One of the goals of the Government of Malawi is to ensure that all primary school learners have equal access to adequate and safe learning spaces. To support this objective, the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (IPOR) partnered with Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) and the World Bank, with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), to conduct an independent school survey called the Malawi Longitudinal Schools Survey (MLSS).
As part of the preparatory activities, IPOR conducted a pretest of the survey tool, trained enumerators, as well as carried out a pilot to ensure that we uncover potential issues in the research design or methodology, such as unclear instructions, logistical challenges, or unforeseen variables.
Field Manager for the Project, Edson Ntodwa, said the team did not experience any huge hiccups during the pretest. He attributed this to the fact that school officials at Sagawa school in Mulanje, where the exercise was carried out, warmly welcomed and assisted the team in collecting data without any challenges.
Ntodwa added: “We are happy to report that we were able to administer almost all of the tools successfully, with the exception of a few students who have dropped out of school and no longer reside in nearby communities.”
the study, IPOR will interview respondents from 85 schools in Mzimba, Chikwawa
and Kasungu Districts.
IPOR’s Director of Training and Programmes,
Dr. Michael Chasukwa, says IPOR believes that providing development grants to
rural communities is a powerful catalyst for sustainable improvement in quality
of life. Dr. Chasukwa made the remarks at Chikala Primary School in Zomba
during a symbolic cheque presentation to best-performing community-based
organizations that took part in small community grants competition that IPOR organized.
IPOR, through the Metaketa V project, gave out
grants worth MK15 million shared equally among ten community-based
organizations. These qualified out of the 2,500 groups that applied for the grants
in Zomba and Mzimba districts. The aim of these grants was to help communities
to identify pressing needs that require urgent attention thereby fostering a
sense of ownership of the interventions and collective action effort.
“Communities, when supported correctly, can
contribute significantly to the attainment of the Malawi 2063 agenda (MW2063).
The MW2063 agenda aims to transform Malawi into a wealthy, industrialized, and
middle-income nation by the year 2063, with a focus on three key pillars: agricultural
productivity and commercialization, industrialization, and urbanization. We
therefore received proposals that aligned perfectly with the country’s broader
goals of sustainable development and social progress,” said Dr. Chasukwa.
Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Zomba
District Council, Davi Sato, applauded IPOR for the support though the Metaketa
V programme for complementing the Council’s development efforts. He observed
that support of this nature lessens the financial burden that the Council faces
in fulfilling its development agenda.
He commended IPOR’s competitive approach to
providing support to local communities because it ensures that funds are
allocated to projects that offer the greatest potential benefits. This
maximizes resource utilization, collaboration, and guarantees equal
participation, which are essential for transformative and sustainable