A Country Status Report (CSR) is a detailed analytical document of the education sector drawn up by national teams, the results of which are validated by the Government. The main purpose of the CSR is to enable decision-makers to orient their national policy on the basis of a factual diagnosis of the overall education sector and to provide relevant analytical information for the dialogue between the Government and Development Partners. This is the second CSR for Malawi: the first one was drawn up in 2003.The 2008/09 CSR was developed between November 2007 and February 2009 by a multi-ministerial national team with the support of the World Bank and UNESCO-BREDA (P??le de Dakar). It is an updated and enhanced version of the first CSR, and includes eight chapters (including a full chapter on TEVET and a full chapter on higher education). It provides key monitoring/evaluation input on the education sector overall, particularly in the framework of the implementation of the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) and the future endorsement of Malawi to the Education For All Fast Track Initiative.Analysis figuring in the CSR was made possible by using data and information from multiple Sources, and more particularly school administrative surveys of the Ministry of Education, household surveys from NSO and the tracer survey (annex 9 of this report) done especially for the purpose of the CSR with the support of GtZ and the World Bank.The preparation of this report was mainly funded by the EFA-FTI Education Program Development Fund (EPDF).