By James Mwale

Ntchisi, May 31, Mana: BuildOn Malawi, a non-profit organization aimed at improving education standards, has handed over a two classroom block, commencing the genesis of Chidima Primary School in Chimbiri Village, Senior Chief Chilooko, in Ntchisi district.

Speaking during the handover ceremony on Thursday, BuildOn Country Director, Atusuye Mwafulirwa, commended the proactive community involvement throughout the construction process and called for a sense of ownership to protect the structure against vandalism.

“Your level of proactivity during the construction of this school block has been so inspiring. However, this school block is not a decoration structure. Our efforts for building this structure will be in vain if we still keep our children in homes and engaging them in household chores instead of sending them to school,” said Mwafulirwa.

The first, of 15 blocks to be built across the district under the project is expected to accommodate 50 pupils each and it has been built in Ntchisi North Constituency.

Ntchisi North Member of Parliament, Arnold Kadzanja, echoed Mwafulirwa on the need on for sense of ownership by the community.

He urged police in the district to work in collaboration with the community policing team of the area on how best they can protect the block against vandalism.

“This development has inspired me to start thinking along lines of sourcing out resources for construction of a Community Day Secondary School with visions of developing this area into a fully-fledged town,” he said.

Deputy Education Manager, Hammex Malithano, commended BuildOn for the development and hoped for more similar projects in the district while promising to deploy competent teachers by commencement of school year in September.

Speaking on behalf of the area’s Primary Education Advisor, Francis Silanga, hailed BuildOn for the project saying the area has been affected by high absenteeism and school dropout rates because learners from the village have had to travel long distances to access primary school education.

BuildOn school construction programme’s goal is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education by providing rural communities with clean and safe learning environment.