• You are here: Home | Country | Malawi | Gap Year Teaching

Gap Year Teaching - Gap-Year-Malawi - Africa and Asia Venture

Gap Year Teaching

Where?

In primary and secondary schools within 60 kilometres of Lilongwe in the north, and around Zomba in the south. Lilongwe is the capital and has a good variety of shops, banks, Internet cafes and restaurants. Zomba is a small town that was the capital of Malawi until 1975. To the north of Zomba is the beautiful Zomba Plateau and the surrounding area is famous for tobacco and cotton.

Outline Experience

Who will I be teaching?

Malawians are some of the friendliest people you could hope to meet. You will be teaching mostly in primary schools or the lower forms of a secondary school. The staff will be friendly and welcoming; the children eager to learn but, like children everywhere, they can be mischievous and they have ‘wicked’ smiles!

What and Why?

In 1994, the Government of Malawi abolished school fees for primary education, resulting in an increase in primary school enrolment from 1.9 million pupils to 3.2 million and an average pupil-teacher ratio of 72; so schools are under-staffed. They are also very poor and lack furniture, text books, sports equipment, and usually windows and stationery. The official language is English and the national language Chichewa.

Most primary school children have limited English so, in primary schools, English is where you will be asked to concentrate most effort. However, you will also be teaching art, drama, music and sports, if you can. In secondary schools, you can help with other subjects that you feel able to teach and schools especially like help with science and computers (if they are lucky enough to have them). Most schools do not offer many extra-curricular activities or sports so assistance in these areas is hugely appreciated.

Ideas...

Think about running a club, decorating a classroom; painting a mural; preparing visual aids; organising a school magazine; inter-school sports matches; a school trip; bedtime stories for the boarders; extra help for less able children. The possibilities are endless – just use your imagination and a lot of energy!

Gap Year Living

You will be living either in pairs or groups of 4 volunteers. AVs are clustered around Lilongwe and Zomba, with a few in Dedza, so you will have plenty of friends close by, but your new environment might initially be a bit of a culture shock!

You will be accommodated in basic staff houses, sometimes with no running water, and possibly a pit latrine or ‘long drop’ at the back of the house. Most houses have electricity but its availability can be quite sporadic!

Don’t worry - after a couple of weeks you will have adapted and you will love your AV house. You will shop and cook for yourselves but many AVs also take advantage of the basic, but filling, school lunches. The houses are generally within the school compound or within easy walking distance. All schools are near to main roads linking you by mini-bus to Lilongwe and Zomba, where you will be able to use the internet cafés for email and to change money.

Gap Year Travel

After 3 months at your school you will have 2-3 weeks of independent group travel to explore the wonders of Malawi and then either fly to Kenya direct or travel overland through Tanzania to Zanzibar or the stunning Kenya coast. Some AVs even make it as far as Uganda. Then, before you leave Africa, we throw in a game safari to 2 of Kenya’s famous national parks - Lake Nakuru and Samburu. The ‘Big Five’ are there in numbers but whether or not you see them is up to you….and them!

Itinerary l Dates and Costs l Facts l Apply