Minister hails self-help projects in schools
Deputy Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwo Wilima, has hailed initiatives by communities in making sure that learners are accessing quality education and in safe environments.
Wilima was speaking at Chibavi Community Day Secondary School in the city of Mzuzu on Thursday when she visited the school to check progress of education amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The deputy minister was in the northern region where she visited a number of educational institutions including Rumphi Teachers Training College, some schools at Bolero and Ekwendeni.
At Chibavi Community Day Secondary School, the minister was impressed with an initiative to construct a fence as a solution to a long-time security problem that sees property being damaged and classes being disturbed by trespassers time and again.
“The stakeholders at Chibavi CDSS are passionate about education. I came out of office to check progress in our different educational institutions amid the Covid-19 pandemic. You really appreciate what is happening on the ground when you get out of office.
“It is time for Malawians to stop looking down upon themselves. Government cannot do everything but stakeholders can also bang heads and do something to improve quality of education in the country,” she said when she addressed stakeholders in Chibavi CDSS Hall.
The school which opened its doors at the current site in 2001 started as a single stream but now it is three streamed with double shift and an enrolment of 1116 students; 588 boys and 536 girls.
The school has 37 teachers; 14 males and 23 females but has a critical shortage in the Languages and Sciences departments.
Education Division Manager for the north, Zondi Moyo, hailed Chibavi CDSS and some other institutions in the Northern Education Division (NED) for not expecting everything to come from Capital Hill.
“What I am impressed with schools like Chibavi is that they are not sitting idle to wait for everything to come from Capital Hill in Lilongwe. From the little resources they get from School Development Fund (SDF), they have the guts to embark on a fence project around the school. This is quite commendable,” said Moyo.
Headteacher for the school, Wiseman Nkhata, cited security as a major challenge faced by the school.
“There are times when someone from nowhere will get on campus drunk with his blue tooth gadget full volume, disturbing lessons. There is unnecessary encroachment. Security bulbs go missing easily. All this because the school has no fence. We don’t have enough resources but we are trying to construct this fence.
“We have actually halted construction of a teacher’s house in order to ensure security at this institution,” explained Nkhata.
Nkhata also asked government to consider construction of a Home Economics Laboratory as government asked the school to start offering the subject recently.
The European Union (EU) recently constructed additional blocks, library, science laboratories and staff room at the institution.
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