Imagine speaking only English growing up, then going to school and having it be entirely in Spanish! However, it is by design as English is important to having a good career here in Malawi.
The school year in Malawi runs from the beginning of September until the end of July, so students only have a small summer break. The school year is split into 3 terms. The way it is structured is a mix between high school and college. Like high school, we have periods and different teachers teaching each subject. However, unlike high school, students don’t really have homework. Rather, free time is spent studying for tests, and grades are entirely based on how they perform on exams. Students take midterm exams and end-of-term exams. At the end of term 3, students in Standard 8, Form 2, and Form 4 will take the national exams. For Standard 8, the exam is to test into a secondary school. For Form 2, it is to test into a better secondary school, and for Form 4 to test into universities.
Also, unlike many high schools, it is the teachers that move between classrooms and the students that stay put. Kamuzu Palace CDSS, where I teach, has about 400 students, 100 in each form. Each form is split into two classes: A and B, each with about 50 students. This makes for a total of 8 classrooms at my school.
As I mentioned previously, when you are in Standard 8, you take a national exam to test into secondary school. If you perform well on the exam, then you can go to a top-tier secondary school. You can say there are 3 tiers of secondary schools in Malawi: you have tier 1 which are the top private and national schools, tier 2 which are like the public schools, and then tier 3, which are called community day schools and are largely funded by the community.
