Send a vulnerable child to school in Malawi

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Warm and Tender Greetings from Namwera, Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa

Namwera Aids Coordinating Committee (NACC) is pleased to share with you, our donors, supporters and the Global Giving, the third quarterly report of Send a Vulnerable Child to School in Malawi Project.

NACC would like to express her profound gratitude to Global Giving for the timely technical and financial support given to NACC; we would also like to thank you, our valued donors for your financial and moral support. Your kindness and generosity is bringing pride, smile and hope to the underprivileged children.

Send a Vulnerable Child to School in Malawi Project continues to amaze people in the rural and underserved areas of Namwera, Malawi.

In improving access to education, the project has paid school fees for 8 new pupils at Majuni Secondary school during the quarter. The pupils were missing classes to do casual labour/piece work in order to get school fees, scholastic materials and school uniform as a result, school attendance and performance were very poor. Community volunteers and teachers in collaboration with the village heads referred the children to the project, the district social welfare office conducted verification exercise to establish the vulnerability of the children.

In promoting good performance and completion, the project is providing education counselling to the pupils and their primary caregivers, conducting focus group discussions to identify and address challenges related to school enrolment, attendance, performance and completion in all the twenty Community Day Secondary Schools in the rural and underserved areas of Mangochi.

The project is also identifying slow learners and special arrangement are been made to help the children who are having learning difficulties by conducting afternoon classes. This is contributing to hard working and good performance for example; 95% of the pupils from Masuku, Majuni, Namwera and Mdinde Secondary schools under the project, who wrote Junior Certificate of Education (JCE), have passed, exceeding national pass rate.

In community sensitization and mobilization to address barriers that prevent access to education, the project conducted interface meetings between the school pupils, primary caregivers, local leaders and education authorities to identify and address barriers to education. One of the resolutions coming from the interface meetings was to establish bye laws that would prevent school dropout and increase school enrolment.

We are excited to learn that the project is empowering the community leaders and the pupils to lead in the activities that are improving access to education.

“Am coming from a poor family, am staying with my grandmother, when I got selected from my primary school to Masuku Secondary school, I received the message with mixed reactions; I knew that my grandmother would not afford to pay school fees and therefore that would be the end of my school life, on the other hand I was happy because that was the sign of progress, a step towards my brighter future, many thanks to the Global Giving and every individual donor who has contributed for my cause” Said Bertha a school girl at Masuku Secondary School who got selection to further her studies at Masuku Secondary school but her grandmother could not afford.    

Simple approaches, huge impact

Practical experience from Chingwenya Primary School that has managed to send 34 pupils to national and district secondary schools for the first time in history

NACC, Pupils, teachers and Parents are pleased to share with you the tremendous achievement of the 2014 Primary School Leaving Certificate Examinations.

Chingwenya Primary School is situated in the rural and underserved area of Namwera, Mangochi, Malawi. It was established in 1912 by the Anglican Missionaries. It has three school blocks of two classes each. Enrolment of 1065 pupils (527boys/538girls) against 9 teachers (teacher pupil ratio is 1:118.3) and half of the pupils are learning under trees, it has no chairs, no electricity, and no piped water.

School enrolment and attendance, performance and completion were very poor. NACC in collaboration with school management committee, Parents and Teachers Association conducted an assessment to identify the key factors that influence poor enrolment, attendance performance and completion. NACC communicated the results to community and education authorities.

Special meeting was conducted to identify the means to address the challenges. As resolutions, the community agreed to start afternoon and evening classes for Grade 8 pupils. Communities contributed food for lunch and evening meals. Pupils with learning difficulties were identified and assisted accordingly. Parents were asked to buy simple torches to be used at night.

As a result the pass rate has improved from 40% in 2012 to 95% in 2013 Primary School Leaving Certificate Exams and it is the best performer in the year 2014

We would like to express our profound gratitude to the teachers, pupils and parents for the job well done, despite inadequate resources like teaching and learning materials, classrooms and only few teachers, you have done it.

The Project only initiated the ideas and provided guidance but the job was done by you our hard working and dedicated teachers.

We are planning to cerebrate and recognize teachers and pupils in a special way at NACC hall on 15^th December 2014 during the School holiday.

Setting the Bar High

Mdinde, Namwera, Majuni, Chilipa, Mpondasi and Masuku Secondary Schools have improved the pass rate of Junior Certificate of Education from below 50% to 98% for the first time since their establishment surpassing national pass rate which is around 51%

Situation before the project

High school drop out

Poor school enrolment, attendance, performance and completion

Lack of interest by both pupils and the primary caregivers

Inadequate learning and teaching materials

Unfavorable learning environment

Strategies used

Sharing the assessment results

Conducting one on one and/ or small group discussions on importance of education targeting school pupils, guardians, teachers, school management committees and education authorities

Provision of school fees and scholastic materials

Initiated afternoon and evening classes

Impact

Improved school enrolment, attendance, performance and completion

Reduced school dropout

Improve school transitioning from primary to secondary

Indeed simple strategies but huge impact.

Once again, Namwera Aids Coordinating Committee (NACC) would like to thank you our donors, for the donation that you are making towards “Send a Vulnerable Child to School in Malawi”

The donation is not only improving access to education for the vulnerable children in the rural and underserved areas of Malawi; but it is also breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.

I hope you will enjoy reading this report.

Saeed Wame

Executive Director