Malawi is a land locked country situated in the south eastern part of Africa. The
preliminary results of the 2008 Population and Housing Census (PHC) show that the
population of the country is now pegged at 13,066,320 (National Statistics Office
2008). According to the National Statistics Office (2002) census report 86 percent of
this population lives in rural areas (National Statistics Office 2002). The population of
Zomba district is pegged at 670,533. A total of 583, 167 people live in the rural area
of Zomba district while as only 87,366 live in the city (National Statistics Office
2008). Adult literacy rate for the country is 60.9 percent (MOE Education Statistics
2007).
Malawi is a multilingual country with thirteen languages (Kayambazinthu 1998). Out
of the thirteen languages only Chichewa and English are given prominent positions.
They are incorporated in the school curriculum right from primary up to the tertiary
level. Chichewa is the national language. It is spoken as the first language by about 60
percent of the people in the country. It is the first language in the sense that people
acquire it naturally as children whose parents use it as their language with them and
with each other in the community. English is the official language. It is also the
medium of instruction in schools from standard four onwards up to the tertiary level.
For a number of years Chichewa was used as medium of instruction in all public
primary schools from standard one up to standard four. However, the government of
Malawi changed its language policy in 1996. Presently the language policy is that
local vernacular languages should be used as media of instruction in standards one to
four. Chichewa and English should be taught as subjects (Ministry of Education
1996). However, schools have no text books written in local vernacular languages. It
is not the intention of this study to pursue the debate on the teaching of Chichewa or
local vernacular languages in standards one to four.