BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
She is a girl but Juliana Sichunga admires Noel Ng’oma, a medical assistant at Kangolwa Health Centre in Traditional Authority Kasakula’s area in Ntchisi.
“I don’t admire him personally, but professionally,” Sichunga, 19, clarified. She knows it is abnormal for women in our society to declare their interest in a man.
Juliana comes from the area which for the past decades did not consider education as a key to socioeconomic development of every society.
“Marriage was considered the only destination for their sons and daughters. Education was a luxury for children of wealthy people,” said Kasakula Education Network (KEN), executive director, Jamison Kudzala.
KEN is a network of all the 14 schools in Kasakula’s area and was established in 2007 to promote quality education for all school-going children with emphasis on girls, orphans and vulnerable children.
A research that Action Aid International Malawi (AAIM) conducted in Ntchisi showed that the district was lagging behind in infrastructural and economic development both at household and community levels with Kasakula’s area topping the list.
AAIM Programme Coordinator for Ntchisi and Lilongwe, Chris Mhone, said that lack of development in the area was a direct result of high illiteracy among community members.
“Because most parents are illiterate in this area, they did not see, in the first place, what contribution education could make in transforming their social, infrastructural and economic development. Therefore, they could not see the importance of sending their children to school,” said Mhone when he officially closed a three-day Girls’ Conference that took place at Kasakula Secondary School last Thursday.
“Instead, these parents used to encourage their sons and daughters to marry as soon as they grow breasts. This has been one of the barriers to education for all children in Kasakula,” he explained.
Besides, the research discovered that female parents and guardians also contributed to girls’ school dropout. According to Mhone, female parents used to bombard their school-going daughters with responsibilities that made the children tired and left them with no time to study. They went to bed late and very exhausted.
In the end, such girls failed to perform to their best as most of the times they were sleeping while classes were in progress.
“Girls from this area rarely made it to secondary school,” explained Kudzala.
In order to break the cycle, AAIM entered into an agreement with KEN through which the former is funding the activities of the latter to promote and encourage all children to remain in school.
But efforts by the two organizations seem to be yielding positive results as enrolments in both primary and secondary have improved dramatically.
Although this may sound good news to those advocating for Education for All (EFA), the increase in numbers of pupils enrolling for basic education has its challenges such as lack of teachers, learning blocks and teachers’ houses.
In some instances, where girls make it to secondary school parents face the challenge to provide financial support to facilitate their learning. And these Kasakula education zone was not spared these challenges
To counter the problems, KEN with funding from AAIM is currently building teachers’ houses, paying school fees for girls, orphaned and vulnerable children at Kasakula Secondary and Chamalire Community Day Secondary School .
“I am happy that KEN is paying school fees for me. I am no longer worried. I am assured of my brighter future as I aim at reaching where Mr. Noel Ng’oma has reached.
“If he did it, I can do it as well because I am just as human as he is,” said Sichunga who is sitting for her Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) at Kasakula Secondary School this year.
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