Chambo Village Community Praised for Building School to Improve Education and Reduce Absenteeism in Chitipa

Malawi: Chambo Village community in Traditional Authority Mwaulambia in Chitipa has been praised by educational authorities for constructing Chimangwe Primary School, which aims to reduce the distance students in the area have to travel to school, writes Victor Musongole.

Poor infrastructure, a lack of learning materials, poverty, and long distances to school are some of the issues that have affected school attendance in Malawi.

According to the National Statistical Office's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for 2019-2020, only one-third of students in Malawi complete Standard 8, with half dropping out before reaching Standard 6.

The school, which opened in 2018 with Standard One and now has six classrooms and two teacher houses, has helped to reduce absenteeism and improve academic performance.

Sikwese added that the community will continue to mobilize resources and hopes to have Standard Eight by 2026.

The school's Deputy Headteacher, Lidia Mastano Simukonda, noted that the school is doing well, stating, "Absenteeism is not a big problem here and the repetition rate is around 25 percent but compared with other schools we are doing well."

Evans Simuwelu, the Primary Education Advisor for Zambwe Zone, praised the community for building the school without any assistance and encouraged other communities to follow their example in addressing issues facing education in the country.

"The communities are very strong in terms of resource mobilization they have just finished a double classroom this year, so this should be a lesson to other communities and any help can be channelled to communities like these they are doing a very commendable job," said Simuwelu.

He added, "The coming in of this community-built school it means as a Zone we will continue to see the number of absenteeism and dropout decreasing and right now we only have one area in my zone where learners are still travelling a long distance."

Chimangwe Primary School, which is located about 28 kilometres from Chitipa boma, has 172 students enrolled in classes from 1 to 5.