[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Day in the Life

My family

I'm Ivy Thupi and I'm 13 years old, my father is a tailor and my mother is not employed. We are nine children in our family. The first-born is in training to be in the police and the second is working.

Ivy Thupi

My school

I like it here at Chigoti because we sit on benches whereas at my previous school I sat on the earth floor.

We also have more chores to do in this school. When we arrive in the morning we sweep the grounds, mop the toilets and then wait for assembly time.

Ivy Thipi

Gender issues

Another thing that is different at this school is that here we learn about gender. It is not only the girls who must draw water for the toilets and water for drinking. The boys must do it too.

The weakness of the school is that there are not enough classrooms. This effects us because we sometimes have to have classes outside.

Drawing water for the toilets

What's Education like in Malawi?

Length of school day at standard 1	3.5 hours
Number of days in school year	185
Average class size in first year of school	108
Number of subjects in curriculum in standard	1 10
Number of students who finish up to standard	8.25%
Boy/girl ratio in population	49:51
Boy/girl ratio in school standard	1 49.7:50.3
Pupil / teacher ratio	64:1
Number of primary schools	4652
Number of teachers	47,825
% of qualified teachers	51%

Country Facts

The third largest lake in Africa is Lake Malawi. It is known as the Calendar lake because it 365 miles long and 52 miles wide. In 1994 Malawi became the first African country to declare than education should be free for all children. One major export from Malawi is Tobacco - most farmers who have small plots of land grow it as a cash crop.

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