THE CIVIL SOCIETY EDUCATION COALITION’S PRESS STATEMENT ON THE 2022/2023 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES SELECTION RESULTS
Issued this 19th day of July, 2023.
The Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) wishes to provide feedback to the 2022/2023 Public Universities Selection results as released by the Ministry of Education on the 18th July, 2028. We note from the press release that a total of 19,760 applications were received by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) of whom 18,471 were eligible. From this number, 46.3% which represents a total of 8,552 (5,106 male and 3,446 female) were selected. This further represents a gender parity of 59.7% male and 40.3% female.
We wish to commend NCHE for the successful online application system despite some challenges that were registered at the beginning of this reform. We believe that lessons learnt in the course of implementing the online reform will help to strengthen the system and make it more user-friendly to the potential applicants.
However, although the current selection represents a 14.6% increase from the last year’s figure of 7.473 students, we sadly note that the public university intake is still low to guarantee the right to education for the young people. As it stands now, 9,190 eligible students have been left out. This is particularly a dream shuttered for students from poor backgrounds who cannot afford alternative modes of education such as parallel enrolment or private universities.
CSEC is alive to the fact that only 19% of secondary school going age students access secondary education. The 2022 enrolment rate in secondary education as a per centage of primary education is only 9% (4, 943, 633 being enrolment of primary education against secondary education enrolment of 441, 102). This trend is counterproductive to the development of human capital which in turn contributes towards the achievement of the aspirations of the Malawi 2063. Fundamentally, transforming education means making the changes necessary to ensure that it meets its mission for today and the future. Therefore, our education system must meaningfully respond to the prevailing crisis that is beset by inequalities and struggling to adjust to the needs of the 21st century. Therefore, we call upon Government to increase funding to Universities as well as universities to be vigilant in resource mobilization so as to expand access.
Further, CSEC firmly holds the belief that a healthy and educated nation leads to increased productivity, better income distribution and a generally improved standard of living, reducing infant mortality and population growth as well as improving nutrition and health. It is in this context that we call upon NCHE to ensure that more SNE students are selected into the public universities. Our call is founded on the understanding that only 112 SNE students (71 males and 41 females) have been enrolled in public universities (Education Statistics Report, 2022). This calls for bold decisions by government to guarantee their right to education. It is evident that the situation that SNE students find themselves in requires reasonable accommodation and steady resolve to embrace the marginalised groups. Similarly, there is need pay particular attention to inequalities that exist in the selection of students from CDSS, private and conventional secondary schools. We therefore recommend that such data should be contained in the public universities selection press release to foster transparency and accountability.
In order to address the foregoing predicament, government must investment in infrastructural expansion of the already existing institutions while at the same time building newly fledged universities. CSEC holds the view that expansion of the existing institutions would be cost effective and easy to operationalize. There is also need to promote public-private partnerships to accelerate progress on complementary services such as accommodation and catering. Whilst promoting private sector involvement, there is need to better regulate the partnerships to protect the students from potential economic abuse, especially those from marginalised backgrounds.
In conclusion, CSEC remains committed to working with government and its agencies to pursue an inclusive education in Malawi in all subsectors of education. This is only attainable through coordination, partnerships and collective responsibility. Meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders including the private sector remains the hallmark of real education transformation in Malawi.
