An education stakeholder, Link for Education Governance (LEG) says many children, youth and adults remain illiterate in the country, largely due to underfunding of the education sector.

LEG Executive Director Dr. Limbani Nsapato told Zodiak today that even with a few years before 2030, the year of target for the global SDG#4 of ensuring quality education, and the Malawi 2063-MIP 1, the United Nations’ Leave No One Behind tagline remains a pipe-dream.

Dr. Nsapato made the remarks as Malawi joins the world in commemorating 2026 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) from 20 to 25 April 2026 under the theme: “Hold the Flame High for Education Financing!”.

Dr. Nsapato has since called calls upon all stakeholders including the government, international organizations, and civil society - to protect and guarantee the right to education for all children, youth, and adults by ensuring sustainable financing for education.

 "The Ministry of Finance should enhance domestic resource mobilization and explore innovative funding mechanisms, as well as deal with corruption to grow the economy and increase the national resource envelop for key sectors, particularly, education.

The ministry should in the coming financial year, allocate at least 4–6 percent of GDP and/or 15–20% of national budget to education, guaranteeing adequate financing per learner from early childhood education to adult education,” said Nsapato.

Meanwhile, besides ensuring adequate funding for inclusive education at all levels, he has also urged the government to remove boarding fees from public secondary schools so that the pledged free secondary education should really be “free”. 

He added, "While welcoming the implementation of free secondary education since January 2026, LEG has noted with concern that public boarding schools are still collecting boarding fees which remain the highest barrier to many children from poor backgrounds. The Ministry of Education should increase funding allocation for secondary education, to cater for boarding fees and adequate funding of all secondary schools".

In the 2026/27 budget, the government allocated 11.7 percent of the national budget to education, the underfunding the organisation believes is resulting in huge deficits in all sub-sectors.

The government has yet to comment on the calls.