Abstract
<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Ministry of Education in Malawi introduced a Life Skills Education program</span><span style="font-size: medium;">with the intention to empower children with appropriate information and skills to deal with social and health problems affecting the nation including the fight against HIV infections. This study investigated factors affecting the teaching of the Life skills education in four primary schools in the Zomba District, Malawi. Cornbleth’s (1990) notions of the structural and social contexts and Whitaker’s (1993) identification of key role players in curriculum implementation framed the study. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Findings suggest that the teaching of Life skills is constrained by a variety of social and structural contextual factors such as the poor conditions under which teachers are working; greater attention given to subjects such as Maths and Languages; the cascade model of training teachers and the short duration of training; the language in teachers guides were not accesibile to teachers; hunger and poverty of learners; lack of community support for sexual education; both teachers and learners being infected or affected by the AIDS/HIV pandemic; teachers felt it is inappropriate to teach sexual education to 9 and 10 year old learners.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">These findings indicate structural and social barriers to effective life skills education within the current framework. </span></p>
Highlights
Malawi is a country plagued by social and health problems, such as drug and substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancies and the HIV/AIDS pandemic
About 16.4% of Malawians of between the ages of 15 and 49 years are HIV positive (National AIDS Commission 2004:20). These social and health problems are on the increase among the youth who are regarded as a window of hope for the povertystricken nation (Malawi Ministry of Education 2000:6)
In 1999 Malawi’s Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture and the Malawi Institute of Education, with United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) support, developed a life skills curriculum that was piloted in 24 primary schools
Summary
Malawi is a country plagued by social and health problems, such as drug and substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancies and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. About 16.4% of Malawians of between the ages of 15 and 49 years are HIV positive (National AIDS Commission 2004:20). These social and health problems are on the increase among the youth who are regarded as a window of hope for the povertystricken nation (Malawi Ministry of Education 2000:6). According to Yankah and Aggleton (2008:465) “life skills education has been advocated as a key component of HIV and AIDS education for young people” for the last 20 years. Life skills education was introduced in Malawian primary schools as a way of empowering children with appropriate information and skills in the fight against HIV infections and AIDS and for them to deal with various other everyday social and health problems affecting them
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