Executive summary
The Malawi 2063 agenda underscores the need to equip youth with relevant competencies for labor market participation, entrepreneurship, and national development (Government of Malawi 2020). However, despite significant policy commitments toward developing a workforce equipped with a breadth of relevant skills, Malawi faces significant demographic and systemic challenges (National Statistical Office 2020). This study presents an initial broad inquiry into the extent to which the Malawian education system creates opportunities for secondary school youth (forms 1-4) to acquire a breadth of skills as articulated in the 2015 Secondary School Curriculum and Assessment Framework under the Malawi 2063 vision.
The study employed a mixed-methods research design, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches to assess the extent to which Malawi’s secondary education system and policy frameworks enable youth to develop a broad range of relevant skills. Data were collected from 20 schools of diverse types across six education districts, engaging educators, policymakers, parents, and students.
Despite strong policy ambition under Malawi 2063, findings illustrate a persistent gap between policy and practice in secondary education. This gap is driven by misalignment on the purpose of education, with a continued emphasis on examinations over skills development, and limited integration of career guidance and school-to-work pathways. At the classroom level, pedagogical practices and assessment systems remain largely content-driven, while teachers lack the training and ongoing support needed to deliver skills-based learning. System-wide, weak coordination across government and partners, coupled with donor fragmentation, undermines coherence in reform efforts. These challenges are reinforced by highly centralized decisionmaking structures and weak feedback loops, which limit the system’s ability to adapt and learn from implementation realities.
Closing this gap requires a shift toward a more coherent and responsive system delivery. This report provides four recommendations for local policymakers. First, the government should clarify and operationalize the purpose of secondary education, including strengthening career guidance and aligning curriculum implementation with skills outcomes. Second, priority should be given to aligning pedagogy and assessment with skills development, supported by sustained investment in teachers’ professional development and mid-level system support. Third, improving coordination and alignment across government and partners, particularly in relation to donor-supported initiatives, will be critical to reduce fragmentation. Finally, establishing stronger feedback loops and increasing subnational capacity will enable more responsive decisionmaking and more effective implementation at the school level.
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Acknowledgements and disclosures
The Creative Centre for Community Mobilization (CRECCOM) extends its sincere gratitude to the Ministries of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), Labor, Youth, Tourism, Mining, Gender, Community Development, and Social Welfare for their invaluable support. We are especially grateful to the officials from these ministries who generously shared their time and insights and provided rich data that informed this report. We also wish to thank the head teachers, teachers, students, parent-teacher associations, and community members from the 18 schools sampled for warmly welcoming us into their environments and offering essential perspectives that made this study possible.
Our appreciation goes to the dedicated team of data collectors and transcribers for their commitment and excellent work. This study was also made possible with the approval and guidance of the National Committee on Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities, whose feedback helped us refine and strengthen our research approach. We also acknowledge with gratitude the continued encouragement and logistical support from CRECCOM management and staff throughout this research journey.
We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of our peer reviewers, Madalo Samati, Echidna Global Scholar alumna of the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution, and Lydia Wilbard, Echidna Global Scholar alumna from CUE at the Brookings Institution, whose detailed feedback strengthened the conceptual clarity and methodological rigor of this report. Additionally, we extend our thanks to Emily Gustafsson-Wright, senior fellow at CUE at the Brookings Institution, for editorial guidance and support during the review process. We thank Claudia Hui and Yamira Patterson for their contributions during their tenure at CUE.
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