Political Economy of Access and Quality

A Longitudinal Analysis of Malawi's Free Primary Education Policy

Abstract

Since its landmark implementation in 1994, Malawi’s Free Primary Education (FPE) policy has been lauded for dramatically expanding access, yet persistent concerns regarding deteriorating quality demand a political economy analysis. This policy analysis article investigates the longitudinal trade-offs between mass access and educational quality, arguing that the policy’s outcomes are not merely technical failures but are deeply rooted in the political and economic priorities that shaped its design and sustained its implementation. The methodology employs a longitudinal desk review, synthesizing two decades of government reports, donor assessments, and empirical studies to trace the policy’s evolution. The analysis reveals that the rapid, politically-driven rollout, aimed at fulfilling a campaign promise, systematically overlooked critical supply-side constraints, including teacher recruitment, classroom infrastructure, and learning material provision. Consequently, the initial surge in enrolment precipitated a chronic crisis characterized by high pupil-teacher ratios, multi-grade teaching, and poor learning outcomes, which have persisted despite subsequent policy adjustments. The findings underscore that quality was implicitly sacrificed for the political gains of expanded access. This article contends that for FPE to fulfill its transformative potential in Malawi and similar African contexts, policy frameworks must be fundamentally reoriented to explicitly prioritize quality and address the underlying political economy factors that perpetuate a cycle of low learning, thereby moving beyond a narrow focus on enrolment figures as the primary metric of success.