Joy as head teacher gets decent house

He has been in the teaching profession for the last 10 years, and Kamtambo Primary School in the area of Traditional Authority Chilikumwendo in Dedza has been his home for all those years.

Maluwa is one of the longest serving teachers at the school, having joined over a decade ago.

For all the years he has been teaching, Maluwa has touched lives of thousands of children that have passed through the school.

However, despite his hard work, dedication and passion, he still had to walk a distance of around five kilometres to and from school, Monday to Friday on scorching heat or during rainy seasons solemnly because the school had no house to accommodate him.

Kamtambo Primary School has an enrollment of 890 pupils, 10 teachers and three classrooms.

This he says affects the delivery of quality education.

But what has kept Maluwa going even without a proper house at the school?

“I love teaching as a profession and I also love to contribute to the development of children, so even though the school had no house for the head teacher, I was walking a long distance to and from school. I was braving the cold weather, rains even the burning sun to come to the school.

"Being a head teacher, I was supposed to be living close by the institution but that was not the case. So it made my work very difficult to handle. Sometimes I was the last one to arrive at the school when in essence I am the one supposed to arrive at the school before everyone else," he said.

Maluwa said there is some kind of satisfaction that he gets from knowing that he is giving a foundation for many children to grow into useful and responsible adults.

Now, the news is totally different for Maluwa as, just a stone throw away from where the school is, a modern teacher’s house has been built with standard toilet, kitchen and electrical wiring, ready for connection to solar electricity.

There is also running water.

The house, standard kitchen and latrine have been constructed under the World Bank’s funded project, Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD), to a tune of K59.2 million.

Maluwa is now the first person to arrive at the school and the last person to leave the campus.

"The construction of the teacher’s house has allowed a standard eight teacher to come and live within the school campus. This is a great development because now he will be managing morning and evening classes. This will give the learners an advantage to do well during their final examinations," he stated.

Maluwa however, said one house only is not enough since the school has ten teachers who stay in far areas. He therefore appealed to government and well-wishers for the construction of additional teacher houses.

"There is high need for more teachers’ houses to be constructed at the school to cater for all the ten teachers in order to improve the standards of education at the school,” he said.

The news of the construction of the teacher's house at Kamtambo Primary School has equally excited the surrounding communities.

The school committee chairperson, Madalitso Khovani, has since hailed the development.

"It is pathetic that the school that opened its doors decades ago could be operating without teachers’ houses. No wonder, performance of our children has not been good. However, we are now optimistic that with this kind of development, we will start seeing improvements," he explained.

Traditional Authority Chilikumwendo acknowledged the challenges that were there in the absence of the head teacher’s house.

"It was difficult to get hold of the head teacher, especially during weekends because he was staying far from the institution. When we needed his services during the weekends, it means we had to wait for the following Monday. But now the coming in of the teacher’s house is going to improve things," said the chief.

Member of Parliament for the area, Ouzious Chidobvu, said the improved accommodation in rural primary schools will lure more teachers wanting to teach even in the remotest areas.

"When teachers are coming to school from far areas, they arrive at the school tired and this affects their performance, but having the teachers’ houses at the campus will change that. Teachers will now be able to focus on teaching rather than thinking of the distance they cover to and from school every day," he explained.

Director of Planning and Development for Dedza District Council, Macpherson Mwakhwawa, said most of the projects the council implemented in the 2023/24 financial year have been completed and are being used by the communities.

He said the development is commendable to the council, as it translates to improved service delivery to the communities.

“Some were constructed under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), some under the District Development Fund (DDF) while some projects such as this one were constructed under the World Bank’s funded project, GESD.

“So, all these infrastructures are meant to enhance service delivery in the targeted communities. And with their completion now and them being used by the communities, this will alleviate the problems that were being faced in terms of service delivery and improve the livelihoods of the people in the district,” said Mwakhwawa.

He added that when teachers are provided with a conducive environment for their stay at a workplace, the expectation is on improved service delivery in terms of teaching the learners hence improving the outcome.

“We have the District Development Plan (DDP), and it is our goal that we should be able to implement it in line with the expectations and the aspirations of the communities we are meant to serve in Dedza District,” he said.