Malawi - October 2025

Newly elected president, Peter Mutharika, announced on 19 October that from January 2026 secondary school education would be free, a policy he said was intended to remove the financial barriers that keep many children in Malawi out of school. According to data from the Ministry of Education, only 43 per cent of primary school students transitioned to public secondary schools in 2022. Primary education has been free in Malawi since 1994. While analysts generally welcomed the policy change as being potentially transformative, many warned about the impact that it could have on the country’s already overburdened educational system without adequate planning and resources. Teacher-pupil ratios can reach 1:100 in some schools and public schools are currently heavily dependent on fees.     

Sources: Nyasa Times (1), Data for Impact, Nyasa Times (2), Nation Online