Global Leadership Training Programme in Africa 20192014
Activity Report of Field Research
The Circumstances Around Female Teachers, their Perception and Practice of Girls’
Education: A Case of Secondary School Teachers in Malawi
1

Misaki Sato

1. Summary
Towards the achievement of SDG4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education andpromote lifelong learning opportunities for all”1 by 2030, further efforts will be required in various
aspects of the education sector all over the world. In terms of equity, it is still important to consider
gender equality after many attempts have been done to approach inequality for decades. However,according to the “Global education monitoring report 2019: gender report” issued by UNESCO2, subSaharan Africa remains far from gender equality at all education levels.
Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world that is located in south-east sub-Saharan Africa,
introduced free primary education in 1994, which resulted in gender equality in the qualitative aspect. On
a secondary level, the enrollment rate is also almost 50:50 because of the standardization policy that the
government implemented. However, there are still challenges for girls such as a large number of dropouts
due to poverty, pregnancy or marriage, and low academic achievement compared to boys. Also, there is acustom generally called Fisi mainly in the Southern regions, where girls join the camp to prepare for
adulthood after their first menstruation and sleep with a man to practice sexual intercourse. This custom
increases the risk of getting pregnant or HIV/AIDS, and eventually dropping out.
For the supportive environment for girls’ education, UNESCO indicates the essential roles offemale teachers3. However, lack of female secondary school teachers has been an issue in Malawi, andmoreover, this shortage is concentrated in rural areas. The rate of the rural population in Malawi wasreported to be 83.063% in 2018 (World Bank, 2018)4, which means most girls have very few chances tomeet female teachers as their supporters. The government demands more women to be trained as teachers
and be deployed in rural areas to support girls; however, there are very few researches about female
teachers, especially in terms of the surrounding of them, how they perceive the teaching job and girls’
education, and how they support them. Therefore, this study will try to examine female secondary school
teachers’ circumstances, their perception, and the practices of girls’ education in Malawi.
This field research was done with the support from GLTP for the purpose of collecting qualitative
data and deeply understanding the lives of local people. Female teachers worked hard to overcome somedifficulties and understand the importance of education, have beliefs in girls’ education and tackle theissues that hinder it. However, there seems to be some contradictions or negative impact among theirpractice. Therefore, how much the role modeling by female teachers is working is controversial. Further
consideration of how to untie the chain of the challenges that girls face will be required.

1

University of Tsukuba, Master of Arts in Education (International Education), University of Malawi, 30/01/2020-23/03/20201

女性教員の実情と女子教育に対する認識・実践―マラウイの中等学校教員を事例に
佐藤美咲
2030 年までの持続可能な開発目標４「すべての人に包摂的かつ公平で質の高い教育を提供し、生涯教育の機会を促進する」の達成に向け、世界の教育セクターの様々な面での更なる努力が求められている。「公平性」の観点では、不平等を是正しようと多くの試みがなされてきたものの、引き続きジェンダー平等に関して考慮していく必要がある。初等教育における男女間格差は解消に向かっているが、未だその他の教育段階での男女間格差は存在し、特にサブサハラアフリカではすべての教育段階でジェン
ダー平等には程遠い現状である (UNESCO, 2019, “Global education monitoring report 2019: genderreport”)。
サブサハラアフリカ東南部に位置する、世界最貧国の一つマラウイでは、1994 年に初等教育を無償化
し、量的側面での男女間格差は改善された。中等教育においても、男女の就学率を 50:50 にするという標準化政策が実施され、就学時における顕著な男女間格差はない。しかし、女子の貧困・妊娠・結婚による中退率の高さや、男子と比べた学力到達度の低さなどが問題となっている。また、生理を迎えた女子が大人になるための準備をするキャンプに参加し、雇われた男性と性行為を行う、一般的に Fisi と呼ばれる慣習が南部を中心に存在する。この慣習は早期妊娠や HIV・AIDS の感染率を高めるリスクがあり、最終的に退学に繋がってしまうという現状があるといわれている。
女子の教育に対する支援として、UNESCO は女性教員が重要な役割を果たすと述べている。しかしながら、マラウイでは中等女性教員の不足が問題となっており、特に農村部の中等学校では女性教員が数人のみ、もしくは一人もいないなど、深刻である。世界銀行の 2018 年のデータによると、マラウイでは

83.063%の人々が農村部で暮らしているため、ほとんどの女子はサポーターとしての女性教員からの支援を受ける機会を得られないということになる。マラウイ政府も女性を教員として多く雇用し、農村部に配置する政策を打ち出している。しかし、未だ女性教員を取り巻く環境や、教職や女子教育に対する認識や実践に関する研究は少ない。
そのため、この研究ではマラウイの中等女性教員の実情と女子教育における認識・実践を調査する。
また、GLTP の支援を受けた今回の実地調査は、質的データ収集と現地の人々の暮らしを理解する目的で行った。現時点での調査結果としては、女性教員は数々の困難を乗り越えて教員になり、教育の重要性を理解し、女子教育への信念をもって実践を行っているようだった。しかしながら、彼女たちの実践の中にはいくつかの矛盾や困難があるように見受けられた。そのため、どの程度彼女たちのロールモデルとしての役目が機能しているのかは議論の余地がある。また、女子の直面する困難の鎖を断ち切る方法
への更なる考慮が必要であろう。

2

2. Research Activity(1) Introductiona) Background of this study and the Problem Statement

Towards the achievement of SDG4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 20301, further efforts will be required in various aspects of theeducation sector all over the world. In terms of equity, it is still important to consider gender equality after
many attempts have been done to approach the inequality for decades. Equality in primary education
between boys and girls has been improved, but there are still more tasks for other levels of education.
According to “Global education monitoring report 2019: gender report” issued by UNESCO2, sub-SaharanAfrica remains far from gender equality at all education levels.
Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world that is located in south-east sub-Saharan Africa,
introduced free primary education in 1994, which resulted in gender equality in the qualitative aspect. The
enrollment rate is also almost 50:50 because of the standardization policy that the government
implemented (MoEST, 2014, p. 94)3. However, there are still challenges for girls such as the large
number of dropouts, and the low academic achievement compared to boys.
Chart 1. Drop-out by Reasons and Sex (cited from MoEST, 2017, p. 67)4

In 2016/17, 10520 girls (5.9%) (7522 boys, 3.8%) dropped out of secondary school (MoEST, 2017)4. The
top three reasons for girls’ dropout were poverty (unable to pay school fee), pregnancy, and marriage, andthe second and the third reasons accounted for 41% of all female dropouts. Early marriage rate is 42%
and early pregnancy rate is 29% in Malawi (The Global Education Monitoring Report team, 2019)2,
which are considerably high among the sub-Saharan countries.

3Chart 2. The pass rate for MSCE in 2019 (created by the author referring to MANEB, 2019)5

43%
girls
boys

56%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Also, for the pass rates of Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination which takes
place at the final year of secondary education, it was 56.46% for boys (28,884 out of 51,159) and 42.89%
for girls (17,887 out of 41,708) in 2019 (MANEB, 2019)5. Moreover, there is a custom generally called
Fisi mainly in the Southern regions, where girls join the camp to prepare for the adulthood after their first
menstruation and sleep with a man to practice sexual intercourse. This custom increases the risk of getting
pregnant or HIV/AIDS, and eventually dropping out.
For the supportive environment for girls’ education, UNESCO indicates the essential roles offemale teachers (UNESCO, 2006)6. However, lack of female secondary school teachers has been an issue
especially in Malawi, where the rate was 22.87% (3,292 out of 14,396) in 2018, while it was 44.03%(25,390 out of 75,697) for primary school teachers (UNESCO UIS, 2018)7. It was 10-20% lower thanother sub-Saharan African countries, moreover, this shortage is concentrated in rural areas. Many schools
in rural areas have few or no female teachers. The rate of the rural population in Malawi was reported to
be 83.063% in 2018 (World Bank, 2018)8, which means most girls have very few chances to meet female
teachers as their supporters. The government demands more women to be trained as teachers and be
deployed in rural areas to support girls; however, there are very few researches about female teachers,
especially in terms of the surrounding of them, how they perceive the teaching job and girls’ education,and how they support them. Therefore, this study will try to examine female secondary school teachers’
circumstances, their perception and practice of girls’ education in Malawi.
b) Research Purpose and Research Questions

R.Q. 1 How are the environment around female teachers and their perception for becoming a teacher?
1.1 What were their reasons to become a teacher?
1.2 How has the process been to work as a teacher?
1.3 What is their motivation to continue to work as a teacher?
1.4 What are the demotivating factors for female teachers?
R.Q.2 What are female teachers’ perception and practice of girls’ education?
2.1 What are the challenges for girls that female teachers perceive?
2.2 What do they practice to assist girls’ education?
2.3 Are these practices unique to female teachers?
2.4 What do they expect girls to be after secondary education?
4

(2) Study Area

Republic of Malawi-Eight secondary schools (plus one primary school in Lilongwe)-Urban areas: two schools in Lilongwe (the capital city)
one school in Blantyre (the commercial city)-Rural areas: four schools in Chikwawa (the South West Division)
one school in Nsanje (the South West Division)-Faculty of Education, University of Malawi in Zomba-Central West Education Division, Ministry of Education in Lilongwe(3) Methodologya) Methodology

1. Research on the previous literature and policy papers
2. Observation at local schools/communities
3. Interview
1. Semi-structured interviews with 19 female secondary school teachers
2. Semi-structured interviews with 3 female primary school teachers
3. Interview with a female professor at Faculty of Education, University of Malawi
4. Interview with 2 male secondary school teachers
5. Interview with a member of an NGO that tackles the issue of HIV/AIDS among adolescent girls

Picture 1: With female students

Picture 2: A biology class of a female teacher in Lilongwe

Picture 3: Students’ discussion and presentation5(4) Research Findings

Findings are shown below corresponding to each research question.
The findings are mainly coded from the interviews with a professor (Dr. Dorothy) and two female
teachers in Chikwawa, a rural area (Tama and Nana Smart).
R.Q. 1 How are the environment around female teachers and their perception for becoming a teacher?
1.1 What were their reasons to become a teacher?
Most of the teachers interviewed did not intend to teach initially. Therefore, their first impression toward
the teaching job was not necessarily positive. Most teachers mentioned the unavailability of the jobs
that they actually wanted. Some other teachers who initially intended to become a teacher mentioned
the influence of the existence of the role models. Also, some teachers mentioned the characteristics ofthe teaching job is attractive as result-oriented.
1.2 How has the process been to work as a teacher?
As a process that female teachers have traced, a teacher shared her experience in her first week in a ruralarea. As stated above, the shortage of female teachers is an issue in rural areas in Malawi, since most ofthem are reluctant to be deployed there due to lack of appropriate marriage partner, inconvenience or poor
working environment. Some female teachers even tell a lie that they have her husband in an urban area sothat they can avoid teaching in a rural area. However, despite the fact that they tend to avoid working inrural areas, she was quite satisfied with her work there because she thought it was the chance for her tomotivate somebody. She was admired by girls in terms of outfit during her first week. However, she has
seen some changes in their impression, and she is now seen as a future role model for girls as is expected
for female teachers. Although she had faced some difficulties such as students who tell her that they havenot been used to being taught by female teachers and especially her subject English which is mainly formale teachers, she overcame these difficulties to perform her mission, which is to impact as many
students as possible.
1.3 What is their motivation to continue to work as a teacher?
Their motivation varies. Many teachers mentioned the characteristics of the teaching job, such as theavailability of free-time. Many teachers in Malawi have a lot of free time in the afternoon (though there
are also some teachers who teach in open school). Some other teachers referred to personal experiences,
especially teaching experiences when they were young. Also, one teacher attributed to the objectives
that she set as a teacher, which is to impact as many students as possible. She is the one who had a rolemodel who inspired her to become a teacher.
1.4 What are the demotivating factors for female teachers?
Although they continue to teach because of the reasons above, there are some demotivating factors suchas low salary, lack of learning materials, poor working condition including disagreement with otherteachers (such as misunderstanding of the situation without regarding female teachers’ opinions), andsome sort of discrimination against female teachers.
R.Q.2 What are female teachers’ perception and practice of girls’ education?
2.1 What are the challenges for girls that female teachers perceive?

6

The female teachers recognize many challenges that girls face in secondary school: poverty, sexual
relationship, lack of long-term plans, laziness, low achievement, low self-esteem, lack of exposure, longdistance, household chores, bullying from boys. They get involved in an intricate web of these challenges.
Poverty
The main problem which most of the teachers mentioned was poverty. Many teachers explained therelationship between poverty and sexual relationships. Many girls get into a relationship with a man or aboy to get money for school fees and materials, households, or what they want such as fashion or makeup,
which lead to early pregnancy and dropout from school.
Lack of long-term plans
According to the impression of one teacher, over 50% of the girls cannot have long-term plans. This
teacher sees a negative impact of role-modeling. She has discussed with other teachers and discoveredthat many girls go into a relationship, which is easier to get what they want now than working hard on along-term perspective. That is opposite to what teachers have expected of the existence of the female
teachers as role models.
Laziness
A professor of the University of Malawi sees the contradiction of the situation of girls receiving a lot of
supports from the government, NGOs, and international organizations, but not achieving well. She
analyzes the causes of low achievement, and mentions their laziness as the factor to impact them morethan cultural factors that societies have previously emphasized marriage, that a woman gets married to arich man, and she doesn’t have to work hard.
2.2 What do they practice to assist girls’ education?
Under these vulnerable environments for girls above, female teachers offer a lot of assistance. The mostfrequent answer was mentoring, counseling, and guidance. A professor sometimes sees thecontradiction of what is required for them and the effect of female teachers’ behavior on girls because
they sometimes would rather be taught by male teachers who are more relaxed.
Financial issues
Teachers initiate some activities. One is holding a casual clothes day, where students pay 50 kwacha(about 7 yen in April 2020) for their casual clothes on a particular day. Others are asking parents whosechildren are on a bursary to help other students by sharing some money or raising funds through themother support group.
Sexual relationships
For example, the issues to do with the initiation ceremonies, we still have to talk with our girls
before they go there on their holidays. We tell them if you are going for holidays, this is what you
are supposed to be doing...make sure that you come back and see other students not as expectedmothers. (Tama, 27/02/2020)7

...the topics that I teach in life skills, there is also another one, HIV/AIDS, cultural practices thatfacilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS... We also talk about Fisi. (Nana Smart, 27/02/2020)
According to what is told by the teachers, the initiation ceremony is a tradition of the whole Malawi.
When girls start menstruation, they learn to prepare for adulthood. There are some styles: joining thecamp held by the community elders, going to a church, listening to a friend or sister of parents.
The first one is that the community tells them the expectations of the society as a woman, to be respectful
to their parents, how to be a good wife and how sexual intercourse is supposed to be done, do not go
about having sex with a male because they know that they are grown to get pregnant. The chief of thecommunities does it in the longest holiday in July or August, before the school terms start. One teacher(Tama) said that during that time, drums are beaten all over the area in Chikwawa to let people know thecamps are going on. In remote areas, there still remains the custom of Fisi in it. The girls have sexualintercourse with a man who is hired by the communities to cleanse them. It was common in the past;
however, in most other areas, that part has been removed since people have been enlightened thanks tosome organizations such as NGOs or international organizations telling them the risks of that practicesuch as early pregnancy or HIV/AIDS.
The second one is held at a church especially in towns or for some people in rural areas. They do not join
the traditional camp, but they go to a church camp to be passed the information, which has Christianvalues. The third one is done by a reliable friend or sister of parents, who teach girls instead of thembecause some things may not be comfortable talking with their daughter.
The researcher couldn’t meet the teachers who experienced the initiation ceremony. One teacher (Tama)
told me that her parents chose not to take her to the camp considering the sensitive contents that are going
to be told in the camp.
2.3 Are these practices unique to female teachers?
Many female teachers think that the roles of female teachers and male teachers are the same, but they are
different in terms of supporting girls’ education. For example, role modeling and counseling are usually
done by female teachers because of cultural reasons. However, some male teachers also assist them.
2.4 What do they expect girls to be after secondary education?
Teachers went through some difficulties to pursue education as girls by themselves. They believe in theimportance of education to change their lives. Thus, they have expectations for girls to be independentand strong enough to overcome adversity through education so that they can achieve their goals the sameas boys. Some teachers even stated their wish for girls to be contributors to national development.
(5) Discussion

Female teachers’ initial reasons they entered teaching profession differ from the ones who
intended to become a teacher to the ones who had no choice, but they worked hard to overcome somedifficulties and understand the importance of education, have beliefs in girls’ education and tackle theissues that hinder it. However, there seems to be some contradictions or challenges among their practice.
One is a possible negative impact of role modeling by female teachers, especially those who are young.

8

Their attractive outfit may distract some girls into lack of long-term plans, because they desire to get what
they want now, not waiting for the time they get employed and paid. Therefore, they get into a
relationship with males to be provided with their needs, which might lead to early pregnancy and dropout
from school. The other one is that female teachers worked hard and overcame some challenges to becomea teacher, and therefore they might tend to attribute girls’ low achievement to their laziness andsometimes being strict to them. Thus, even though female teachers encourage girls, some of them would
not listen and prefer to be taught by male teachers because they may be more accommodating. Therefore,
it is still controversial how much the role modeling by female teachers can work.
(6) Conclusion

While the world is making progress to achieve SDG4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”1 by 2030, girls in Malawi still seem to get
involved in the intricate web of poverty, low self-esteem, lack of long-term plans, laziness, and someother factors, which lead to low achievement and the high dropout rate. The government of Malawi
expects female teachers to take a central role to support girls, and UNESCO indicates the importance ofthem in girls’ education as well. It is important to employ more female teachers and deploy them in rural
areas to support more girls especially in rural areas as the government attempts, but this research foundthat there are some cases that the roles female teachers play do not necessarily impact positively on
female students. Therefore, further consideration of how to recruit them and how to address thechallenges that girls face should be required so that more effective and efficient collaboration at both
macro and micro levels will be promoted to achieve equity at which SDG4 aims. The analyses of thisresearch are to be continued to generate more concrete proposed solutions.
Acknowledgment
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to GLTP staff members who supported me. The advice
given by Ms. Natsuko Imai, a GLTP staff member, was a great help when considering my research plan. Ms. Rieko
Sato, a GLTP staff member, greatly supported me in terms of technical and financial matters, especially under the
emergent situation. Also, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Dorothy Nampota, a professor of
the Faculty of Education in the University of Malawi, who gave me meaningful advice related to girls’ education in
Malawi through the interview. I also greatly appreciate the assistance of Mr. Vessium Chikhoza Phiri, an officer at
the Central West Education Division in the Ministry of Education. He gave me a lot of useful information andconnection with authorities, schools, and teachers that help my research. Finally, I am deeply grateful to every
research participant in my research including headteachers, teachers, students, and a staff at an NGO.
References
1
United Nations. (n.d.) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4. Quality Education.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/. Retrieved on 06/04/2020
2
The Global Education Monitoring Report team. (2019) Global education monitoring report 2019:gender report: Building bridges for gender equality. UNESCO.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000368753. Retrieved on 06/04/2020
3
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. (2014) Education Sector Implementation Plan Ⅱ (2013/142017/18).
4

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST). (2017) Malawi Education Statistics-2017.
Directorate of Education Planning, Education Management Information System (EMIS).

5The Malawi National Examination Board. (2019) 2019 Malawi School Certificate of Education
Examination Results. Press Release on September 2nd, 2019.
6
UNESCO Bangkok. (2006) The Impact of Women Teachers on Girls’ Education – Advocacy Brief.
Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok, 2006. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED494264.pdf. Retrieved on909/04/2020
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2018) Education: Percentage of teachers in secondary education
who are female (%). uis.unesco.org/. Retrieved on 09/04/2020
8
The World Bank Data. (2018) Rural population (% of total population).
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=MW. Retrieved on 09/04/2020
7Annex
The List of the Interviewees

Nickname

SchoolGenderAge

Subjects (observed class)

Susan

A (Lilongwe)

Female51

Biology (science)

Nancy

A (Lilongwe)

Female55

Deputy, languages

Cassy

A (Lilongwe)

Female53

Chichewa

Lilly

B (Lilongwe, girls only)

Female39

Intern, English

Bike

B (Lilongwe, girls only)

Male

40

Special Needs Education
Teacher, chemistry(science)

Mwandida

B (Lilongwe, girls only)

Female45

Special Needs Education
Teacher, sign language
interpreter

Chiba

A staff of an NGO in
BlantyreMale

35

the issue of HIV/AIDS
among adolescent girls

Ruba

C (Blantyre)

Female34

EnglishAlice

C (Blantyre)

Female30

English, Home Economics

ChimzyC (Blantyre)

Male

44

Deputy, geography

Dr. Dorothy Cynthia
Nampota

Chancellor College,
University of Malawi

FemaleN/A

Chemistry (Math andScience)Tama

D (Chikwawa)

Female27

Chichewa, English

Nana Smart

D (Chikwawa)

Female37

Life Skills, Social Studies(Bible Knowledge)

Uso ZaE (Chikwawa)

Female27

History, bible knowledge

10Maliana

E (Chikwawa)

Female29

Languages, debate anddrama club

Joy

F (Chikwawa)

Female58

BiologyIreen

F (Chikwawa)

Female28

Math, computer science,chemistry

MarrieeF (Chikwawa)

Female52

Languages

Steba

G (Chikwawa)

Female50

Deputy, languages,
agriculture

Eluby

G (Chikwawa)

Female32

Geography, Chichewa

Rilcraz

G (Chikwawa)

Female26

Language

Mercy

H (Nsanje)

Female32

Math, computer science

TatendaH (Nsanje)

Female46

Languages

Risa

I (Lilongwe, primary)Female28

Special Needs Education
TeacherTelezaI (Lilongwe, primary)Female41

Math, science, religious
education

MpatsoJ (Lilongwe, primary)Female49

Special Needs Education
TeacherMr. Phiri

An officer of Central West
Male
Education Division, Ministryof Education

N/A

Special Needs Education

3. Reflection to the GLTP in Africa
The reason why I applied to the GLTP was that I wanted to experience and understand how
people live there and interview (listen to) people’s opinions mainly about gender issues in Africa. I
thought at least one month would be needed for me to understand their lives vividly, but I didn’t havechances and financial support for that. Then, when I found a post about the GLTP on the homepage of my11

university in April, when the deadline for application was approaching, I was desperate to work hard toachieve this precious opportunity. Without the help of the GLTP, I couldn’t fulfill my dream to go to
Africa directly to see, hear and feel the real lives there to understand the local context more. Also, foryour information, I was told by my professor that I should not go to Africa as a young Japanese female
student who can be more vulnerable to risks. Therefore, as a sign of my determination, I had my hair cut
and wore men’s clothes to avoid unnecessary exposure of myself. However, I found that Malawi was notthat dangerous, and people were friendly as “Warm Heart of Africa” shows.
As my field experiences, I tried to stay and talk with local people as much as possible considering
the security at the same time. Before going to Malawi, I made a few supporters in the Ministry of
Education and an NGO. They really supported me in terms of connection with schools and teachers, some
information about education in Malawi, and accommodations and transportation. For example, I stayed ina rural area once with the family of the executive director of the NGO called DIN Malawi that tackles
girls’ education as one of the issues in Malawi, and I really experience the local lives and think about themeaning of the education there during that stay. He was well known by the people in the area and had two
cars and a big house, which means his family was relatively affluent.

Picture 4: Nshima, fish and vegetable

Picture 5: Dinner with my host and other guests

However, we experienced blackouts and water cut off almost every day, and lived like other local
people. It was horrible to stay without a fan when the temperature was as high as 38℃ and it was very
humid. There were many mosquitoes or other insects as well. I couldn’t take a bath and got infected there
after all. I ate local food with them, and I’m afraid I must say it was not sanitary. However, they lived
strongly and I was so impressed especially by how the children worked. The first girl child cleaned thehouse, the second boy washed his father’s car and press the clothes with a hot iron, the third girl helped
the maid to prepare the meals, and the fourth boy cut off some chickens’ heads to cook them. After
finishing their own jobs, they went to school, and they worked at home after school as well. I couldn’t
believe that they were the same aged children as Japanese children although I know that there are someJapanese students who help housework too. However, I felt like a husband is still the one who works forthe family, and a wife and children do household cares in Malawi while the situation is changing little bylittle under the trend of gender equality in Japan, which means a husband and a wife work and dodomestic chores together especially among the younger generation, and some children help them withsome housework (I accept exceptions here, too). I could feel the difference of the meaning of and the12expectation for children vividly, and that helped my understanding of the results of the interview withfemale teachers about their views of girls’ education.
Though I enjoyed my stay in Malawi a lot, I experienced some challenges as well. First, there
were some demonstrations going on for due to the injustice of the president election, so I was told not togo out for some days. Also, even if I thought I would get one of any diseases such as Malaria, it was hardfor me to recover fully from the infection called “Urinary Tract Infection” that I got due to the use of dirty
public toilet. I suffered from high fever with the chills, nausea, body pain, stomachache and headache fora few days twice. Fortunately, I could transfer easily using a taxi and a car of my friend from a rural area
where I stayed then to the private hospital that is said to be the most reliable in Malawi, so I just stayed at
the guesthouse for 2 weeks in total.
For now, I’m planning to make use of this experience as an English teacher at junior high schoolin Chiba where I’m supposed to work from next year. I’m going to conduct English lessons that include
International Education/Development Education in order to tell my students about the situation
surrounding Africa, and the world and let them think about the issues in the world such as poverty,
inequality, environmental issues. Through my attempt, I hope I can increase the number of the children
who regard such issues especially in Africa as their own, and do some activities even if they are small or
start thinking about their future career in a wider viewpoint including working abroad. Without
experiencing their lives by myself, I couldn’t tell children how they live, what they cherish and challenges
they have. Also, as an individual, I’m thinking of joining JOCV volunteer in the future and go back to
Malawi.
I strongly recommend challenging yourselves to those who are interested in studying or making a
research abroad. At first, I didn’t expect that I would be able to pass the interview of the GLTP as a firstyear Master’s student, but without believing in my possibility and pushing myself, there had been no
opportunity for me to make a research abroad that I really wanted. If you have something that you reallywant to do, I recommend you to prepare well and then just challenge yourself even if you’re not readyenough. Once you can get the chance of going to Africa through the GLTP, you’ll be supported
academically, mentally, technically and financially.

13