Malawi University education below par –study reveals
The latest survey has ranked the University of Malawi at position 99 out of 100 universities in Africa.
According to a story monitored on Radio Islam written by senior reporter Abdul Aziz Onile positions number one up to ten have been dominated by South African Universities with University of Cape Town topping the list seconded by University of Pretoria.
A scientific journal known as Africa and Science, a weekly online publication that has published the findings on its website www.africa-and-science.comsays the criteria used, were among other areas, basing on the quality of teaching, number of full professors, students’ welfare and the prizes awarded to researchers.
In his reaction executive director for Civil Society Coalition on QualityEducation Benedicto Kondowe said he is not surprised with the study’s findings as this is a clear testimony on the poor performance of the country’s tertiary institutions.
“Our institutions have inadequate infrastructure. Our Libraries are poorly stocked and in fact most of the books are outdated. Our IT sector is also under development as the computers that are provided are old and unable to respond to the current demand,” says Kondowe.
He adds that “the funding to our tertiary is very low and in fact is amongst the lowest in Africa. The welfare of lectures and supporting staff is also quite low that’s why our performance in Africa is low”.
Kondowe further said that the implications of this is that those who would want to pursue in post graduate studies in other countries would have difficulties to access places especially when the standards of their education are questionable.
He also said there is need to stop politicizing tertiary education in Malawi as well as promoting independence of institutions of high learning.
“It is only through independence that we can promote the credibility but also intellectual capability that these institution want to provide to the nation so that they produce quality human capital”, said Kondowe.
