by Watipaso Mzungu Jnr
As the dawn breaks, mayi Kanyoza wakes up from her slumber to heat water for her three school-going children. All her children are pupils at Mlodza LEA School in Lilongwe’s densely populated Area 23. As a caring mother, Kanyoza is bound to make sure her kids are well taken care of before they go to school. Children have to be bathed, dressed neatly, have their hair combed and fed before going to school.
This is important because children going to school minus the said considerations are likely to lose attention in class. It used to be a practice during our primary school time (though not long ago) that every pupil coming to school with unkempt hair and dirty clothes would be sent back upon arrival at school.
The idea was to instil a spirit of hygiene and responsibility in toddlers so that they should grow with the spirit for their own good health. I am not sure if the practice still exists in our schools with this thing called democracy. All I have heard from children in primary schools is: “Atibweza ati chifukwa sitinalipire K20 yokonzetsera kalasi yopanda dengalo.” No translation for that.
My point is that it is the responsibility of every caring parent to make sure that his/her children bathe before they go to school. Good parents will sometimes take responsibility to comb their children’s hair, tuck in their shirts/blouses, etc.
And that is exactly what mayi Kanyoza is doing. But if she only knew the state in which her children will come, she would not have bothered to lose her sleep to prepare for the kids. She would not bathe them. Mlodza LEA School, whether by God’s design or man-made curse, is not an institution a parent has to worry bathing his/her kids before going to school. At least my observation and that of some parents and guardians of pupils at this school, children would be better off going dirty than wasting soap and water whose prices and tariffs respectively would be equivalent to a primary school teacher.
What I am trying to say is that Kanyoza’s sons and other pupils at Mlodza would be mistaken for a Nyau dancer—Gulewamkulu, soon after arriving at school courtesy of the dusty open air learning spaces. Forget about classrooms at Mlodza. If it were not for the brick fence surrounding this school, one would wonder how pupils would be learning at this school.
Just to fill you in. Mlodza LEA School was opened in 1983 with sixteen classrooms and one teacher’s house. At that time, the institution was meant to accommodate only 960 pupils—60 pupils in each room. No more than that. But as the population grew (and still continues to grow) courtesy of early marriages and uncontrolled births (lack of family planning), the enrolment also swelled to 5308 as of July 2007.
If you make your mental arithmetic, you will find that 4078 of our sons and daughters at this institution have no classrooms. So how do they learn?
“All the 4078 pupils are learning from outside rooms. They use this fence as chalk boards,” explained Dyson Lovemore Faifi, deputy head teacher at the school in an interview in his office.
Faifi lamented that since the school opened some 24 years ago it had never seen maintenance work. The deputy head teacher expressed concern over the filthy conditions the institution is currently going through. Even if someone does not tell you about the filth, the infuriating stench from the flooding toilets at the school can tell you a longer and more detailed story than the head teacher.
Faifi said the problem of teachers’ houses has farfetched consequences. Many teachers don’t report for duties in time let alone on time.
“I receive a lot of excuse from teachers on why they had come late. I have to understand them because they live far away. Some live as far as Gaga and Chilinde (some 15km away). And they need money to travel each day of work. In times of lack of transport money, it is absence without official leave,” said the second in command teacher.
School Management Committee Chairman Emmanuel Chinyama wondered whether the name Mlodza the school was given was a prophecy of misfortunes for the institution. Chinyama doesn’t understand why his school is not receiving any donor support from well-wishers as is the case with Chiwoko and Chilinde Primary schools close to Mlodza.
“Mwina sukuluyi ndi yolodzedwa monga mwa dzina lake, (Maybe the school is under a curse as the name suggests.),” Chinyama starts.
“We have been to different people, organisations and the ministry of education to convince them to consider constructing more school blocks at the school. But nobody seems interested to come,” he adds.
Chinyama thinks the school is indeed under a curse of some type as evidenced by people’s and organisation’s refusal to assist them.
“Imagine! Small school like Chilinde and Chiwoko have received two projects each. Yet there is none for Mlodza, which is bigger if we consider in terms of enrolment,” he says. Currently, the school does not have running toilets. Pupils have to run elsewhere to relieve themselves.
Since its inception, the school has never had water facilities until late last year when the communities around the institution made contributions so that the facility could be installed. But that was not the end of the water problems. Few months ago, Lilongwe Water Board threatened to disconnect the facility for non-payment of bills because parents and guardians cannot manage to meet the skyrocketing bills.
Acting District Education Manager for Lilongwe city, Sezerine Misomali admitted that she was approached by the school’s woes by the School Management Committee. She also admitted that some schools are going through renovation of some kind while Mlodza has never tasted such service since it was born 24 years past.
She, however, disagreed with Chinyama that the school was under a curse. Misomali said the problems Mlodza was facing were also the same problems some schools in her jurisdiction are going through. But the acting DEM acknowledged that problems at Mlodza were extreme.
“It is true that Mlodza has the highest enrolment in Lilongwe urban. That is why we decided to open a new school called Area 44 School. The school is four weeks old now. It is close to Mlodza to ease the problem. But this also seems not to solve the problem at all. So we want to try other means. As for the water bills, I am yet to meet the School Management Committee on the way forward,” said Misomali.
Maybe to confirm that the school was under curse, although DEM is disputing, the same DEM revealed that there are no plans to construct new school blocks and teachers’ houses as one way of solving the problems.
“We don’t think constructing new blocks would help, but to open new schools would,” she said.
One wonders whether opening new schools without maintaining them would be the best solution to the current problems in our schools. On layman’s point of view, this could just be another way of creating more problems. If a father is unable to care for one child, can he manage two or more?
Deputy Minister responsible for Basic and Secondary Education Olive Masanza said she did not have any information about the problems Mlodza is facing.
She, however, promised to do something about the school in due course.
“I will take up the challenge to see the school sometime. As a ministry we will do something to ease the problems. But as you know, we cannot do that at once,” she observed.
“I am asking the general public, donors and partners in development in education to assist us in building extra learning rooms at the institution,” she pleaded.
Masanza noted that the problem at Mlodza and other schools have a negative impact on the country’s education sector hence the need to solve them now.
Unless something is done indeed, your children at this school are to come back from school as nyau dancers. Teachers will also report for duties either at 10:00 am or later.
END
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