resolution of the issue to improve their environment