Seventeen-year-old Eric Mkandawire from Maula Community Day Secondary School in Nkhata Bay District has dropped chemistry as he prepares for this year’s Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.
His decision is not a reflection on his teachers’ abilities but, rather, a consequence of resource constraints that make practical learning impossible at the school.
“Science subjects are best understood with practice. We do not have a laboratory here, so it’s really difficult to rely solely on theory. I’ll sit physics examinations instead; it’s enough, and I don’t want to carry a heavy burden, which is why I dropped chemistry,” Mkandawire said.
Ironically, Mkandawire aspires to become an engineer.
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In his class of 38 students, only nine will sit physics examinations, and seven will sit chemistry examinations. This means 74 percent and 82 percent have opted out of these subjects, respectively.
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Unlike Mkandawire, classmate Gift Mgabu Phiri, 17, plans to sit examinations in all science subjects— physics, chemistry and biology—but is sceptical.
He says they only conduct practical lessons for the science subjects when examinations are on the edge.
“We only learn when examinations are around the corner, mostly once a term,” Phiri lamented.
“This feels like preparing to fail because candidates at other schools do experiments regularly.”
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Deputy headteacher for the school, Austin Simfukwe, acknowledged the challenges.
Simfukwe said they currently do not have a science laboratory and sourcing apparatus and chemicals for experiments remains a persistent challenge.
“We used to have a mobile laboratory but it broke down many years ago. We had apparatus and chemicals, some of which expired and we cannot replace them,” he said.
The storeroom where the remains of the apparatus are being kept is dingy and tiny. It has cracks, termites are landlords and the remaining tools are damaged and dusty.
The situation is clearly different at Mzuzu Government Secondary School, which has a considerable stock in all its laboratories; items for biology, physics, chemistry and computer lessons and experiments.
Fazila Manduwa, a student at Mzuzu Government Secondary School, said access to well-equipped laboratories makes her learning experience, particularly for science subjects, manageable.
“When we learn in class and then conduct experiments in the laboratory, it becomes very easy for us to remember what we learned even in examinations,” she said.
One of the science teachers at the school Lilian Chisi said one the subjects that students are doing well in are science related.
“We make it a point that at least in every topic a teacher does one or two experiments; it is flexible. This is important for the learners because they relate. For example, we have 176 students who are taking chemistry and all are doing well,” she said.
Despite the visible disparity between government schools such as Maula and Mzuzu Government, candidates sit the same national examinations.
According to Ministry of Education statistics, only 765 laboratories exist across 1,350 secondary schools, leaving many students like those at Maula at a disadvantage.
With the secondary education sector receiving an average of 15 percent of the total education budget, constructing new laboratories remains a distant goal.
The challenge stains Malawi’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4—which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education for all.
But in 2022, a team of six researchers and programmers from Mzuzu University (Mzuni)’s department of ICT developed a groundbreaking innovation—MiLab application, a virtual science laboratory.
This is an application that provides educators and students with interactive simulations of laboratory experiments for secondary schools.
Stanley Ndebvu, one of the developers, explained that MiLab provides interactive simulations for secondary school experiments, offering a flexible and resource-efficient learning tool.
Ndebvu said they have, so far, developed 10 modules; five for chemistry and five for physics.
He said with the virtual laboratory, a student can conduct experiments at any time and there is no loss of laboratory consumables.
“There are also some experiments that are very dangerous to conduct but with MiLab they are doable. The advantages are numerous and, to sum it up, this app is bridging the resource divide that is there between urban and rural schools,” he said.
Mzuzu University Vice Chancellor Wales Singini said the institution has capacity to expand MiLab across all Stem subjects, including biology, agriculture and mathematics.
“It is exciting to note that the ministry has rolled out MiLab Application to 72 public schools, which entails how powerful our innovation is. So, our team is eager to upscale. What we really need now is financing, this financing cannot be equated to building a physical laboratory. Finances for ours will obviously be on the lower side. So, the finances will help our team of developers to increase the number of modules including testing and validating the results,” he said.
However, the two subjects do not encompass all the modules. For example, physics has 87 modules but only five were taken on board.
Currently, the Ministry of Education says it has allocated K36 million to increase the number of modules by 20.
Minister of Education Responsible for Basic and Secondary Education Madalitso Kambauwa- Wirima acknowledged the need for more resources to seal the existing disparities among public secondary schools.
“We have a lot of schools that are underserved and we really need the application. It’s a good thing that this is also coming at a time when budget consultations are underway. We will take it to the Ministry of Finance because I cannot overemphasise the need for MiLab to be taken to every school in the country,” she said.
