By James Mwale

Ntchisi, July 4, Mana: Education authorities in Ntchisi district have hailed the construction of a classroom block at Masangano Primary School in the area of Senior Chief Kalumo saying it will help retain pupils in school thereby reducing dropout rate.

The school’s Head teacher, Andrew Kalikuni, told Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Tuesday that before the classroom block was constructed, some learners could use the nearby Masangano Community Based Care Centre (CBCC) for classes.

“We could inconvenience learners at the CBCC every time we used their space and most of our learners could not concentrate on lessons due to noise from children at the Centre,” said Kalikuni.

He said learners from his school could occupy two rooms at the CBCC forcing children at the Centre to be congested in one classroom.

The K40.2 million classroom block was constructed between December 2021 to April 2022, along with a donation of 120 desks, under the World Bank Funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project.

Appreciating the impact of the development, the district’s Senior Inspector of Schools, Hammex Malithano, said congestion of learners in classroom has been a long standing problem in the district that has led to demotivation of both teachers and learners.

He said: “Construction of the classroom block has significantly mitigated congestion and has resulted in improved attendance of learners and reduced dropout rate. It is my wish that donors of the GESD project increase funding so that many similar developments may be realized.”

According to Malithano the classroom block, which has a capacity of 60 learners each, has also positively contributed to the send and retain children in school’s campaign.

The campaign is underway in most of the district’s communities under which parents are encouraged to send their children to school than keeping them home to help with household chores.