Malawi is a land-locked country located in Southern Africa, bordered by Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania. According to the 2018 Population and Housing Census, the country has a population of about 18 million people.

The primary education system in Malawi consists of 8 years. Malawi has 6194 public primary schools. In the 2019/2020 academic year, the total learner enrolment was 5,187,634. The system faces a number of challenges, such as inadequate classrooms leading to overcrowding in classrooms (120 learners per 1 permanent classroom, [EMIS 2017/18]) and open air classes where lessons are mostly conducted under trees. Other challenges include low performance, high repetition, low completion rates and high dropout. The language of instruction in Malawian primary schools has traditionally been the use of mother tongue in grades 1 to 4 and English from grade 5, until 2016, when the Ministry of Education directed that learners should be taught in English starting from Grade 1. However, this policy is yet to be implemented.

Administratively, primary education is decentralized to district and school levels. There are six education divisions (North, Central West, Central East, South East, South West, and Shire Highlands), which are further divided into 34 education districts in Malawi. Primary schools are organized through education zones, with each zone served by a Teacher’s Development Centre (TDC) comprising about 10 to 15 primary schools. Each zone is overseen by a Primary Education Advisor (PEA), who is entrusted with inspection, supervisory and advisory responsibilities in the schools.