Fighting resource scarcity – sustainability in the education system of Malawi – case study of Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay district

Abstract

Malawi and specifically the Northern Region remains a mostly agricultural and very rural country. Hence, many households rely on agricultural activities, either as smallholder farmers or employees on bigger farms. Furthermore, the Malawian population growth of three per cent per annum is very high, which is why the demand for food and other resources like water or energy increases drastically. As ‘Agriculture’ is a subject within the Malawian curriculum this article focuses on its role and content. The research focuses on the teaching methods and content of the subject. A main focus was put on the way the concept of sustainability is being taught and the areas of sustainability that are being covered. A qualitative methodological approach, combining document analysis, ethnographical research and fourteen semi-structured interviews with teachers at public secondary schools in the Northern Region provided an in-depth insight into how the concept of sustainability is being grasped and taught. The importance and chances of teaching ‘Agriculture’ as a subject became visible, while at the same time many general and subject-specific obstacles remain and partly diminish the positive effects of the subject. Teachers are aware of the concept of sustainability, without necessarily being familiar with the terminology ‘sustainability’.

Keywords:

• Sustainability
• ‘Agriculture’ as subject
• secondary schools
• educational research
• qualitative research

Introduction

Two global trends still dominate the debate on sustainability in science, economy, civil society and the media: (1) the increasing resource shortages globally; (2) the climate change debate.

1. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the global population has increased severely. In 2050, global population numbers are estimated to rise to around 9 billion (UN, 2012). The scenario of a growing world population is also mirrored in the rapid growth of metropolitan areas (FAO 2011, p. 1). Those urban areas are crucial. Already in 2014 54% of the global population lived in urban agglomerations. In 2050 the number will rise to 66% (United Nations 2014). Moreover, the number of megacities is rising significantly. While New York City was the only urban area with more than 10 million inhabitants in 1950, 28 cities reached this mark in 2015 (Hauchler, Mesnner, & Nuscheler, 2001, p. 102).

This demographic development, rising demands and an increasing level of living standards (in many countries) lead to various resource shortages. One example for such a resource shortage is the mineral phosphorus (P). Phosphorus is used as a fertilizer in food production and is of high value for farmers. It is estimated that in 2030 the peak of phosphorus production (‘peak phosphorus’) will be reached (WBGU, 2011, p. 47; Cordell et al. 2009). Looking at the agricultural sector in low income or transition countries, the resource shortage becomes even more obvious. Against this background, the importance of finding ways to deal with food related resource shortages also by way of the education system becomes apparent.

1. The vulnerability¹ of many regions in the world will increase through climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change as

a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. (IPCC, 2012, p. 557)

In one of their newer reports, the IPCC (2013, p. 4) concludes that the ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal […] and the concentration of greenhouse gases have increased’. Furthermore, the number of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, storms, heat waves, etc. has increased. These events add up to the already complex sociopolitical challenges of population growth and concurrent depletion of natural resources (Dodman, 2008; Leichenko & O’Brien, 2008, 29ff.). Climate change and climate extremes as well as resource conflicts are often linked to one another.

In Malawi, the above-mentioned issues have become surprisingly obvious in recent years. Malawi, a very small landlocked country in Sub-Saharan Africa with around 16 million citizens, remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and its ranking in the UNDP Human Development Report in 2014 was 174th out of 187 (UNDP, 2014, p. 162). A majority of the population of nearly 90% lives in rural areas and relies on their own agricultural activities as smallholders. Regarding the energy and electricity supply for Malawian society the huge gap between urban and rural areas is very significant. Within urban areas 33% have access to electricity in their dwelling, whereas in rural areas only around 2% have access to electricity in their dwelling. This huge gap remains when taking a look at nearby electricity access (100 m near dwelling). 80% of Malawians who live in urban areas have an electricity access nearby, whereas this number is still very low for rural Malawians with only 14% (IHS, 2012, p. 124). Therefore, the vast majority of smallholder farmers use only manual ways of farming. Due to a shortage of electricity supply the majority of the rural population use charcoal and firewood for lighting and cooking. This increases deforestation and soil erosion, which highly affects agricultural yields.

The growing pressure on resources and the possibility of increasing scarcity is anything but abstract for Malawi when looking at and analysing past population growth, the still existing population pattern and future population scenarios. From 1985 to 2011 the Malawian population doubled from 7.2 to 14.4 million people and will reach 28 million in 2033. To maintain current food supply which is already at a poor level the agricultural output would have to be increased by 100% until 2033 without having any effect on poverty reduction. All this leads to the situation that currently high population growth poses a significant threat to agriculture, resources and any progress towards more sustainability within Malawi’s agricultural system.

Population growth is likely to increase pressures on land and on wider natural resources, such as forests and fisheries, with still more fragmented and smaller landholdings, loss of land to housing, extension onto steeper slopes, unsustainable cultivation methods, and soil loss. (Dorward & Chirwa, 2015, p. 9)

Many studies have proven that growth in the agricultural sector has a higher poverty reducing effect than economic growth in mining, manufacturing or any other non-agricultural sector (Christiaensen, Demery, & Kuhl, 2011; Dorosh & Thurlow, 2014).

This context of the combined challenges of global warming, scarce resources and population growth on the one hand and the chances of sustainable agricultural growth on the other lead to the main research question of this study: How far does education contribute to sustainability concerning the topics of agriculture and energy in Malawian society? The analysis focused on the situation of Malawi (Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay districts) and was approached as a case study. Within the subject ‘Agriculture’ this article focuses on how the concept of sustainability is being taught at secondary schools in the research area as well as the question what kind of impact this subject could have on Malawian society more generally. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Firstly the methodology of the empirical study will be described. In the third section, some information concerning agriculture and energy in Malawi will be given as a background to the empirical study. Section four then deals with sustainability as a topic of Malawian education. Finally in section five, the findings of the case study will be considered in detail. The paper ends with conclusions.

Methodology

Apart from an extensive literature review a document analysis, ethnographical research and some qualitative data collection were conducted. The document analysis focused on Agriculture textbooks as well as agriculture examination papers used by the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB). The ethnographical research analysed the use of the school gardens during Agriculture lessons in specific or within the school days in general. A qualitative approach was chosen in order to get some in-depth information from involved teachers at selected secondary schools. Therefore a semi-structured interview guideline was developed. As the selected districts in the Northern Region of Malawi are predominantly rural and to a large extent remote, many smallholder farmers are forced to use woods for energy purposes and use manual ways of sowing and harvesting, which decreases agricultural yields or at least puts them significantly under pressure. Therefore, the authors selected districts within the northern parts of Malawi (Figure 1). Hence, a multi-modal approach was selected to get some context information, so that the results of the interviews could be better contextualized.

Figure 1. Research area in Malawi. Source: M. M. Kretzer, based on: Malawi Spatial Data Portal (MASDAP) 2013.

To ensure that appropriate questions were developed, which were also formulated in an understandable language, a pre-test was done in May 2015 following Oksenberg, Cannell, and Graham (1991). The local expertise from Mzuzu University helped to eradicate existing pitfalls within the developed interview guideline. In June and July 2015 interviews were conducted by two of the authors. This approach was chosen in order to ensure that the interviewers were always the same people and to thereby reduce the risk of interviewer-related biases as much as possible. All interviews were done face-to-face in the research area with all related benefits and risks (Loosveldt, 2008, p. 201). Furthermore, all interviews were conducted in a staff room or an empty classroom to ensure a familiar setting for the interviewed teacher. At the beginning of every interview an introductory briefing took place as well as a debriefing at the end (Kvale, 2007, pp. 55, 56; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 128).

All interview partners were teachers at randomly selected public schools within the research area and they signed an informed consent form prior to the interview (Singer, 2008, p. 85). The survey included 14 teachers (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998, p. 56) from six different secondary schools. All ‘Agriculture’ teachers at the six selected schools took part in the research. The qualitative case study approach offered the opportunity to get deep insights concerning the research question and helped to develop the in-depth understanding needed for further quantitative studies. Of course the results are limited as concerning generalizability. Data analysis was done by way of content interpretation.

The interview guide itself consisted of ten questions concerning the role of the subject ‘Agriculture’ in comparison to other subjects, the equipment at schools and the taught content (See Appendix 1 or contact the corresponding author for further details).

The interviews took between 23 and 41 min. Three districts within the Northern Region were selected as research areas for this study. The main reasons behind this are twofold. Firstly, the Northern Region has quite unique agricultural patterns compared to the Southern region and partly to the Central Region, such as for example, more livestock activities, more children involved in agriculture and less intercropping (IHS, 2012, pp. 130–139). Secondly, the Northern Region is far more rural and the distances to the centres, like the capital Lilongwe or the commercially important city Blantyre in the south, are very long. Therefore, the Northern Region remains more remote.

Resource scarcity in Malawi: agriculture and energy sector

As indicated in the Third Integrated Household Survey, 85% of the households in Malawi are engaged in agriculture. This relates mainly to crop production, only 44% breed livestock. Within the districts of the Northern Region the smallholders are significantly more often engaged in livestock activities than the smallholders in other regions. Compared to the Southern Region with only 37.9% and the Central Region with 47.4 and 58.4% of the households in the Northern Region breed livestock (IHS, 2012, p. 130). Furthermore, tobacco contributes to nearly 50% of all export revenues and together with some other cash crops like tea, sugar and cotton it amounts to over 80% of all export revenues (UN Foodsecurity 1). Malawi’s agriculture, as aforementioned, is mainly rain-fed, which is astonishing as Lake Malawi is Africa’s third largest freshwater lake. Many studies have shown the positive impact of irrigation systems especially if households do some kind of intercropping and/or on marginalized, low-income households or youth-headed households (Nkhata, Jumbe, & Mwabumba, 2014). The lack of irrigation systems is one of the reasons why Malawi was and still is vulnerable to food insecurity. The nutrition situation in Malawi remains critical. Even in years with a good harvest of maize, which is the predominant crop, the Malawian population and especially children have a very unbalanced diet. The extremely low dietary diversity combined with very high levels of poverty accounts for the dramatic child malnutrition rates of around 50%. The low levels of intercropping, especially in the northern parts of Malawi make the region more dependent on maize. Maize develops high yields for the smallholder farmers, but if the conditions are not perfect, maize performs badly, for example in water- and/or nutrient-limited environments. Hence, compared to many other staple crops, maize requires much more nutrients and is susceptible to non-optimal environments (Kerr, Berti, & Shumba, 2010, p. 1466).

Maize remains the main staple crop in Malawi by far as it is grown on over 70% of all arable land and makes Malawi one of the highest consumer countries of maize on a per capita basis globally (Tchale, 2006, p. 76). Other important agricultural products mainly grown by smallholder farmers are tobacco, soy, groundnuts, cassava, sorghum and millet. Tobacco, tea and sugar are mainly produced by large-scale farmers for export purposes. However, due to a mainly rain-fed agricultural system the levels of agricultural productivity are very low and by far below capacity, despite the fact that over 60% of Malawi are arable (FANRPAN, 2012, p. 8). Due to a dense and growing population the average farm is only 0.8 ha. This limitation of available land plus the aforementioned reliance on rain-fed agriculture as well as soil degradation have led to a strong decrease in maize yields per capita. The animal protein intake is very low, especially amongst children, and covered by over 2/3 with fish.

The extremely low levels of purchasing power in Malawi, poorly developed marketing systems and limited export potential make rural livelihood diversification difficult for most of the rural poor. Hence they are caught in a maize poverty trap, unable to move beyond subsistence maize production and constantly facing the threat of food shortages. (Harrigan, 2008, p. 238)

To address this problematic situation President Bingu wa Mutharika, elected in 2004, implemented the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) in 2005/06. Yields improved significantly and also quite instantly. Malawi produced a significant surplus and was even able to export grain to neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe or even Lesotho and Swaziland (Tafirenyika, 2013). There is a widespread discussion on whether the FISP addressed food insecurity and helped to reduce poverty in Malawi or whether it had no or only a minor effect on the Malawian agriculture sector (Arndt, Pauw & Thurlow, 2016). In 2012, Malawi again faced a widespread food crisis due to erratic rains and for the first time since the start of FISP Malawi was again challenged to produce enough food for their population. This led to a discussion on how effective and sustainable the FISP in specific and subsidy programs in general were, as well as whether there are other and better ways to improve agricultural outcomes in a sustainable way, for example, through changes in the education system.

As aforementioned, the energy and electricity supply in Malawi is very unbalanced and mono-structured. All generated electricity is supplied by a sole state-owned company, which is also the sole grid operator. The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) delivers electricity only to around 8% of the Malawian population and is still faced with regular load-shedding (Zalengera, 2014, p. 336). Electricity is nearly to 99% produced through hydropower and only some minor fossil-fuel run generators produce electricity, mainly for Likoma and Chizumulu Island and Mzuzu city.

As hydroelectric power is the country’s only source for electricity, the erosion of soil and the overgrowth of plants in the watershed due to excessive fertilization frequently clogs the turbines, resulting in daily power outages. Erosion, soil depletion, and flooding caused by deforestation prevent crops from growing during the rainy season, hence contributing to widespread food shortages. (Glasson, Frykholm, Mhango, & Phiri, 2006, p. 10)

Other sources of renewable energy like wind, solar energy or biomass are nearly not used at all or only by private households or few companies like Illovo Sugar (Illovo Sugar, 2015). Especially in an agricultural society like Malawi the potential of biomass energy production is quite high. Malawi produces significant quantities of timber from various forest plantations, mainly in the Northern Region. During the harvest, huge quantities of forest residues like the stumps, branches or the top remain unused in the plantation. These residues are partly used by local sawyers, but also to a significant amount not used at all. Therefore, a huge biomass potential exists to meet the increasing electricity demand of the growing Malawian society, but remains nearly unused (Zalengera, 2014, pp. 339–341). On the other side, Malawian households use mainly paraffin and firewood to meet their energy demand for lighting and cooking. As a result deforestation in Malawi is a severe problem in many parts of the country and does not only affect soil erosion, but also the production of hydropower. In the Northern Region 95% use firewood for cooking, which is the highest value within Malawi (IHS, 2012, pp. 120, 121).

Sustainability as an educational topic in Malawi

Regarding the education system in Malawi, the overall performance still remains very low. After the first democratic elections in 1994 there had been plenty of national and donor-driven political initiatives trying to ensure meaningful teaching and learning at Malawian schools. Therefore, the new Constitution of Malawi highlights under Chapter IV, Section 25 the right to education and states that ‘primary education shall consist of at least five years of education’ (Constitution of Malawi, 1998). From 1994 onwards, the former president Bakili Muluzi implemented Free Primary Education (FPE) which led to an enormous increase in enrolment rates. With the implementation of FPE the quality of education decreased as the government did not consider adequately financial implications of FPE (Dzama, 2006, p. 248). Various educational reforms in the 1990s and 2000s tried to overcome the previous unsatisfactory situation and to improve the quantity and quality of education. These reforms were often called ‘zasintha’ (things have changed; Kayambazinthu, 1999). However, the close relationship between education, in specific enrolment rates, and agricultural yields remains up until today. Due to a famine in 2002 and 2003 enrolment rates again decreased significantly and many dropout pupils never attended a school again.

High enrolment in primary education is a direct result of the introduction of free primary education in 1994. The sudden decline in 2002 and 2003 was a result of a famine brought on by lack of rain and resulted in most pupils, especially the youngest, dropping out of school. (The World Bank, 2010, 142)

Various national evaluation studies from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and international evaluation studies from the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) still showed the on-going challenges. SACMEQ study mainly focused on the supply of textbooks at Malawian schools and had partly shocking results. Only 24% of grade 6 learners at Malawian schools had a mathematics textbook for themselves in 2007, whereby on average in the other evaluated southern and eastern African countries of the SACMEQ study the amount was significantly higher and reached 41% (SACMEQ III, 2011). In this context it is also very important to highlight the downward development between the SACMEQ II and the SACMEQ III study (SACMEQ III, 2011, p. 55). Some studies even revealed that in 2008 up to 200 learners had to share a textbook in science or agriculture (Castel, Phiri & Stampini 2010; DeStefano, 2013). Keeping these general obstacles in mind, the textbooks of the subject Agriculture and the teaching of it contain quite significant aspects of a sustainability concept, which will be highlighted in more detail later. The overall aim of the subject Agriculture in Malawi is to equip learners with the relevant knowledge and skills about agriculture to be able to work within the agricultural sector at a later stage (Vandenbosch, 2006, p. 33). Some authors highlighted the importance and effects of traditional indigenous knowledge and beliefs for science learning in Malawi, especially regarding the nexus of medical use of plants for traditional medicine and the expansion of agricultural land through slash-and-burn activities.

However, the acquisition and application of traditional ecological knowledge was marginalized due to the severe impact of deforestation and economic pressures for survival. For most Malawians, nature is resource for survival, and survival is not taken for granted. (Glasson et al., 2006, p. 11)

As highlighted throughout the paper, agriculture remains largely the backbone of the economy. This led to the situation that agriculture is one of the core subjects at Malawian secondary schools. Furthermore MANEB mentioned the importance of practical forms of assessment at schools for agriculture as a subject. This, in addition to the definition of 22 learning objectives, gives a clear picture of the aim of agriculture, which entails various aspects of sustainability and mentions also sustainable use. Within this context, Makombe highlighted the importance of more intense agricultural education through better agricultural lessons, which afterwards might improve food security in Malawi (Makombe, Lewin & Fisher 2010). The importance of teaching a holistic sustainability concept within the Malawian Agriculture curriculum is very clear. Next to many learning objectives two out of the eight topics in the Agriculture curriculum are very closely related to sustainability. The topic ‘Agriculture and environment’ and ‘Challenges in agricultural development’ have sustainability and resource scarcity at the centre (Vandenbosch, 2006, pp. 46, 47). The Bunda College of Agriculture is the relevant research and training institution for agricultural experts in Malawi. Earlier research highlighted some positive developments, like a significant increase of female students, but also mentioned existing obstacles like the limited outreach into society and the unequal age distribution of their employees (Sundstol, 2004, p. 4). The recent enrolment rates for the subject ‘Agriculture’ are also declining and not sufficient to meet the demand for teachers at secondary schools alone (Evans & Rose, 2007, pp. 46, 47). Additionally, there are plenty of educational initiatives from various international NGOs and other supranational institutions. Many of them focus on adult education to raise awareness of the relationship between the increasing effects of climate change, the management of natural resources and the management of agricultural production.

As mentioned in the Malawian Science/Agriculture curriculum, practical assessments and practical learning are also part of the curriculum. Therefore school gardens are quite widespread in Malawi, but their way of educational usage varies a lot. Furthermore, at many schools there are no school gardens at all or only abandoned ones. A comparative report of the FAO highlighted the benefits and still existing pitfalls of garden-based learning at schools in Malawi and four other southern African countries. If the school gardens are used at schools in Malawi, many teachers include some sustainable gardening methods like composting or water saving through mulching and sunken beds, but the school gardens also compete with the community if water supply is scarce during the dry season (FAO, 2007, p. 14). Furthermore, many authors like Shizha criticize the sole concentration on Western or modern concepts within Agriculture or science curricula alongside with ignoring indigenous knowledge (IK) (Shizha, 2010), whereby in some science curricula, like for example in Ghana, IK and modern ways of agriculture are both taught in an equal and non-discriminatory way (Anderson, 2006; see also for other examples Shizha, 2013, pp. 10–13). All in all the challenge of very poor performance of pupils in all science-related subjects remains in many African countries. Hence, Dzama highlighted the alarming magnitude of the poor performance of pupils in Malawi (Dzama, 2006, p. 90).

Case study of Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay district

As aforementioned semi-structured interviews with 14 teachers in the research area were conducted between June and July 2015. The interviewed teachers mentioned the importance of the subject for economic development and food security of Malawi. Hence, they also focused on the huge potential of agriculture as a subject, because the content relates to the daily life of pupils and their day-to-day experiences and knowledge. Within this context, the teachers addressed the current status of the subject ‘Agriculture’ compared to other subjects at secondary schools. They pointed out the importance of giving ‘Agriculture’ the status of a core subject, too. If it remained an optional subject this would lead to low enrolment-rates. Many pupils do not select ‘Agriculture’, so that it needs a boost from the MoEST. One of the major obstacles in this context is the high share of non-specialist teachers. Teacher A, who worked for many years in Mzimba district described the situation at her school:

In terms of human resources we can say, we are in a poor situation. Is because most of the colleges here in Malawi they don’t offer education in Agriculture as a subject, so most of the teachers, who teach at secondary school level they are not teachers of Agriculture. Just here as the four teachers, you can see we are four teachers, but if you can ask, who did Agriculture at a college, none of us did study it. We studied Mathematics, History, Biology or other subjects, but none of us Agriculture.²

This very dramatic and not optimal situation is further enhanced by various international NGOs, which constitute as possible employers. As the salaries of international NGOs are often significantly higher than those, the Malawian government pays for an average secondary school teacher, Agriculture experts are driven out of school teaching by adverse incentives. Another teacher (teacher B), a female teacher with 17 years of work experience at a secondary school in Mzimba district, mentioned the importance of the subject Agriculture for all pupils, even those who are not able to finish their school career. She summarized her ideas with the following statement:

In another way I can say that this topic is important if somebody can really be serious about this topic is very important, if you talk about Geography, maybe you can compare it with Chichewa, Geography and other subjects. But this things, … maybe even a Form 4 student can stop maybe school from Form 4, but the knowledge that he has learned in class, he can also add them in their families, how you, he can raise animals, how he can do some cropping, some practical’s in their homes, so even so he has not maybe done much in the school, but that knowledge can still help him or her in order to harvest more yield in their homes, so I think this subject is still important in our country.

Other teachers, mainly in Mzimba district, but also some in Karonga district, highlighted the importance of cash crops for the Malawian economy. This is and should also be part of Agriculture lessons, so that cash crops are also being planted, harvested and managed in a sustainable way, because cash crops cover huge areas of arable land in Malawi. Teacher B mentioned:

On top of that we should not forget about the cash crops, you know we grow crops like tobacco, which we depend on very much and then we have other crops like tea, coffee, you see, all those they are bringing foreign currency into the country. So it makes really Agriculture a very important subject to be taught in schools.

Within this context Mawere highlighted the importance of teaching Indigenous Knowledge (IK) at Agriculture lessons as this knowledge can be connected with the day-to-day knowledge of the pupils.

Since indigenous knowledge is knowledge that arises directly out of the children’s real-life experiences, its incorporation into the school curriculum can motivate and bolster the intellectual fortunes and interests of the learners as students realise that recognition is given to what they already do, know, and say in their own communities. (Mawere, 2015, p. 63)

Despite this perception the Malawian Agriculture curriculum does not contain much IK and focuses more on Western or modern science concepts. Phiri analysed the Primary Curriculum and Assessment Reform’s (PCAR) science and technology curriculum and concluded that the document only mentioned IK in connection with indigenous technology and not as a holistic IK concept (Phiri, 2008, p. 64). This lack of IK or sheer teaching of indigenous technology, rather than a holistic approach is not a sole Malawian problem. It is instead very common in many African countries (Glasson, Mhango, Phiri, & Lanier, 2010; Koosimile & Suping, 2015; Ogunniyi, 2007).

Recent research showed the sole concentration on Western or modern science theory taught mainly in European languages (Glasson et al., 2010; p. 129). This close nexus between the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) and science-related subjects is closely linked to language attitude and researched in several African countries. Many African teachers or principles have a very negative attitude towards the indigenous languages of their country (see e.g. for South Africa: Kretzer, 2013). Contrarily, earlier research in one of the three research districts already revealed the relationship between literacy competence and agricultural content. Furthermore this day-to-day agricultural content can help to improve the very low literacy and numeracy levels of pupils in Malawi.

Therefore especially for rural areas the incorporation of agricultural aspects into every day school life can be very helpful. This could also help to reduce the still high numbers of illiterate pupils or pupils who have only an emergent or basic reading level. Agricultural contents may help to bridge the gap between learning to read in schools and the perceived benefit of that competency. Furthermore, higher literacy and numeracy competencies plus the learned theoretical knowledge and adapted skills regarding agricultural content help to improve agricultural efficiency. (Engler & Kretzer, 2014, p. 229)

Another teacher (teacher C), who worked eight years in Zimbabwe and already 15 years in Nkhata Bay district in Malawi, focused on the importance of the practical aspects of the subject. He and also other teachers highlighted the lack of school gardens at their school or the misconception regarding the way of using these schools gardens during Agriculture lessons. Some teachers see and use the school garden as their private garden or complain about the short duration of one lesson with 35 min, which hardly allows for inclusion of practical lessons at a school garden if they are at all existent. The majority of the schools under investigation had no school gardens at all and the interviewed teachers indicated that their school had a garden in the past or that at schools they worked at previously a school garden existed. Nevertheless some schools owned a school garden, but these school gardens were between 200 and 500 m away from the school premises and without any clear indication of their boundaries. Hence, to use a school garden within a lesson of 35 min seems quite challenging. Additionally, some school gardens were not maintained or no one was responsible for taking care of them (Figure 2). Teacher C summarized the situation as follows.

Now there are problems in teaching the subject because mostly we are teaching agriculture … theoretically, we are using a lot of theory other than practical because the skills can be transferred later if we apply or teach theory plus and then we go out into the gardens and then demonstrate how to do a particular practical, so that they should be able to acquire that skill practical as well and if that was the approach then that would help in … excellent. But now there is a shortfall in that, there is a problem in that, practical is lacking, we are testing mostly theory and then even the practical which we conduct during examinations they are … mostly theoretical, we don’t go to the gardens, assess students in terms of what they are doing in the gardens. So … that is weakening the subject a little bit.

A more practical orientation of the subject Agriculture could help to include more IK and broaden and deepen the knowledge of sustainable ways of doing agriculture as the pupils are then able to apply the terminology ‘sustainability’ in a practical way. Teacher E, who just started recently working as an Agriculture teacher sees the lack of practical orientation of the subject as the main obstacle for the whole teaching process. She further indicated:

In fact I can say that the equipment is not enough, mostly the thing that we are doing in Malawi we just teach theory, we just say this is a plough, most of the student they don’t know what is a plough they even, especially in this maybe … remote areas they don’t know what is a plough, you just tell them a plough has got this what? parts, but they have not seen those things, so … I can say that the situation is not very conducive, most of the things you just teach them as a theory, but in order to see the most practical it is very difficult and those practical’s that are just very few, you can talk about soil, which is still there, talk about maybe plants like tomatoes, goats, locally goats, those are some of the things that are there, but the equipment and some of the things to do practical they are not, … not really found in our schools.

Teacher D spoke much about the incorporation of IK into the Agriculture content. Her motivation was twofold. On the one side she wants to ensure that traditional knowledge is not lost or totally replaced by Western ways of doing agriculture. On the other side she aims at using traditional ways of agriculture as they were and are sustainable as well. Hence, she focused on the differences of hybrid seeds vs. traditional seeds. From her experience the majority of smallholder farmers prefer traditional seeds for cassava and sweet potatoes. When it comes to maize the picture is more diverse and ambivalent. Due to the higher prices of hybrid seeds some smallholder farmers still plant traditional maize seeds, but many use the hybrid seeds. The textbooks also advocate the hybrid seeds as their yields per square metre are higher than their traditional counterparts. Therefore teacher D described the content of the textbooks and the curriculum in the following way:

The curriculum in fact, for the, there are so many in fact crops, like sweet potatoes, so the Malawians they plant local varieties, but if we talk about maize, we encourage they must according to the book they talk about crop improvement, whereby we show them that, you know that in order to increase the, they must plant the hybrids, … so in another way we still encourage like for maize that they should really buy those seeds from the shops, but for sweet potatoes, cassava they just use their home, the remaining ones, they take these stems and plant for another season, so this are one of the things they can do.

Finally teachers were very insecure about the content or definition of the term ‘sustainability’, which became very obvious during the interviews. Teachers used the word ‘sustainability’ in the context of ‘to sustain skills’ or ‘to sustain food security’. Even with this part misinterpretation regarding the terminology, teachers were aware of the meaning and content without being specifically able to define the word. This is not very surprising as the Agriculture school books mainly use the terminology ‘conservation’ instead of ‘sustainability’ (Figure 3). Teacher B indicated that in terms of material, especially textbooks, the schools were not well supplied. In his classes he could only give one textbook to his 60 pupils. He further said:

And then in terms of lab equipment, it is insufficient, we do a lot of improvisation, we improvise a lot, we look for empty bottles, here and there we try to make some test, to make some diggers from them […] we are, fortunately we are lucky, we are three teachers, but those who are qualified, we are two, but as for the area there are many who do not have Agriculture teachers at all.

As aforementioned the MANEB highlighted the importance of practical assessments during the various examinations in their policy documents. An analysis of the current MANEB Agriculture examination paper did not even include one form of practical assessment. All 14 questions throughout the examination document had to be answered with written statements. Therefore, all 14 questions focused on basic theoretical agricultural knowledge about various aspects of the subject, rather than their practical application (MANEB, 2015).

Figure 2. School garden in Nkhata Bay district. Source: Michael M. Kretzer 07 2015.

Figure 3. Example of agriculture school book. Source: Michael M. Kretzer 07 2015.

Conclusion

Taking the empirical findings of our study into account a change in the education system is a precondition for a greater environmental transformation. This transformation might lead to a complete rethinking of the term sustainability in Malawi and might be a role model for other countries. The analysis of the textbooks, the school gardens and the interviews showed the existing obstacles of ‘Agriculture’ as a subject. First, the majority of agriculture teachers are not trained in the subject, but rather in various different subjects. Second, the equipment for Agriculture lessons is extremely limited, even for Malawian standards or compared to the other subjects taught in Malawi. Third, teachers highlighted the importance of teaching IK equivalently to Western ways of doing agriculture. Fourth, an increased usage of school gardens is necessary to teach Agriculture in a more practical and learner-centred way. Hence, all schools need to have a school garden, including a real commitment of the whole school community. Only a maintained school garden can be used in a pedagogic way. This could help to increase the awareness of pupils for a holistic understanding of nature, which includes sustainable ways of doing agriculture. Fifth, Agriculture should be a core subject for secondary schools and also one of the subjects assessed at the secondary school leaving examinations. This upgrade of the subject Agriculture would help to increase its status compared to other school subjects. Furthermore, through an increasing availability of electricity for the rural population the deforestation process could be slowed down and finally stopped, too. Hence, the rural population could use electricity for cooking and lighting. If these changes are implemented within the Agriculture lessons the knowledge of agriculture in general and the awareness of more sustainable ways of doing agriculture in specific might increase, which could again help to improve even the livelihood of the rural population.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the participating teachers at the involved schools in Karonga, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay district and to the Department of Education, Northern Education Divison in Malawi for their support. Thanks to Prof. Dr. Andreas Dittmann (Department of Human Geography and Development Research, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen), MSc. Martin Wiesmaier (ZEU) and Joshua Kumwenda (Mzuzu University) for their help in bringing this study to fruition. The conclusions reached are solely those of the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Exposure to contingencies and stress, and difficulty in coping with them. Vulnerability has thus two sides: an external side of risks, shocks and stress to which an individual or household is subject; and an internal side which is defencelessness, meaning a lack of means to cope without damaging loss’ (Chambers, 1989, p. 1).

2. All interviews were slightly edited regarding formulations or repeating of words to ensure a better reading of these interviews.

Appendix 1.

Interview Guide Malawi 2015

Table

Person:

Institution:

Day/Time:

Place:

Questions

1. What is the role of the subject Agriculture/Natural Science within PCAR?

2. What are the main aims of the subject Agriculture in Malawi?

3. How is the general situation/equipment (regarding human resources, materials and other aspects) of your school regarding teaching in general and teaching Agriculture in specific?

4. What kind of areas and aspects of the concept of sustainability are part of Agriculture and/or the general curriculum?

5. What ideas or concepts are taught regarding the usage of water or energy within Agriculture or common school days? Is the concept of sustainability taught/used?

6. Are school gardens common in Malawi? How are they used within Agriculture lessons? (Are pupils responsible for these gardens including watering, cultivation and harvesting?)

7. Is indigenous knowledge part of the subject Agriculture or within the general science curriculum?

8. How much funding/support do you receive from the government? Is it adequate for agricultural activities? Does the school raise funds through extra-cultural activities?

9. Do you have the infrastructure that is used in agricultural activities?

10. How much time is set aside for both agricultural practicals and theory?