By Bishop Witmos

Mangochi, October 30, Mana: Using K43 million from Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Member of Parliament for Mangochi Nkungulu, Aisha Mambo Adams constructed girls hostel at  Changali Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) to accommodate 50 girls as some of the girls travel more than 10 kilometres to attend classes.

The girls hostel was completed at the time of media tour and speaking during a media tour, Changali CDSS Deputy Head teacher, Maria Jackson told Malawi News Agency (Mana) this week that construction of the girls hostel will improve learners performance as some of the girls travel long distances to school.

She added that long distance to school was a prohibiting factor that prevents girls from proceeding with education at the expense of girls education.

‘‘Changali CDSS has learners that travel very long distances of over 10 kilometers from home to school, as a result this affects learners performance. Some learners performance, especially girls’ was not encouraging and most of the girls drop out of school.

"‘Construction of girls hostel here is a sigh of relief to learners, teachers as well as the community. This will help learners to concentrate as they will have ample time for studies,’’ said Jackson.

She therefore commended Adams as well as Mangochi District Council for constructing the hostel using the CDF.

Speaking in a separate interview, Adams, who is also Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said she decided to construct the hostel using CDF after experiencing the same problem of long distance to school in her days in the same area.

‘‘As a woman who was born and raised in this area, I know what it means to walk a long distance to school,

‘‘Girls meet a number of challenges on their way to school. Again, unlike boys, whenever girls are back home from school, they are given a number of households chores and this prevent them from concentrating on their education,’’ said Adams.

The Mangochi Nkungulu legislator said was planning to construct another hostel at Chimwala CDSS in the constituency

Currently, Changali CDSS has an enrollment of 148 learners among them 77 girls.