6. Selection, Admission and Placement of Untrained Teachers

It has been possible to analyse the characteristics of untrained teachers most of whom are enrolled in MIITEP. The database indicates that most trainees have JCE qualifications from DECs (Malawi College of Distance Education schools). The next largest number have JCE from Government schools. It is noticeable that the proportion with MSCE is highest in cohort 1 and 3 but low in all other cohorts (Table 14).

Table 14: Qualifications of MIITEP Trainees and Other Untrained Teachers

Cohort	GCE	JCEDist.	JCEGovt	MSCEDist.	MSCEGovt	Other	Total
1	14	9	7	615	1659	25	2330
2		1654	880	55	44	1	2636
3	12	707	200	421	1166	17	2526
4	1	1717	645	75	47	2	2491
5	5	1117	447	248	663	9	2494
6		1776	646	63	112	8	2611
Total	32	6980	2825	1477	3691	62	15067
Untrained	1	5561	1928	314	611	24	8439
Grand Total							23506

The age structure of MIITEP trainees is as shown below. 13% are between 30 and 40 years old and over 86% are under 30 (Table 15).

Table 15: Age of Untrained Teachers (%)

Cohort	Age
	20-30	30-40	40+
1	90.6	8.8	0.6
2	71.2	27.0	1.8
3	90.5	8.9	0.6
4	75.2	23.1	1.7
5	88.9	10.5	0.6
6	90.8	9.0	0.3
Untrained	90.8	8.6	0.6
Total	86.6	12.6	0.8

Untrained teachers were mostly appointed in 1994. The distribution of appointment dates is shown below for all untrained teachers appointed since 1993 (Table 16).

Table 16: Date of Appointment of Untrained Teachers

Date of Appointment	Number
94	13500
95	300
96	2556
97	6790
98	460
Total	23606

The distribution of trainees by sex is shown in Figure 7. Males outnumber females by 13,820 to 9,880 across all the cohorts. It is only amongst untrained teachers not in the MIITEP cohort that females outnumber males (by 4,640 to 3,800). Nationally 39% of primary teachers are female.

Figure 7: MIITEP Trainees by Sex

About two-thirds of untrained teachers are located in schools which have more than 50% untrained teachers. Data on small schools with enrolments of less than 500 indicates that well over three-quarters of the untrained teachers in these schools are in schools which have less than 50% trained teachers.

MIITEP 1998 data suggests that 32% of untrained teachers are in schools with less than 5 teachers and a further 38% in schools with less than 11 teachers (Table 17).

Table 17: Distribution of Untrained Teachers by Number of Schools

Number of Untrained Teachers in Schools	Number of Schools	%
1	255	1.1
2-5	7203	31.1
6-10	8732	37.8
11+	6937	30
Total	23127	100

Untrained teachers are often in schools with few trained teachers. 2% are where there are no trained teachers, 23% where there are 1 or 2, and 39% where there are 3-5 trained teachers (Table 18). Looked at another way 13% are in schools where more than 80% of teachers are untrained, and 48% where more than 60% are untrained. Only 5% are in schools where there are less than 20% untrained.

Table 18: Trained and Untrained Teachers - Distribution

Number of Trained Teachers in School	Number of Untrained Teachers in Schools	% of Total Number of Untrained Teachers	Average No. Untrained per School
0	388	1.7	3.7
1	2529	10.9	3.4
2	2843	12.2	4.3
3	2377	10.2	5.5
4	2352	10.1	5.7
5	2070	8.9	6.1
6-10	5446	23.4	6.8
11+	5222	22.5	6.8
Total	23227	100.0

About 44% of untrained teachers teach in schools where pupil-teacher ratios are more than 60:1. Only 15% are in schools where the PTR is less than 40 (Table 19).

Table 19: Number of Untrained Teachers by School Pupil-teacher Ratio

Number of Untrained Teachers	Pupil-teacher Ratio in School	% of Total Untrained Teachers
54	200+	0.2
1384	100-200	6.0
8788	60-99	37.8
9518	40-59	41.0
2467	25-39	10.6
1027	Less than 25	4.4
23238		100.0

Data from the MIITEP allocation system in 1996 gives some indication of the physical provision in schools to which trainees were allocated. This suggests that about 11% were posted to schools with no classrooms, 19% to schools where there were less than one-third the number of classrooms to classes, 39% where there were between one-third and two-thirds, and 18% where there were between two-thirds and enough classrooms for each class (Table 20).

Table 20: Classroom to Classes Ratio in Schools to which MIITEP trainees were originally allocated.

Classroom to Number of Classes Ratio	Number of Trainees Placed	% of Trainees Placed
0	1797	10.5
0-0.33	3208	18.7
0.34-0.66	6646	38.7
0.76-1.0	3020	17.6
1.0+	2520	14.7
	17191	100.0

This profile of where MIITEP teachers are teaching is very significant. It draws attention to the extent to which training should prepare new teachers to work in schools where there are few trained teachers, large classes, few classrooms and limited support.