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Malawi
For many years the school-going population of Malawi has been affected by child-labour. A current estimate is that perhaps 250,000 children (between the ages of 6 and 16) are involved – a figure which is dramatically increasing owing to the impact of AIDS, growing poverty and inadequate food.
In urban areas, particularly the two major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe,
employment as domestic servants is engaging more and more young girls.
Their remuneration is minimal and prostitution is an increasingly common
alternative. Indeed, the local business community features in weekly newspaper
"cartoons" over this notorious activity, carried out (apparently)
in the belief that young girls are risk-free sexual partners. As for boys,
they flood into the towns as street-vendors: today in Zomba three have
been shot dead in a battle with the police. They can be seen loading and
offloading trucks, frequently shifting weights that are far too heavy,
and thus incurring injuries which may last a lifetime.
In the rural areas, available manpower is being eroded by malnutrition and disease, with statistics of (for example) TB and cholera seemingly ever on the increase. [Against this should be set Malawi’s very impressive record for child immunisation, one of the best in Africa.] But “underage” workers can still be found on tea or tobacco estates, while the many who are subsistence farmers of necessity use as many family members as possible in their fields, alongside more domestic duties. By Lake Malawi, boys often prefer to fish than to attend school – a not unnatural inclination! – but actually the only option at times for sheer survival, especially for the growing number of orphans (now approaching 1 million).
While free primary education is in theory provided across the country, the reality is that only a proportion carry on as far as standard 8. Even fewer attend secondary school where fees range from 1000 kwacha ($12) per term for day schools, to perhaps $70 for those who board. The latter is good value for money, but few can afford it. Poverty precludes many from even thinking about such further studies, while the high incidence of AIDS related deaths among teachers means that the number actually available to be in schools is dropping far faster than those in training can replace them.
Malawi sometimes suffers a variable climate, with droughts or floods impacting in the growing season; But the efforts of many, including the churches, to promote development, life-skills and sustainable agriculture are too often thwarted by corruption within the government or civil service. "Ghost" teachers are found on pay rolls, and considerable sums have been paid over for the construction of non-existent schools. Ministerial travel and parliamentary expense accounts still run at unaffordable levels of luxury, making the gap between rich and poor in Malawi as high as anywhere in the world.
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