CBMP Analytical Report Part 1 - Transparency and Accountability ...

FINAL REPORT
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRACKING STUDY (PETS)
PART 1
EFFECTS OF TEACHERS’ SALARIES ADMINISTRATION ON
TEACHING SERVICE DELIVERY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Research Teams;
Consultants:
Research Fellows;
Contact Address:
Mr. Bismarck Sakunda Ndhlovu
(MSc Economics and Governance)
Dr Thomas Chataghalala Munthali
(PhD Economics and Business)
Lovell Park Consulting Group, P. O. Box 31515
5 th Floor, Kang’ombe House, City Center, Lilongwe 3
Mobiles: 09 99 206 200 or 0999 803 140
Tel/Fax: 01 776278, loveparkfin@live.co.uk
Mr. Jephter Mwanza – Team Leader
John Kuyeli – Team Member
Nina Ghambi – Team Member
Clement Masangano – Team Member
Community Based Monitoring Project
Plaza House, City Center
LILONGWE 3
Monday, February 1, 2010
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ iii
LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ACCRONYMS ................................................................................................ iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................. vi
1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background Information .................................................................................... 1
1.2 Basic Understanding ........................................................................................... 2
1.3 Scope of Work ..................................................................................................... 4
2.0 STUDY METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 4
2.1 Background Information .................................................................................... 4
2.2 Review of Documents and Tools Development ................................................ 5
2.3 Training of Research Assistants .......................................................................... 5
2.3 Data Collection .................................................................................................... 6
2.3.1 Individual Interviews .................................................................................. 6
3.0 STUDY FINDINGS ............................................................................................. 8
3.1 Demographic Characteristics .............................................................................. 8
3.2 Factors Affecting Delivery of Quality teaching Services ................................ 12
3.2.1 Teachers Grading System .......................................................................... 12
3.2.2 Timeliness of Teachers’ Salaries ................................................................ 14
3.2.3 Mode of Access to Salaries ......................................................................... 17
3.2.4 Salary Collection System ........................................................................... 20
3.2.5 Anomalies in Salary Amounts ................................................................... 22
3.2.6 Security of Teachers’ Salaries .................................................................... 23
3.2.7 Teachers Behaviour and Salary Payment ................................................. 25
3.2.8 Pupils’ Behaviour ....................................................................................... 27
3.2.9 Teachers’ Feelings and Attitude ................................................................ 29
3.2.10 Teachers’ Coping Mechanisms .............................................................. 30
3.3 Government Efforts .......................................................................................... 33
3.3.1 New Methods ............................................................................................. 33
3.3.2 Policy and Planning ................................................................................... 34
4.0 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................ 36
5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................... 38
6.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 40
ii

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Teachers Qualifications ................................................................................ 12
Figure 2: How Many Days of Teaching have been lost due to Salary Delays ........... 26
Figure 3: Which Pupils’ Behaviour is due to Teachers ‘ Conduct around pay-day ... 28
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Age Ranges for Primary School Teachers ...................................................... 9
Table 2: Academic Qualifications for Primary School Teachers................................ 11
Table 3: Professional Qualifications (Grades/Rank) for Teachers ............................. 13
Table 4: Knowledge of Official Pay Day among Teachers ........................................ 14
Table 5: Who Collects salaries at Your School ......................................................... 20
Table 6: Whether Salary was Equal to Officially Expected one in past 6 Months ..... 22
Table 7: When salaries Delay, What is the Feeling among Teachers ....................... 29
Table 8: How Teachers Cope with Salary Delays ...................................................... 31
iii

LIST OF ACCRONYMS
AIDS
ART
CBMP
DEM
DEP
DP
EDM
GCE
GOM
HIV
HT
JCE
LPF
MGDS
MOEST
MPRSP
MSB
MSCE
NEP
NESP
PETS
PEA
PTA
PT
R4D
SMC
TAP
TTC
Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome
Anti-Retroviral Therapy
Community Based Monitoring Project
District Education Management
District Education Plans
District Profiles
Education Division Management
General Certificate of Education
Government of Malawi
Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus
Head Teacher
Junior Certificate of Education
Lovell Park Financials
Malawi Growth and Development Strategy
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
Malawi Savings Bank
Malawi School Certificate of Education
National Education Policy
National Education Sector Plan
Public Expenditure Tracking Survey
Primary Education Advisors
Parents – Teachers Association
Professional Teacher
Results for Development
School Management Committee
Transparency and Accountability Project
Teachers Training College
iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Community Based Monitoring project thanks and offers sincere appreciation to
the Results for Development (R4D) Institute for providing funding to enable us to
conduct this study, which we feel will help highlight areas that need improvement if
services in Primary Education are to improve. The project Secretariat also thanks Mr.
Bismarck Sakunda Ndhlovu and Dr. Thomas Chataghalala Munthali from Lovell Park
Financials (LPF) Consulting Group who worked with a team of researchers from the
CBM namely Mssrs Jephter Mwanza, Nina Ghambi, John Kuyeli and Mr Clement
Masangano, a partner from the Link for Education Governance who formed the core
research team that operationalized this study. It is the hope and the spirit in which
this activity was conceived that it generates worthwhile findings, information, lessons
and culminate into actions that will put teachers’ welfare on the fore, enhance
delivery of quality teaching services and contribute to national development.
We would also like to thank all teachers from Mulanje, Kasungu and Mzimba as well
as pupils, community members and teacher’s spouses that accepted to participate in
personal as well as group interviews that helped us come up with this report. As a
project, we are committed to take these results to policy makers and key players in
the education sector so that they aid in planning and improving education services to
the benefit of all Malawians.
v

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Community Based Monitoring Project (CBMP) acquired funding from the Results
for Development Institute (R4D) under its Transparency and Accountability Project
(TAP) in order to conduct a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey for the Education
Sector. As a starting point to the study, one major variable regarding teachers’ salaries
be taken up as a case and indicator pointing at the efficiencies and inefficiencies in
the system [way before actual budget tracking] in order to have facts necessary for
probing at higher administrative levels of the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology (MOEST). Such indicator was the ‘Timeliness of Salaries to Teachers’.
This was conceived to track whether timeliness has impact on the delivery of
teaching services (whether timeliness of salary payment could have significant
influence on teachers’ livelihoods and delivery of teaching services).
The study sampled out 100 teachers from the each of the regions (Southern, Central
and Northern regions). Specific districts covered were Mzimba in the north, Kasungu
in the center and Mulanje in the south. In each of the districts, zones were sampled
and schools chosen at random for coverage. The research Team consulted District
Education Management (DEM), Primary Education Advisors (PEA) at Zone level and
a total of 300 teachers in different primary schools. The field study took a total of 12
days. After all the consultations were complete, the data was synthesized and the
following were unveiled;
• 100% of the teachers feel that their salaries are low and do not meet their
household needs. As they try to stay longer in the service to get experience
and promotion so that they would earn more, they are hardly promoted and
continue to stay at lower ranks. This makes them unhappy in their profession.
• On a monthly basis, the salaries come late, earliest being 29 th of the month
instead of 27 th , and the latest being the 7 th of the next month. This pushes some
vi

teachers (the majority in Mulanje) to run into loans with high interest rates.
So, as creditors follow up with them, they run into trouble with salary delays.
They become restless and others run into hiding, absenting themselves from
the classes. Even their households do not run properly and affect their
commitment to delivery of quality education service.
• The mode of salary access is also affecting their timeliness, especially those on
Malswitch Card. This is because; the banks take even longer to make the
money accessible by the teachers. Even those on cash system have challenges
of their own especially, when it comes to issues of security. Head teachers go
to collect the salaries without security and incidences of theft occur. As some
try to solve this problem by making sure that they are accompanied by one or
two fellow teachers, they deprive the pupils of the teaching services.
• Much as the salaries are low, several anomalies occur such are lower than
expected amounts, omission from the Pay-Roll and many others. In such cases
teachers will have to follow up with higher authorities to get their money,
they waste time and money to get this done and deprive pupils of the learning
time
• All these make teachers feel neglected by their employer, their motivation
goes down, have high wiliness to absent themselves from work and if they go
to work, they show aggressive behaviour which is not ideal for child mental
development
• Many of them have resorted to a number of coping mechanisms such as
business and agriculture. These mechanisms (e.g. tobacco growing) are labour
intensive and take away most of the teachers time to prepare and deliver
quality services in the education sector
vii

These indeed have severe ramifications on the way the teaching services would be
delivered. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not known to be a problem in the
governance structure of the education sector. This is attested by the fact that it is not
identified in the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) at national level as well as in
the District Education Plans (DEP) at local level. As such it will take time to be
addressed, yet it is one of the factors affecting the delivery of quality education.
This being the case, the study recommends that;
• Institute proper teacher performance monitoring systems for purposes of
credible promotion of teachers as a motivation which will in turn raise their
salaries on merit and will keep them happy;
• Decentralize the salary processing system so that there is timely deliver of the
salaries and reduce the frequency of anomalies in both the amounts and the
list itself. This should accompanied by sufficient human resources in all the
District Education Offices to ensure that the process is handled by competent
hands.
• Teacher Monitoring by the PEAs should be more systematic and include
aspects of community monitoring since off school activities done by teachers
seem to have great influence on time allocation by teachers. Such
extracurricular activities such as businesses and farming have been seen to
reduce contact time between teachers and pupils
• The Malswitch Cards system should only be on teachers in urban schools than
those in rural. If it is to go to rural, then the bank responsible should create
village agencies so that teachers do not have to travel to town for their salaries.
Furthermore, the system should be upgraded to real Cash-Collection Cards
rather than the current ones which are merely used as identity cards.
viii

• There is also need to institute a Portable Phone based information system to
help inform teachers receiving money through banks that their money is
available in the banks.
With these, the study finds it necessary that when tracking the budget for salaries in
the MOEST, processes and governance rules will also be tracked to find out what
delays the salaries from the treasury up to the district.
ix

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information
The Community Based Monitoring Project is an initiative being led by the Council for
Non Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA) in conjunction with Plan
Malawi, Actionaid and DFID. The project aims at building the capacity of the civil
society to hold service providers accountable through promotion of citizen
participation in national budget cycle, assess delivery of public service leading to a
more informed and engaged civil society and more accountable service providers.
The project will firstly be implemented in a few selected pilot districts before being
rolled out to cover all the twenty-eight districts of Malawi. It will initially focus on
the four sectors namely, Health, Education, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation.
Implementation will be through NGOs, CSOs with involvement of existing
community decentralized structures such as Village Development Committees, Area
Development Committees and District Assemblies to ensure citizens optimum
participation.
This project is part of the democratization process and ensures the enforcement of the
bottom-up planning approach and helps decision makers to be able to get input from
stakeholders at grassroots level that are otherwise skipped in the budget processes. It
also provides opportunities to policy makers to fine tune the programmes aimed at
achieving the targets in the Malawi Economic Growth and Development Strategy
(MEGDS), Millennium Development Goals targets and poverty reduction in general.
It allows citizens at the grassroots who are affected by poverty to have a say in
activities that empower them for a better life.
The Community Based Monitoring project acquired funding from the Results for
Development Institute (R4D) under its Transparency and Accountability Project
1

(TAP) in order to conduct a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey for the Education
Sector. The study complements information that the Community Based Monitoring
Project collects from service users (the demand side) using community scorecards
with detailed information from service providers (the supply side). The major focus of
the study was on the processes involved in administration of primary school teacher’s
salaries and how that impacts on overall service delivery in primary schools.
As a starting point to the study, it was conceived that one major variable regarding
teachers’ salaries be taken up as a case and indicator pointing at the efficiencies and
inefficiencies in the system [way before actual budget trucking] in order to have facts
necessary for probing at higher administrative levels of the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology. Such indicator was the ‘Timeliness of Salaries to Teachers’.
This was conceived to track whether timeliness has impact on the delivery of
teaching services (whether timeliness of salary payment could have significant
impacts on teachers’ livelihoods and delivery of teaching services). Thus, as more and
more efficiencies and inefficiencies are unveiled in this indicator, it could be a pointer
to whether the MOEST system is working well or not. And, in turn this provides a
perspective and hypothesis for which researchers could stand by as they approach the
actual tracking exercise. The outcomes would give the researchers points for probing
in the tracking study.
1.2 Basic Understanding
The exercise/study is well positioned to contribute towards the Government of
Malawi (GoM) National Development Policy objectives by providing feedback to
policy makers and administrators on how the efficiency or lack of it in the
administration of teachers salaries actually affects delivery of primary school services.
This directly fits in the transparent governance framework through strengthening the
capacity of national, district and local actors, particularly the education sector
2

stakeholders through information provision regarding the processes within and
around the budgetary processes.
This exercise fulfils one of the key principles of Accountable Governance in which
case, the governors of public expenditure allocations acknowledge and assume
responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including administration
and implementation within the scope of their roles. This encompasses the obligation
to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences. It fulfils three main
principles of Accountable Governance i.e. Optimal Stakeholder Return, Accountable
Leadership (reflexive observation), Transparency and thrive for Adoption of Code of
Good Practice. Thus, the exercise provides useful information to the recipients of the
budget allocations regarding efficiencies and inefficiencies within the expenditure
routes. On the other hand, the very information would act as an independent view
and eye to budget allocation and expenditure pattern for those governing the process.
The study also took cognizance that not only timeliness of salary payment affects
service delivery, but that this is an important variable in tracking of Teachers’ Salaries
as opposed to General Budget Trucking Studies. Thus, the study involved district
consultations with District Education Management (DEM), Primary Education
Advisors (PEA), Teachers, School Management Committees (SMC), Parent – Teachers
Association (PTA) and Pupils. This was aimed at gathering information regarding
knowledge of salary payment times and issues associated with teachers’ salaries, their
behaviour and delivery of services.
3

1.3 Scope of Work
To achieve this purpose of the study, the survey has been set out to encompass the
following activities;
1. High level consultations with government officials at district and zone levels
2. Direct interrogation with primary school teachers
3. Consultation with support communities of respective schools (the School
Management Committees, Parent Teachers Association)
4. Consultation with pupils in respective schools
5. Synthesis of information from various stakeholders
6. Isolation of issues for follow-up to higher education authorities
7. Draft Report writing and submission to CBMP and R4D.
2.0 STUDY METHODOLOGY
2.1 Background Information
The Community Based Monitoring Project works with a number of beneficiaries and
development partners. As such, the method of data collection was tailored to their
categorical classification. To this effect, the study employed a number of techniques,
which included;
• Literature Review on a number of documents
• Key Informant Interviews with specific persons as strategically positioned in
the school community
• Individual Interviews with teachers
• Extreme Case Studying
4

2.2 Review of Documents and Tools Development
To have a clear understanding of the study, the Research Team reviewed such
documents as Research Proposal document, CBMP Design Document and Operational
Plan, Country Development Frameworks (e.g. Education Policy, National Education
Sector Plan, MPRSP, MGDS and District Profiles) and District Education Plans. The
information from these documents guided the formulation of data collection tools at
different levels of stakeholders.
After reviewing the documents, the consultant developed the following tools;
• Semi-Structured Questionnaire for collection of information at the individual
level
• Checklists with different guide questions for collection of information in focus
group discussions and key informant interviews. These were separate for each
group and informant depending on the themes
• Life History Frame to document Case Studies
After the different tools were developed, they were presented to CBMP staff at a
stakeholders meeting. The various comments and input from these stakeholders
helped in technical review and refinement of the tools.
2.3 Training of Research Assistants
The Research Team recruited ten (10) Research Assistants to administer the Semi-
Structured questionnaires. They were oriented to CBMP background, Budget
Tracking Study Objectives and set-up, implementation process. After this background
information, the tools for data collection were presented to the Research Assistants
who were given up-to two (2) hours to study them on their own. Afterwards,
discussion was initiated to deliberate on whether the tools would collect relevant
data, time to be spent per respondent and actual interpretation in local language.
5

Having agreed on the above, pre-testing was organized in Lilongwe districts to a few
teachers, pupils and parents. The pre-testing experience provided final and practical
input to the data collection tools. Actual Data Collection followed soon after input
from the pre-testing exercise.
2.3 Data Collection
2.3.1 Individual Interviews
The Study used random sampling (multistage and proportionate) techniques to keep
up with the required number of respondents. To randomly sample, all schools were
listed and 10% was factored into the Z-Statistic which yielded 300 teachers sample
size. Even though the population of teachers was not the same for all the selected
districts, it was considered too low a sample to warrant Probability Proportional to
Size, hence arbitrary number of 100 was agreed for each district. In the districts,
zones were randomly chosen as well [using the 10% factor] and random selection was
being applied. After choosing the zones, the same factor formulae were being used to
sample individual schools and teachers thereat. However, within the zones, the
population of schools and teachers was not the same in all such that proportionate
sampling was used (Probability Proportional to Size) to determine how many
respondents should come from which zone and school. After confirming the
numbers, teachers were chosen randomly in each school. The Research Assistants
then followed up to interview teachers in all sampled schools in each zone.
2.3.2 Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews
Focus Group Discussions were done with various groups within the zones and school,
namely; School management Committee (SMC), Parent – Teachers Association (PTA)
and pupils. The main key informants in the study were the Primary Education
Advisors (PEA) and the District Education Management (DEM). The discussions were
6

framed and guided by the consultant around such major issues as; process of salary
payments, offices involved, dates of payment (official and actual) and whether the
payment process and timeliness have impacts on the overall delivery of teaching
services by teachers.
7

3.0 STUDY FINDINGS
3.1 Demographic Characteristics
As stated earlier in the study, a greater number of teachers interviewed were selected
from the rural zones, with a few from urban. Precisely, 18% of the teachers
interviewed were from the urban setting while 82% were from peri-urban and rural
areas. The selection was purposeful in that it is perceived that the further away the
place is, the more untimely the place receives common goods from the authorities.
The study indeed confirmed the situation.
Different status of people in their households implies different needs and ability to
advance in life. Thus the study found out about the marital status of teachers under
study. According to the study, 4.8% of the teachers are single, 89.7% are married,
3.7% are widowed while 1.8% is divorced. In general, 90% of the teachers are in
stable status of marriage hence their quest for development. This quest makes them
pursue different endeavors including doing business, borrowing money and many
others. Thus they are generally in need of financial resources to cater for their family
needs and developmental pursuits.
The study also revealed that only 50.2% of the teachers have families or household
sizes of ≤ 5, with 48.8% of the teachers having households of ≥6. This is generally
greater that the national average of 4.5 individuals per household (GOM 2008 1 ). The
table below shows the categories of family sizes;
1
National Health and Demographic Survey 2008
8

Table 1: Household Sizes for Primary School Teachers
Household Size Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid 1-3 people 49 17.6 17.6
4-6people 138 49.5 67.0
7-9 people 78 28.0 95.0
10 or more
people
14 5.0 100.0
Total 279 100.0
Missing System 3
Total 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
With up to 48.8% of teacher families having household sizes of more than five, it
places a bigger burden on household heads, the teachers themselves and even higher
need for financial resources to run their families. That is why, in case of no steady
income or delayed expected income, there might be more suffrage experienced. It
could be in the same line that many teachers might be engaged in other activities that
generate income to supplement their financial needs, usually at the expense of
teaching.
The study has embedded sentiments that public service delivery is in tandem with
official qualifications of the deliverers of the service. In that line, the study sought
information regarding the qualifications of teachers that are currently in the delivery
of teaching service. The table below shows teachers’ qualifications;
9

Table 2: Academic Qualifications for Primary School Teachers
Qualification level Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid JCE 57 23.3 23.3
MSCE 184 75.1 98.4
Diploma 2 .8 99.2
GCE 2 1 .4 99.6
Cambridge
Certificate
1 .4 100.0
Total 245 100.0
Total 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
Out of all teachers interviewed, 23% have Junior Certificate of Education (JCE)
academic qualifications with the rest being qualified higher. The teaching service has
had a minimum qualification standard of JCE in the recent decades, and raised it to
Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) academic qualifications in early 2000.
Thus many teachers that have JCE qualifications have more years of experience than
those on MSCE, which in turn off-sets the deficiency. This means that delivery of
quality education services is very possible since the sector has more or less enough
personnel qualified to minimum standards.
While the above are academic qualifications, for one to become a teacher, he/she
must go for professional training at the Teachers Training Colleges (TTC) in Malawi.
It is after attending this training at these colleges that one is either qualified or is still
a trainee. Among those that are described as ‘qualified’, they are graded according to
qualifications, years of experience and promotion attended. The figure below shows
the teacher types (according to whether they have undergone full teacher training
and are certified or not).
2
GCE means General Certificate of Education, usually Internationally obtained
11

Figure 1: Teachers Qualifications (Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data)
The figure shows that at
Percentage
100
80
60
40
least 96.1% of the
teachers are qualified.
This is an impressive
standard setting which
20
would
contribute
0
Qualified None Month to Other
Series1 96.1 0.7 2.9 0.4
Teacher Type
towards delivery of
quality teaching services
holding everything else
constant. In addition to
qualifications, the study confirmed that 67.3% have more than 10 years experience in
teaching, 19.3% have 6-10 years of teaching experience and 5.1% have 3-5 years of
teaching experience. Only 8.1% has less than 3 years experience in the teaching
service delivery. Coupled with standard qualifications, the teaching experience would
greatly enhance delivery of quality teaching service in the education sector.
3.2 Factors Affecting Delivery of Quality teaching Services
While the education sector has the highest civil service employment levels, it has
many other issues that de-motivate teachers in their course of service deliver. The
study unearthed a number of things;
3.2.1 Teachers Grading System
The study found out that even though many teachers are qualified and have a lot of
experience, the issue of promotion is not going according to their expectations. Earlier
in this report, statistics show that only 8.1% has three (3) years and less of teaching
experience. On the other hand, the governance tools in the education sector have it
12

that teachers are eligible for promotion every four - five years, yet many teachers still
stay on one rank particularly the lowest rank (PT4) for a longer time. The table below
confirms this;
Table 3: Professional Qualifications (Grades/Rank) for Teachers
Variable Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid PT1 1 .4 .4
PT2 15 5.6 6.0
PT3 68 25.5 31.5
PT4 183 68.5 94.4
Temporary 15 5.6 100.0
Total 267 100.0
Total 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The table above shows that 68.5% of the teachers are on the lowest grade/rank of the
teaching profession, contrary to their duration of teaching experience that they have
had in the sector. For example, in the first table, less than 10% of the teachers have 3
years or less, while here 68.5% of the teachers are on the lowest grade of qualified
teachers (PT4). The teachers rank has financial implications in that a higher rank
attracts increased financial reward for the personnel, and every personnel stays longer
on the position with expectations of being promoted to higher position which would
bring in financial rewards that are commensurate with qualifications and experience.
It is worse still that teachers expect the promotions after every four to five years.
Thus, if the process is not being implemented it demotives teachers and reduce their
commitment to provide a quality teaching service. Triangulated discussions with
pupils and head teachers reveal that such frustrations, delays and uncertainty leads to
misplaced hostility towards Head Teachers and pupils who are in contact with the
teachers in most of the times. Aggressive and abusive behaviour, skipping lessons and
13

other forms of grumbling are common forms of behaviour amongst teachers in such
circumstances.
3.2.2 Timeliness of Teachers’ Salaries
The study unveils that issues of salary timeliness is another factor that contributes
highly to the level of motivation of teachers towards delivery of public service. Under
this study, it was noted that generally the salaries delay quite a lot. It was also
interesting to see that the knowledge of the official pay day of salaries among teachers
is varied. The table below shows that
Table 4: Knowledge of Official Pay Day among Teachers
Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid 27 of the
Month
217 77.2 77.2
No Official
Day
24 5.0 82.2
Do not
Know
50 17.8 100.0
Total 281 100.0
Missing System 1
Total 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The table above indicates that a significant 23% of the teachers [learned and qualified
professionals], do not know the official pay day of their own salaries. To make matters
worse, 5.2% of these, feel that there is completely no official pay day at all. This
implies that there is a lot of knowledge gap among teachers over the education
governance system. This lack of knowledge would easily hinder planning and
budgeting at teachers’ household level, driving teachers into more extra activities
14

which might deter their commitment to delivery of quality teaching services. More of
these are income generating activities, as discussed under coping mechanisms.
Box 1: Teachers Feelings about Salary Delays
Today is 20 th December, 5 days before Christmas and our
colleagues from Agriculture and Health are already getting their
salaries. With us there is nothing… and people at the DEM’s
office are saying even the Pay-Roll for Teachers is not yet in.
Head Teachers are phoning me all Day – PEA, Mulanje
We have heard that the Head Teacher is gone to collect our
Salaries today 29 th December, 4 days after Christmas, and we
already incurred a lot of debt as we ere trying to make our
families happy during Christmas. This means all the money will
just go to our debtor due to high interest rates. This means in the
month of January, it will be tough and I will need more other
means to raise money to keep my household going….. should I
miss classes, it will not be strange and l will not be alone –
Teacher, Kasungu
All of us on Malswitch have not yet accessed our December
salaries and today is 5 th January. We have gone to the bank at
Mzimba Boma three times, spending MK900.00 each time, yet
there is nothing. We are still incurring debt in addition to what
we already incurred for Christmas. I do not what to do in
January, it would not be surprising if l do not teach or teach
infrequently and partially – Teacher, Mzimba
Salary delay is worse for me since I am HIV+, and I need to buy
my food and medical requirements at all times. I can hardly
engage in other activities liee farming because I need to
safeguard my energy and health. Thus, in such cases of salary
delays, I just stay home so that I should not be active, but my
health is still at high risk, even the Head Teacher knows and
cannot do anything. However, it is my class that suffers – HIV+
Teacher, Kasungu
While many teachers
(77%) know their
official pay day [27 th of
the Month], it was
discouraging to note that
only 4.3% had ever
received their salaries on
the official pay day
‘since they joined the
teaching profession’. It
was noted that this fails
to take place even
during the month of
December, the
Christmas Month, when
almost all other sectors
and professionals get
their pay earlier than
usual. This study was
deliberately conducted in the month of December – January and attested to this fact
that none of the teachers in the three districts had accessed the salaries before
Christmas Day. It was also revealed that in the normal time, the most frequent pay
day is 2 nd of the Next Month (63.2%), with the earliest being 29 th of the Month (12%)
15

and the latest being 11 th of the Next Month (2%) [the rest receive any day in
between].
In many cases teachers are not happy with the untimeliness of the salaries. The delay
causes panic in the teachers’ households as they run out of household consumables
and are uncertain about when the salaries will come. Teachers engage in other
activities in order to raise money to meet their household needs. It was uncommon in
the study areas to find ‘Part-Time Teaching’ as a way of raising money among
teachers, but rather business and farming. The study notes that these by nature do not
build the teaching profession, yet they are labour intensive and time consuming,
taking away the teachers’ time to commit to delivery of quality services. As quoted in
the box, teachers lament the lack of consideration in the MOEST to pay them in time
for their Christmas Festival during the month of December (as a special month). The
study revealed that many teachers have to go for loans and credit to make up for this,
and the loans come with even higher interest rates due to the high demands. The
situation makes their life even worse. To repay such loans, they need to engage
themselves into income generating activities even further, taking more of their
teaching time.
As attested in the box above, the situation is worse for Teachers Living Positively
with HIV/AIDS. These teachers have extra demands on their food and medical
requirements in their every day life such as extra nutritious foods and Anti Retro-
Viral Therapeutic needs. In circumstances where salaries delay, these teachers fail to
buy food requirements or find transport money to travel to their nearest hospitals to
collect Atro-Viral Therapeutic drugs to boost their immunity and health. While this
endangers their lives (possibilities of living longer), it makes them stay weaker and
unhealthy for most of the times and fail to deliver quality teaching services. This is
even worse in rural areas where distances are usually longer and the situation is
16

exacerbated by the fact that teachers are usually few and there is no possibility of
allocating another teacher to attend to that class on their behalf.
3.2.3 Mode of Access to Salaries
The study found out that there are two main ways in which teachers get their salaries.
Many teachers receive their salaries through Cash (79.4%)delivered at their school
while others access their salaries using Malswitch Cards at the Banks (20.6%). The
respondents explained that the two systems have their own advantages and
disadvantages, with all disadvantages leading to salary delays and affecting delivery of
quality teaching service at primary school level.
a. The Cash System
Teachers have traditionally been getting their pay through cash, mostly delivered at
their schools. A close look at the Cash System, the study found out that generally the
processes of verifying the Pay-Roll between the District Education Management
(DEM) and the Education Division Management (EDM) takes longer than expected.
Interviews with various district Education Management officials show that the
process takes more than 10 days on average, while the Pay-Roll from Treasury
reaches the District Office on the 18 th of the Month (on average). Thus, the
verification exercise completes usually on or after the official pay day of the salaries.
This being the case, it affects the time of delivery of salaries to various zones. On the
other hand, once the salaries have been delivered to the zones, it takes one day (87%)
for the Zone Officials to communicate with head teachers of various schools to come
and collect the money for their respective schools. This adds another day before the
teachers can access the pay. Better though is that once the head teachers get the pay,
they distribute it to fellow teachers the same day (97%), except for those teachers that
do not reside at the school and there is no contact on that day. Thus the general delay
17

is during the transaction between the district and the division as well as the
distribution to the zones.
b. The Malswitch Card System
On the other hand looking at the Malswitch mode of receiving salaries, the study
found out that the process of Pay-Roll verification is the same as that of the cash
system. On a better note, the Malswitch System saves the district office from
physically delivering the cash to the zones as well as the head teachers actually
collecting salaries from the zones. This saves time and provides some sense of security
to large sums of cash.
Box 2: Points to Note about the Malswitch Process
• MSB was awarded a contract by GOM to provide for electronic payment of
teachers salaries both at rural and urban levels largely on security reasons and to
inculcate a culture of savings
• MALSWITCH was contracted by MSB to provide the software to effect
electronic payment of teacher salaries.
• Currently, 35,000 teachers are registered on MALSWITCH but only 10,000 are
being paid using MALSWICH Cards because, understandably, the
implementation is happening in phases.
• MSB was supposed to buy Auto-teller Machines, but due to cost considerations,
MSB only has Point of Sale Machines (POSM) which basically are used to
authenticate card owners and confirm balances with payment made manually on
the counter.
• One ATM costs around K4million to buy while a POSM costs around K150,000
only.
• There are only 4 ATM by the MSB in the whole north with Mzimba boma only
having a POSM (not Auto teller) despite covering a large area
• MALSWITCH cards do also work on Inde Bank, OIBM, and NEDBANK auto
tellers apart from MSB. If these Banks had auto tellers in areas like Mzimba, the
teachers would have been using the other banks’ machines.
• Main problem that delays teacher salaries from showing on their MALSWITCH
cards is because government is required to give MALSWITCH soft copies of its
list of teachers and the salaries to be paid. Unfortunately, almost always,
government submits the list in hard copy requiring MALSWITCH to re-type.
Often, MALSWICH has to send the list back & request for an electronic copy.
• MSB, it is believed, under contractual terms with GOM, was supposed to roll-out
the programme in areas where MSB facilities exist – a radius of around 15km
around urban areas. However, some of the teachers whose cards have been
activated live so far from the facilities available in urban centre.
Essentially, the problem seems to largely relate to MSB’s strategic planning with regard to
rolling-out of the electronic payment under MALSWITCH – implementation is not taking
much regard to the need for minimum level of auto-teller facilities and distance
considerations – Facts from MALSWITCH Management, 19/01/2010
However, it was found
out that the Malswitch
System deployed herein
is not as high-tech as
expected. These cards
are used by teachers as
mere identification
documents and helping
teachers receive their
pay through the banks.
Thus, after the district
office has deposited the
salaries into the banks,
teachers move from
their respective schools
to the banks in order to
get their pay. Currently,
18

the study found out that there is no established mode of communication between the
teachers and the banks for the teachers to know whether their salaries are available at
the bank or not. As such, teachers themselves use the proxy indicator of ‘whether
those on cash system have received or not’. So once teachers ‘on cash’ have received
their pay, those ‘on Malswitch’ immediately leave for the banks to collect their own
salaries. This means that they have an extra day of delay to access their salaries
compared to those on cash. Furthermore, the study found out that the banks have
their own inefficiencies as they are not yet conversant with the system and it takes
another three days for them to make the money available to teachers. However,
almost all teachers come to the banks to check for their salaries, queuing at the banks
almost for the whole day and more often it happens that not everyone can access
their salary due to data related complications, network problems or some other
reason. Those that come from far away choose to find accommodation close to the
banks to try the following day while those from nearby schools go back and come the
following day. On average the study found out that teachers ‘on Malswitch’ visit the
bank four times before they receive their salaries. This leaves pupils without teachers
in various schools and hugely affects the teaching service delivery. In addition, the
system reported a number of anomalies such as missing data, no network as well as no
money. Once a teachers name shows no data, the teacher is referred to further bank
and education hierarchies to find out more about his salary. The frequent visits to the
bank as well as further reference to hierarchies is done at teachers’ own expense
decreasing teachers own monthly income, frustrating him/her further. On the other
hand, 78% complained that queuing at the banks sends a signal to the whole town
that teachers are being paid threatening the security of small sums of money
belonging to individual teachers. The implementation of the Malswitch System as of
today, does not conform to rural setting [without banks]. Many teachers in rural areas
are far from the banks and need at least half a day to travel to the bank. Thus, should
19

they decide to come during the week [during working days], then they should
suspend classes. Should they decide to come over the weekend, the banks close too
early [in morning hours]. Thus, overall, it is difficult to access the salaries through the
bank and the weekend is an outside option for many rural teachers. And, all teachers
would like to access the salaries as soon as they are in [since they had already waited
for long. Thus, if they hear about the salaries, all of them would want to go to the
bank and leave the students alone. This in turn will lead to worse situation if all
teachers are on Malswitch system.
3.2.4 Salary Collection System
As mentioned earlier in the study, teachers access salaries through a number of ways,
namely; Cash (80%), Bank (7%) and Malswitch Cards (13%). For the cash system, the
study found out that mostly it is the Head Teachers that have the administrative
responsibility to collect salaries for all the teachers at their respective schools from
the Zone Offices (where the District Education Finance Officers leaves the money).
In other cases when the Head Teachers are tied up with other pressing issues, a
representative is sent to collect the salaries, who would be recognized by the Zone
Managers (the Primary Education Advisors). The table below indicates the
frequencies;
Table 5: Who Collects salaries at Your School
Responsible person Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid Head Teacher 185 70.1 70.1
Appointed
Representative
19 7.2 77.3
Head and
Appointed
38 14.4 91.7
Representative
Any Teacher 3 1.1 92.8
Other 16 6.1 98.9
Total 300 100.0
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
20

The table above shows that teachers more administrative responsibility rests in the
Head Teachers hands. In addition the study found out that representatives are
appointed by the schools to be able to collect salaries in cases where the Head
Teachers have other pressing issues at hand. Furthermore, 14.4% indicated that Head
Teachers usually go with a school representative to collect salaries for security
reasons. A scenario was unearthed in Mzimba District, Etchiyeni Primary School,
where teachers attested that salaries are collected by anyone who needs the money
most. While this was surprising, the study unveiled that the situation arose due in
large to power struggle among teachers. Discussions revealed that the school has been
running without a Head Teacher for the past five years, with only one teacher
heading the school in an acting capacity. This being the case, there is lack of incentive
to assume all administrative responsibilities by the ‘Acting Head’ while on the other
hand, other teachers do not really feel that they have an administrative leader.
Furthermore, the teachers revealed that nowadays, there is no Headship Allowance
for Head Teachers in Primary Schools, such that it is not rewarding to be a Head
Teacher, but rather it adds administrative burden. This lack of financial reward for
the headship also demoralizes the teachers from assuming responsibilities.
With the Cash System, the study revealed that in many cases (83.3%), the teacher or
representative that goes to collect the salaries for the fellow teachers comes back the
same day and distribute the money the very day. This shows general responsible
behaviour by teachers towards public resources. However, some outliers occur in that
2.4% shows that a few cases have happened where the teacher who went to collect
salaries had not returned the same day. According to data, 30% of the delays are due
to unofficial duties by collectors (such as shopping, drinking and others), while 70%
are due to long distances. This then contributes to further delay in the time the other
teachers get their pay, and demoralization to teachers delivery of teaching service.
21

Also, the failure to return the same day by those who go to collect salaries reduce the
contact time with pupils (who are entitled to this service), especially in rural areas
where teachers are few [and it is difficult to allocate other teachers to the same class].
3.2.5 Anomalies in Salary Amounts
While the incidences of ‘not returning quickly’ from salary collected did not feature
highly among the teachers concerns, the study found out that 17.3% had had
anomalies in their salaries in the past six months. The main anomaly was that the
salary was not equal to officially expected salary. While the extent of irregularities
were not quantified, this is potentially a point of leakage of government funds which
might be of systemic nature. The Table below shows the statistic;
Table 6: Whether Salary was Equal to Officially Expected one in past 6 Months
Response Frequency Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid Yes 229 82.7 82.7
No 35 12.6 95.3
Both Cases
have arisen
13 4.7 100.0
Total 277 100.0
Total 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The table above has it that only 82.7% of the teachers had a perfect pay record in the
past six months. And, to avoid hasty generalization, the study further dug out
information to find out whether these anomalies were one-off events or they had
been trends. It was revealed that a significant 6.5% had had this incident every
month, 5.7% had faced this incident twice in the past six months while another 5.7%
of the teachers had this incident five times. In addition to this scenario, the study
shows that none of the ‘victim teachers’ know why this is happening. This becomes a
huge set-back to the teachers’ morale of teaching.
22

According to the teachers, the above scenario complicate the life of the teacher
further when the ‘victim teachers’ try to follow up their salary shortage. Here, the
study showed that neither the Head Teacher nor the Primary Education Advisor
would solve such a problem. Thus the teachers concerned have to follow up with the
Accounts Section at the DEM Office. The DEM Office also seems not to have any
immediate solution because they also just receive the Pay-Roll from higher office.
Thus the DEM Office might only help follow up to higher authority. Thus, the
teachers concerned lose a lot of contact hours with the pupils to go all the way to the
DEM Office to present their issues and make follow up. Furthermore, they have to
spend further from their already reduced salary on transport from their schools to
DEM Office. All these reduce hugely the quality of teaching service in primary
schools. While the costs are not significant for teachers in urban areas, it is high and
substantial for those is rural areas, and it comes out of their ‘already low’ wages.
In conclusion, when all these are looked at, it is really temping that another salary
administrative system could be put in place to reduce hiccups in the delivery and
general administrative system, or other procedures be put in place to avoid all these
anomalies with the cash system.
3.2.6 Security of Teachers’ Salaries
The study took cognizance that many other incidences can or do occur putting the
teachers (which already have several anomalies) to security risks. The study looked at
different stages of salary processing. However, more focus was at points where cash is
involved. It was found out that when the Accounts Office at district level is
processing, it is usually in the form of Cheque which is obtained from the Education
Division Office. The Cheque is usually safe in that once it is missing, a statement
could be sent to the bank to cancel the transaction in time, unlike hard cash. The
23

study also found out that once the District Accounts Office has cashed the salary
Cheque, it seeks the services of the police in that district to provide security as they
pack the money according to the zones. Furthermore, there is police escort as they
move with money to the zones for delivery. However, once the money reaches the
zones, security does not continue. The PEA keeps the money for different schools for
some time without security as they try to communicate with Head Teachers of
different schools in their zones to come and collect the money for their respective
schools. It is apparent that once a vehicle with police escort at the zone arrives, the
community at large knows that it brings teachers salaries. This keeps the security of
the money and the PEA himself/herself at huge risk. This fear though, makes the PEA
communicate quickly to different Head Teachers to ensure that all the money is
distributed the following day. However, the PEA does not have any special provisions
for communication to the teachers such that they use their own resources to
communicate. And, in the rainy season, not all Head Teachers would be easily
reached and immediately come to the zone due to transport as well as actual
communication hiccups. This makes the PEA keep the money longer and increase
security risk concerns.
While the security of the PEA is a great concern, Head Teachers’ security is ignored
as well. Head Teachers travel long distances to the various zones to collect salaries.
Often times, they wait at the zone for long time of the day for actual salaries to arrive
with Accounts personnel from DEM Office. Thus, they return late in the night to
their respective schools carrying cash for fellow teachers without security. This puts
them and the money at high risk especially those that come from far (from zones)
[especially that they are not provided with any means of transport and security]. On
another note, the study found out that Head Teachers themselves have resorted to
going with a fellow teacher for security reasons. However, this compromises teaching
24

service even further especially in rural areas where teachers are generally few at a
school. Thus the security situation has significant negative contribution to poor
teaching service delivery in primary schools since it affects planning, timing of lessons
and instills fear and anxiety in the head teachers.
3.2.7 Teachers Behaviour and Salary Payment
The study took cognizance that teaching is a profession, taken up by people who are
also human beings and have several thoughts and priorities of life. They also do
different things with their money, adjudged as both good and bad from an
independent perspective, and how these behavioural practices affect delivery of
teaching services.
The study findings indicate that once the salaries have been received, 51.1% of the
teachers ‘continue normally’ in delivering the teaching services. On the other hand,
the study found out that 48.9% of the teachers ‘stay out of work’ for some hours or
days to sort out personal issues depending on the gravity of the issues at hand.
Qualitative interviews with parents, teachers spouses and pupils revealed that issues
that keep teachers out of their work soon after receiving salaries were; shopping,
paying debts, drinking beer and hiding out from debtors among others.
Further interrogation revealed that salaries usually do not come on time and teachers’
households run out of almost all basic household consumables that were planned for
that month. As such, once teachers get their salaries it is irresistible to go for shopping
to ensure that their households have basic consumable items. It was noted that other
teachers have the opportunity to get basic consumable items on credit from shops
within their vicinity because the shop owners know them in person and know that
they would get paid around the 27 th of the month. The same is true with local
business people who offer local loans to others within the vicinity and teachers stand
25

the chance of accessing such local loans. However, as salaries delay, the creditors
pursue the teachers even to their work place. Thus for fear of being embarrassed in
presence of the pupils, some teachers choose to stay out of school and wait for the
salaries. And once the salaries arrive, such teachers would ensure that they clear off
the debt and restart normal life. The study also noted that other teachers have the
habits of drinking liquor, and once they are paid, it happens that they take some time
off to drink. This fact is painfully accepted even in the teaching fraternity and
teachers themselves admit that a lot of time is lost as a result of the situation. For
example, several teachers responded as follows to the direct question;
Figure 2:
How Many Days of Teaching have been lost due to Salary Delays
70
Percentage Response
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
No day lost 2 - 3 Days 4 - 5 Days
1 - 2
Weeks
Others
Days Lost 64.9 16.5 7.5 1.4 9.7
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The study concluded that 48.9% of the teaching time and teaching services are
disturbed between the 27 th of the month end to the 4 th of the following month,
suggesting an average of one full week of teaching service or student-teacher contact
time being lost due in large to the delayed salaries and teachers’ response (behaviour).
Direct interrogation with pupils also revealed that during the ‘salary payment period’,
there are a number of disturbances to their class arrangement. It was noted that in
26

56.3% of the schools affected, classes are combined to cater for the absent teachers, in
31% of the schools, pupils are given sporting activities and knock-off earlier while the
rest (12.7%) postpone lessons until the teacher comes back. Further interrogation
showed that 61.2% of the affected classes are the senior ones (Standard 6 – 8). It was
explained by teachers themselves that it is easier to just give a simple written exercise
or copying notes to senior classes by any make-shift teacher to cater for the teacher’s
absence without necessarily teaching them and they lose main lessons for that day.
On the other hand, others (including pupils) felt that the worst affected are the junior
classes (Standard 1 – 5) because they are usually kept singing or sent-off to the play
ground where they would play for long hours and finally sent home without doing
anything academic work (unlike senior classes where at least they take some
academic activities).
On a positive note, timely payment of salaries improves the mood in the mood in the
schools. This was attested in Mulanje, where a Mr. Mailosi, Standard 8 Teacher
confirmed that ‘when his salary is received, he teachers longer hours, up to possibly
4pm in the afternoon as he tries to prepare his class for National Examinations’. But
when there is no pay and his household is in problems, ‘he postpones all these
extended classes or even not come to class to ensure that his family’s welfare is in
place. This implies that with merely ensuring that teachers receive their salaries
timely, it would facilitate better learning and quality teaching services, warmly
teachers behaviour towards pupils and improved commitment as well as good
learning environment among others.
3.2.8 Pupils’ Behaviour
In response to the above, the study revealed that pupils have since developed certain
undesirable behaviour as a result of their own observation of the teachers’ behaviour
towards and around pays days. The study affirmed 6.6% of the pupils tending to come
relatively late to school because they are not sure whether they were going to learn or
27

whether their teacher would be present, while 4.2% choose to be completely absent
from school on the same. While this was from the teachers’ perspective, the pupils
own analysis showed the following;
Figure 3:
Which Pupils’ Behaviour is due to Teachers ‘ Conduct around pay-day
50
50
40
Percentage
30
20
15.2
21.7
13
10
0
Absenteeis
m
Coming late
to school
Skipping
lessons
Others
Pupils' Behaviour 50 15.2 21.7 13
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The figure indicates major shift in pupil behaviour due to the teachers’ conduct
towards the ends of the month. Much as this is a major problem, it would be
exacerbated by the fact that 97.9% of the teachers do not know that pupils are aware
of teachers poor conduct during pay days, and that their above behaviour would be
associated with that of teachers. All these teachers interviewed indicated that pupils
do not know when teachers get paid and do not know whether salaries have delayed
or not. Only 2.1% affirmed to have noticed this behaviour in pupils and indicated that
pupils are aware of the teachers’ salary situation. If teachers had known that pupil’s
behaviour is a response to their own, it would be easier to change and drive the same
change in pupils. This also indicates a serious disregard of school statistics which, one
28

may be tempted to say, is collected just to be administratively compliant and not to
help schools understand why certain things happen in schools.
All these, therefore, indicate that both sections of the primary education are affected
significantly. The senior classes need more contact hours as they gear themselves up
towards nationally competed examinations. On the other hand, junior classes are in
need for teachers’ guidance to shape their conduct and mental development at that
early stage. Thus, delayed salaries should be seen as a major disturbance to delivery of
teaching services both, from the pupils and teachers perspective.
3.2.9 Teachers’ Feelings and Attitude
More worrying is the situation that teachers feel neglected; less valued and might
continue behaving in a way that would not be proper for children development. The
study established the following as teachers continued to express their feelings;
Table 7: When salaries Delay, What is the Feeling among Teachers
Feeling Neglected by Motivation
Aggressive
Willingness to
government
to teach
Behaviour
absent oneself
Valid % Low 3.0 72.3 52.4 50.6
Medium 23.5 30.8 16.0 16.0
High 73.6 6.8 30.6 33.5
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
From the table above, 97% of the teachers have the feeling that there is no total
commitment by the Government of Malawi, Ministry of Education Science and
Technology (MOEST), towards their welfare. This is seen from the fact that 73.6% of
high feeling and 23.5% of medium feeling towards that. This on its own might imply
29

that the employee has reduced trust in the employer. Thus, the motivation to teach
also goes down immediately. According to the table, 93.1% of the teachers expressed
that their motivation to teach is usually low when salaries delay. Thus, the feeling of
being neglected by the employer inversely varies with the low motivation to teach
(corr 3 : 0.99; 0.005 C.I), that is, the more the feeling that they are neglected by their
employer, the low the motivation to teach.
Since this was a direct interview with the teachers, it is not surprising then that a few,
about 46.6% braved to express that there is significant aggressive behaviour among
teachers. Furthermore, 49.5% expressed that there is willingness to absent oneself
from work among the teachers when the salaries delay. Thus, the study found out
that the willingness to absent oneself directly varies with aggressive behaviour (corr:
0.88; 0.005 C.I.), that is, the more the feeling of not wanting to teach, the higher the
aggressive behaviour towards pupils and fellow teachers.
The results in the table is an indication that once the teachers feel neglected by their
employer, their motivation to teach goes down, their willingness to absent themselves
from work is high. Thus, as they force themselves to work (without zeal), they are
filled with aggression, which is usually not needed for child development and public
service delivery.
3.2.10 Teachers’ Coping Mechanisms
When salaries delay [as it happens almost every month and teachers are used to it],
teachers highly engage in different other activities within their compound. Apart
from the delay alone, teachers feel that the salaries are on the lower side of the scale
to cater for their household needs. The study sought information on what teachers do
to cope with both delayed salaries and smaller amounts. The table below has the
details;
3
Correlation of almost 1, at 95% Confidence Interval
30

Table 8:
Variable
How teachers cope
with salary delays
How Teachers Cope with Salary Delays
Loans
Send family members to do ganyu
Engage in small business
District Name
Total
Mulanje Kasungu Mzimba
53 31 45 129
0 2 0 22
12 14 9 35
Agriculture 17 76 57 119
Other 9 6 8 23
Total 84 101 89 300
Source: Authors Analyzed Raw Data
The results in the table attest earlier findings that many teachers engage in loans
which in the end have huge interest rates and drive them into perpetual financial
misery. The study findings, as presented in the table above, also add to the fact that
most of the measures taken show that teachers will practice them for a long time and
are off the teaching profession. Hence, without necessarily interpreting the statistical
variations within and among the tabulations, the study concludes that the coping
mechanisms themselves take the teachers off their professional task.
For example, as they get loans, the creditors keep an eye on them to make sure that
they re-pay on or around the official pay day. Any delay (which is out of the concern
of the creditors) makes the creditor lose trust in the teacher and start pursuing the
matter. Thus the teacher starts seeking alternatives and tends to take oneself off
teaching. The issue of loans proliferates more in Mulanje district than others (Mzimba
comes second).
31

Box 2: Teachers Coping Strategies
I for one, I teach in STD 8, and has been a teacher for 15
years. I have never received my salary on the actual pay
day, yet I am expected to teach even in the afternoon as
I try to prepare the class for MANEB exams. I take loans
every month and I end up in trouble because I have no
time to do aternative business. This makes me just
absent myself for one or two days to sort out my
personal issues in worst times. – Teacher in Mulanje
Primary School
Let me be honest with you… the MOEST deliberately
posts few teachers here in rural areas & expects us to
teach all classes while those in town teach one subject
then go for personal businesses. Thus, I have engaged
myself in serious tobacco growing enterprise, and I have
since bought a minibus & can compete with those in
town in terms of wealth. Thus, I think teaching is now
secondary to me. In fact I would like to be teaching in
lower classes so that by 11:00am, I knock-off and go to
the tobacco field – Teacher, Kasungu
Agriculture is the only alternative here. Otherwise, the
salary is too low, comes late and yet people expect us to
survive well as ‘people at work’ and the society views us
as such – Teacher, Mzimba
Other teachers, if not many of
them, also engage in business and
agriculture. Looking closely at
agriculture enterprises such as
tobacco growing (more practiced
in Kasungu) are labour intensive
and time consuming before the
person would realize benefits. For
example, intensive tobacco
nursery is done as early as August
and September while selling is
done in around May – June.
Thus, if a teacher engages oneself
in serious tobacco enterprise (as is
the case in Kasungu), most of the
time will be dedicated and spent on tobacco compared to that of delivering teaching
services. As quotes attest in the box, the more the alternatives to cope with salary
delays, the less the time teachers have for delivery of quality teaching services. This
would be exacerbated by the shortage of teachers in many parts of these districts,
especially rural areas. Coincidentally, salaries delay most in rural areas, most of these
coping mechanisms are highly practiced in rural areas (77.3%) and teacher shortage is
also high in these rural areas. The correlation means that delivery of quality teaching
services would be low in the rural areas compared to urban areas. Yet, Malawi is 85%
rural and 85% of the schools are in these rural areas, implying that 85% of these
schools are affected by the issue.
32

3.3 Government Efforts
3.3.1 New Methods
The Government of Malawi, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has
initiated some efforts in the execution of teachers salaries albeit not necessarily
targeting the quick receipt of teachers salaries. For example, currently there are
efforts to decentralize the preparation of Teachers Pay-Roll so that it is prepared at
district level. While this is intended to reduce the errors being experienced currently
(e.g. names of teachers missing on the roll), it would be one of the efforts to ensure
that the pay-roll is done in time to facilitate disbursement of the cash. However, the
success of such as initiative would be based on the trust and confidence existing
among the DEM, EDM and Ministry. The higher the level of confidence the higher
authorities have in their local district counterparts, the faster the process of approval
of the pay role [which will be prepared at district level but cash will be from higher
authorities] and the faster the disbursement of funds for salaries.
In similar efforts, the MOEST has been concerned with the security of the teachers’
salaries for long. There is usually the police force escort from the office of the DEM to
the Zones to ensure that the huge sums of money reach the zones safely. However,
the risk still remains with changing times, and more cases of robbery are reported in
different sectors including incidences on teachers’ salaries. This has prompted the
MOEST to pilot the MALSWITCH system in which every teacher involved is given a
Card which is used at the Malawi Savings Bank. As explained earlier on, the
Malswitch system delays the salaries even further at present depending on the
distance of schools from the banks and the bank efficiency.
33

3.3.2 Policy and Planning
a. The National Education Sector Plan (NESP)
The study took cognizance that the vision of the MOEST is to be a catalyst for socioeconomic
development, industrial growth and instrument for empowering the poor,
the weak and the voiceless (NESP 4 2008; 1) [as education enhances group solidarity,
national consciousness and tolerance of diversity (MGDS 5 2006:50)]. Furthermore the
mission is to provide quality and relevant education to the Malawi nation (NESP
2008:1). To realize the vision and its mission in accordance with strategic priorities
[namely, Basic Education, Secondary Education, Technical and Vocational, and
Higher Education], the education sector defined three thematic areas of intervention
during the ten year period of the current National Education sector Plan (NESP)
(2008 – 2017), namely;
1. Expand equitable access to education to enable all to benefit
2. Improve quality and relevance of education to reduce drop out and repetition
and promote effective learning
3. Improve governance and management of the system to enable more effective
and efficient delivery of services
While these interventions sound encouraging and comprehensive, a closer look at the
whole NESP document reveals that there is no strategic action towards efficient
delivery of salaries to teachers, neither the issue of teachers’ salary security. The third
strategy, in which one expects to see the actions towards efficiency, only issues of
accountability are taken into account. Overall, issues of teachers’ welfare are only
recognized in the form of furthering their educational qualifications. This shows that
4
National Education Sector Plan (2008), MOEST, Lilongwe; Malawi
5
Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (2006), MOEPD, Lilongwe, Malawi
34

it is not yet realized at higher administrative levels that salary delays cause such a setback
to delivery of quality teaching service.
b. The District Education Plan (DEP)
While one would be tempted to argue that the NESP is at higher level and too general
to identify such smaller issue, the study looked at all the District Education Plans
(DEP) for the districts visited and some more others (bringing the number to 13 –
30% of all Education districts in Malawi). The review of the DEP reveals that the
management of teachers’ salaries is not recognized as an issue regardless of the severe
impact it has on the teachers’ steadiness to deliver quality service. At district level,
major priorities are towards infrastructure development and pass rates. In terms of
governance and efficiency of the education system, only monitoring and supervision
are regarded as issues requiring attention. This lack of recognition of the issue implies
that there is a long way to go in order to improve the governance system and
efficiency of the salary system for teachers.
35

4.0 CONCLUSIONS
The study concludes that the education sector is important for the development of the
nation and delivery of quality services is paramount. However, the sector is quite big
and not easy to manage, such that it is difficult to look at all issues that affect the
delivery of quality services by the management of the sector. From a private sector
point of view, the study looked at the efficiency of the administrative system, with
salary timeliness as an indicator. This is to find out whether timeliness of salaries has
an impact on the delivery of the teaching service at primary school level. From the
findings, 100% of the teachers’ salaries delay and the study concludes that 87% of the
teachers are stressed with the timeliness of their salaries. As such their teaching is
affected, such that more than 30% confirmed that they do not teach normally when
their salaries have delayed.
A number of issues attest to the fact that the teachers are not happy and delivery of
services are not good as a result of salary delivery system; for example;
• Many teachers feel that their salaries are low and do not meet their household
needs. As they try to stay longer in the service to get experience and
promotion so that they would earn more, they are hardly promoted and
continue to stay at lower ranks. This makes them unhappy in their profession.
• On a monthly basis, the salaries come late, earliest being 29 th of the month
instead of 27 th , and the latest being the 7 th of the next month. This makes them
run into loans with high interest rates running. So, as creditors follow up with
them, they run into trouble with salary delays. They become restless and
others run into hiding, absenting themselves from the classes. Even their
households do not run properly and affect their commitment to delivery of
quality education service.
36

• The mode of salary access is also affecting their timeliness, especially those on
Malswitch Card. This is because; the banks take even longer to make the
money accessible by the teachers. Even those on cash system have challenges
of their own especially, when it comes to issues of security. Head teachers go
to collect the salaries without security and incidences of theft occur. As some
try to solve this problem by making sure that they are accompanied by one or
two fellow teachers, they deprive the pupils of the teaching services.
• Much as the salaries are low, several anomalies occur such are lower than
expected amounts, omission from the Pay-Roll and many others. In such cases
teachers will have to follow up with higher authorities to get their money,
they waste time and money to get this done and deprive pupils of the learning
time
• All these make teachers feel neglected by their employer, their motivation
goes down, have high wiliness to absent themselves from work and if they go
to work, they show aggressive behaviour which is not ideal for child mental
development
• Many of them have resorted to a number of coping mechanisms such as
business and agriculture. These mechanisms (e.g. tobacco growing) are labour
intensive and take away most of the teachers time to prepare and deliver
quality services in the education sector
These indeed have severe ramifications on the way the teaching services would be
delivered. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not known to be a problem in the
governance structure of the education sector. This is attested by the fact that it is not
identified in the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) at national level as well as in
the District Education Plans (DEP) at local level. As such it will take time to be
addressed, yet it is one of the factors affecting the delivery of quality education.
37

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
With these findings and conclusions, the study recommends that;
• The MOEST needs to regularize the promotion calendar so that it acts as a
motivation to teachers. This should be coupled with setting up and
implementation of a teacher performance monitoring mechanism that is more
systematic and transparent. This will raise their salaries on merit and will keep
them happy and longer.
• The management of the education system needs to decentralize the salary
processing system so that there is timely deliver of the salaries and reduce the
frequency of anomalies in both the amounts and the list itself.
• While decentralization of the management activities is recommended, there is
need to have sufficient human resources in all the District Education Offices to
ensure that the process is handled by competent hands.
• There is need to improve the monitoring of primary school teachers though
the primary Education Advisors (PEA) and involve members of the
community in appraising the conduct of teachers especially in after-work
activities that have the potential of competing with contact time with pupils.
• The Malswitch Cards system of paying out salaries to teachers has received a
wide spread outcry among the teachers such that it conveniences them
further. As such, it is recommended that this should only be on teachers in
urban schools than those in rural. If it is to go to rural, then the bank
38

esponsible should create village agencies so that teachers do have to travel to
town for their salaries. Furthermore, the system should be upgraded to real
Cash-Collection Cards rather than the current ones which are merely used as
identity cards.
• For the Malswitch specifically,
o MSB needs to ensure that implementation of the electronic payment
system is done in phases with those near bank facilities having their
cards activated first.
o There is need to ensure that facilities are in place before effecting the
implementation facility – in its present format, the electronic payment
not only encourages altruism but also imposes an implicit tax on
teachers salaries as it means they have to travel, wait in rest houses, pay
for food, etc in order to get their pay from urban centres where
availability of the money is not guaranteed.
o MALSWICH should work with MSB closely – after all both are
Government owned entities. MALSWICH needs to request that those
near MSB and other MALSWICH-connected banks are serviced first on
the pilot stage. MALAWTCH should also require a minimum of a single
auto teller before software is provided to a district education
management area. This two-way reinforcing beyond profit-making
would bring mutual and sustainable benefits to the electronic payment
programme.
• The uncertainty by teachers on Malswitch on whther their salaries are
available at the bank needs to be reduced or completely eliminated since it is
also responsible for haphazard movement of teachers to banks to check for pay
around pay days. This can be done through introduction of Portable Phone
39

ased information mechanisms that the MoEST can implement so that proper
and accurate information on availability of cash at the banks is transferred.
We hope that the above recommendations would help improve the situation and
motivate teachers towards delivery of quality teaching services.
6.0 REFERENCES
• Government of Malawi, 2008. National Education Section Plan (NESP) 2008 –
2017, Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MOEST) Guide Book,
Lilongwe, Malawi.
• Government of Malawi, 2009. Financial Report for Malawi, Ministry of
Finance Annual Release, Lilongwe, Malawi
• Government of Malawi 2009/2010. Budget Estimates for Year 2009/2010 Hand
Book, Ministry of Finance, Lilongwe, Malawi.
• Government of Malawi, 2009. Financial Report for Malawi – Education Sector,
Ministry of Finance Annual Release, Lilongwe, Malawi
• Malawi Economic Justice Network 2009: Budget Analysis Report for Malawi,
Annual Release , Lilongwe, Malawi.
40