Executive Summary - Centre for Language Studies

(i)to guide the Ministry of Education in the implementation of its policy onlocal language instruction at primary level.1.3 MethodologyAs stated in the introduction, before the language mapping survey for the northernpart of Malawi, the country had relied mostly on the data collected by the NSO innational population censuses. As alluded to earlier, these data were flawed.Notwithstanding these problems, these data provided a starting point for thissurvey. The survey team obtained the 1998 population census data from the NSO.The data showed languages that are spoken in different villages in every district inthe two regions. This information was used as a guiding tool for mapping thegeographical distribution of the languages/dialects spoken in respective districts.In addition, the information provided a picture on the ethnic identities of thepeople living in the districts. With this information at hand, the survey teamworked in collaboration with the Traditional Authorities (TAs) to authenticate thedata before sample villages were identified in each TA.1.4 Research teamThe survey team had 24 researchers and these were split into four teams. Twoteams were deployed in each region. Each team had 6 members one of whichsupervised the team. Also each team was allocated a vehicle. An attempt wasmade to have a gender balance in the research team during the recruitment of thetemporary research assistants. In this regard, 10 female and 8 male temporaryresearch assistants were recruited. This gender balancing did not in any waycompromise the recruitment criteria. All candidates had to undergo a rigorousinterview process.However, in the end the research team consisted of 11 females and 13 males. This11