Our Journey

This week I have had several conversations about the importance of education. It’s another one of those things that I take for granted as a North American, where public school is not only free but required through high school. It’s difficult to appreciate the debate of whether or not to send one’s children to school when public schools in the USA employ truant officers to follow-up on students who have been missing school. Yet education in Malawi is viewed as a privilege for most, and even a luxury.

My mind fills with snippets of conversations and stories and struggles of friends and church members to pursue education.

One youth member (age 22) is trying to complete Form 4 (12 grade), repeating so that he can improve his scores and apply for certificate or diploma courses. He is relentless in seeking school fees and attending class each day. One day as he rushed to class a young child shouted after him, “Where are you going in such a hurry?”“To school,” he replied. The child was confused, “School is not for big people like you, but for little ones, like us.” He stopped long enough to explain that no one was ever too old to finish his or her education.

There are many, like him, who see the value of education and will make any sacrifice to attain it. When we moved to this new house just before Christmas we hired another night guard. Yesterday he told us that in the three weeks since he has been employed with us, he has sent his four children to school and he has enrolled in night school himself. With only 1 and half months of salary he has invested it in education.

I also visited with an esteemed woman of our local church this week. She has a teachers’ diploma from the Teachers’ Training College of Malawi and a bachelor’s degree from Africa University, the United Methodist university in Mutare, Zimbabwe. She has sent her children (biological and the children of four sisters who have died) to receive higher education as well. But this all came at a great price.

She grew up in a village in Mulanje in the southern region. There she attended primary school to Standard (grade) 4 with all the children of her village. But when she returned to school in Standard 5 she was the only girl. For three years she continued her education in the village as the only girl and watched as her friends married, as young as 13, and began their families.

By Standard 8 even the chief began to pressure her family to take her out of school. So her grandmother sent her to live with an aunt in the city to finish secondary (high) school. And her grandmother told her not to return to the village until she had finished. She took this advice to heart and even continued on after secondary school to pursue her teaching certificate. And then, after 7 years, she returned to the village to reunite with her family, meet that same chief, and announce that the government would be appointing her as a primary school teacher.

She was privileged later in life to attend Africa University, although she had to make another sacrifice to do so, dropping out of the government tenure and pension program to pursue higher education. Despite some set backs and struggles, she and her husband now support four surviving siblings in the village and at least eight children of their own and orphaned. But none of this would have been possible without the education that she worked so hard for.

But it is so difficult to imagine and patiently pursue dreams of education when hungry mouths surround you. Although we do not pay Wilson an exorbitant salary, we are realizing that we do pay well above the average expat salary. With this money he now supports 9 people and has nearly finished a house for his mother (who keeps 7 people) in his home village. With all of these people looking to him, he worries that money spent on education is selfish or wasteful. He does not see how completing secondary school can assist his family, but only takes money away from them now.

And this leads me to the conversation I had with one of our wise advisors from Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe has enormous problems, there is a long history of value placed on education. The culture and country as a whole is extremely well-educated. And so the Dr. has been serving as the chair of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry while working in Malawi. As we finalized the plan for a church scholarship program he discussed the need for the church to be educating lay members and pastors on the value of education. And the BHEM emphasized in their scholarship guidelines that parents must make some contribution to the education of their children. The guidelines of the scholarship demonstrate that the church will stand alongside those families that are willing to invest in their children’s future.

Hosea 4:6a is quoted at least once a week in some conversation or context, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. The leaders of the Malawi UMC understand the importance of education – academic, professional and Biblical – and they bear witness to that value by seeking scholarships for pastors, their children and publishing a quarterly newsletter that encourages people to read and to study their Bibles.

I pray that this value spreads throughout the church and that we will see more and more adults and children investing in the one thing that can never be taken away from them, education.

Read Full Post »