Government abandons school projects

Among many aspects, they are a typical example of how a change of government in Malawi usually fails to transition together with development projects. But there has been no progress since the Tonse Alliance came to power in June 2020. The schools in question are Chidzingwe Full Primary School in Area 22, Ng’ ombe Full Primary School in Area 38, Mgona Full Primary…

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A few kilometres away from Capital Hill where authorities draw plans to improve Malawi’s education, four near-compete full primary schools are lying in waste.

Among many aspects, they are a typical example of how a change of government in Malawi usually fails to transition together with development projects.

Details we have gathered show that the four projects started in 2018 and 2019.

But there has been no progress since the Tonse Alliance came to power in June 2020.

That has left thousands of learners scrumming for space in the available primary schools, effectively compromising quality of teaching and learning in those schools.

The schools in question are Chidzingwe Full Primary School in Area 22, Ng’ombe Full Primary School in Area 38, Mgona Full Primary School in Area 25 and another at Kaliyeka.

Contractors have told Malawi News that they stopped carrying out the complete. We have done over 80 percent of the works. The works remaining there can take us just two months.”

Traditional leaders around the school are since pressing the government to open the school as soon as possible because, they said, alternative schools are far from the area.

Senior Group Village Head Chipeni said: “Most of the children around here do not go to school because of long distances and damaged bridges.

“Other schools are at Chiuzira, Mchitanjiru, Don Bosco, Kanyadule and Msambachikho which are very far from here.

“We gave this land for the government and if the school is not opening, maybe we should use the land for something else. But our children are denied the right to education,” Chipeni said.

She added: “We are failing to understand why the project has remained idle. When we ask, the contractor says he is not getting the money for the project.”

‘Wasteful luxury’

Education analyst Leonard Sharra described as a waste the stagnation of the projects at the time when the country is battling with the challenge of inadequate space in schools.

He said this stagnation would eventually have a negative impact on the education for the learners around the schools.

Shara has asked since the government to justify to the communities the abandonment of the projects.

“We have a huge need for more schools in the country and we cannot afford this wasteful luxury of abandoning four schools that were almost complete,” Sharra said.

He said once the reasons for the abandonment are uncovered, immediate action should be taken to finish the works and open the schools without further delay.

“We owe it to the children of these communities and of the entire country to provide more schools as one way of improving the quality of education and achieving our national goals,” he said.

Board chairperson for Civil Society Education Coalition Limbani Nsapato said government’s failure to finish and open the schools has a huge negative impact on the other schools that have absorbed children from those communities.

He said the development pushes up enrolment and widens further the teacher pupil ratio in those schools.

According to Nsapato, Unesco recommends 1 to 40 teacher pupil ratio while Malawi has been aiming at 1 to 60 ratio.

“However, this average masks reality on the ground where the ratio is over 1 to 100 with some reaching 1 to 200,” Nsapato said.

He said the development brings about inequalities in the education system to the disadvantage of schools with ballooned teacher to pupil ratios.

We sought an explanation from the Ministry of Education.

Its spokesperson, Mphatso Nkuonera, said the ministry would be would be providing a detailed response in due course.

But, in brief, he said a team of inspectors had gone to the abandoned projects to get a true picture of the situation.