As good as it gets

I could not have asked for a better week unless someone appeared from the Ministry if Education and produced every last statistic I am looking for in the report format I am using. It has been busy, draining, and fantastic.

A quick explanation…. I am looking for every imaginable statistic, cost, number relating to pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher, non-formal, literacy….basically anything that is related to education at all. I have had people laugh when I convey all the information I am looking for. But this week has been as good as it gets.

Of course, I have to go to two other cities, and much of what I have received here is referrals elsewhere. But I have gotten some pretty crucial information and I am amazed at how easily people will give it and spend hours, if necessary, talking with me.

For example, today, I sat in an office (with a tied-up rooster at my feet) while a staff member listed teacher salaries for all primary and secondary levels. But it addition to that I was given the scale for each step in the salary ladder. I was given the salary of every staff member working in the schools and in education offices. If that wasn’t enough, he walked me down the hall where another staff member gave me three spreadsheets telling me how many teachers and staff members at each grade were in each school. Unbelievable! I am so impressed with how well kept some of this information is.

Yesterday was even better. I discovered the holy grail of education statistics in Malawi. It turns out the Academy of Educational Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank have poured a lot of information into building a database for the country of Malawi so they can track all facets of education. The Ministry of Statistics has in turn poured the statistics into the database. There are a variety of pre-built queries I can run to get information on Blantyre overall (ranging from number of dropouts, to enrollment, to orphans in school). But I lucked out, the “man” from the Ministry happened to be in the office that afternoon and he built reports for me on a school by school basis for my city.

You want number and type of textbook per grade per school? Here you go.

You want number of classrooms, latrines, and other facilities per school? Here that is too.

The list goes on and on. He created a variety of reports for me and I am visiting him in the capitol when I return for many more. Many, many more. I know there may only be a handful of you with wide eyes right now, so I will say this: THIS IS A HUGE DEAL. A MAJOR FIND!

Oh, and he let me put the whole database of preconfigured reports on my flash drive. So I can get information at my leisure.

All of this helps me feel better about the lack of a complete IP (my “thesis”). It’s getting there….slowly.