Gateway to Graduation: How Free Wi-Fi is Helping Students Succeed in Malawi

Wezzie Matalala can hardly contain her excitement. In just a few weeks, she will graduate from the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) with a degree in Agriculture Education.

Apart from stress-free full night sleep, without thinking of lectures and assignments, what she is happiest about is the prospect of relieving her mother of the burden of supporting her on a teacher’s salary. Now that there are no more books, clothes and tuition to pay for, the pressure on her family will ease a little and their meager resources can be used to take care of her siblings.

One cost her mother didn’t have to worry about, thankfully, was internet access: in 2022, the Malawi Research and Educational Network (MAREN), with support from the World Bank’s Digital Malawi Project, introduced free Wi-Fi at the university. This was part of a country-wide campus Wi-Fi expansion project designed to provide students in public universities with reliable, fast and affordable internet connectivity.

Prior to the arrival of free internet, LUANAR’s Wi-Fi had so many problems that students had to purchase expensive mobile data bundles. As a financially struggling student, Wezzie says that the MAREN Wi-Fi helped her make huge savings on her smartphone bill, allowing her to spend more on other critical supplies.

The free Wi-Fi also contributed to the overall improvement of her grades. Getting a degree in Agriculture Education requires a lot of research and constant engagement with the ever-changing agrotechnological landscape. Her lack of adequate time online limited her understanding of the field and caused her grades to suffer. With the free MAREN Wi-Fi, her fortunes changed as she could spend much more time on YouTube and Google Scholar, to find tutorials, books, and other relevant material.

The World Bank’s Digital Malawi Project, $72.4 million, was funded by the International Development Association, with the goal being to improve access to high speed, affordable internet for over 8.5 million citizens, especially young people, government employees, business owners, and students. The project focused on bringing internet connectivity to underserved areas of the country, connecting over 600 government buildings, including hospitals and post offices, developing core digital infrastructure, such as a national data center, as well as on improving the technical capacities necessary to support digital public service delivery and to enhance the efficiency of the government’s operations. The Digital Malawi Project has also provided 80+ higher learning institutions across the country with affordable and reliable internet connectivity, benefitting over 83,000 students, exceeding the original target of 50,000.

Lucy Banda, a third-year learner studying education at the University of Malawi, also waxes lyrical when she talks about the MAREN Wi-Fi. Her favorite part is that it is available in so many places around the campus, including in dormitories. Her worst experience with the previous Wi-Fi was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the university introduced online classes to prevent the spread of the virus: students that could not afford mobile data had to huddle together in the few spots with Wi-Fi coverage, thereby defeating the social distancing guidelines.

The free Wi-Fi has also improved Lucy’s learning experience, since it is now easy for her to download academic resources and use online education platforms like Google Classroom and Moodle to submit assignments. What she hopes now is that all students across Malawi can eventually enjoy the same advantage.

The Digital Malawi Project has come to a close in October 2024, but a follow-on project, funded through the World Bank’s Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) Program, is now underway: The Digital Malawi Acceleration Project will continue supporting education around the country by providing internet to  2,000 schools and distributing affordable learning devices, and  will continue to increase access to, and inclusive use of, the internet.