By Aliko Munde

Chitipa, October 30, Mana: Travelling from Kapoka Trading Centre to Kayanda Village in Senior Chief Mwenemisuku one has to brave a tough ride due to its topography.

After travelling from Kapoka to Kalenge bridge you have to branch to the right, into a meandering dusty earth road as you go to Sokola.

Few kilometres before the Sokola area there is a small newly established earth road, up the Misuku Hills, that leads to Sanga Junior Primary School.

Driving up to Sanga Junior Primary school is not for an amateur driver but a more experienced one.

The school is at the top of the hill and green iron sheets can be seen twinkling from afar when one uses Misuku road to the far right.

The school, constructed in 2020, opened its doors in January 2023.

Paul Mulungu, a community member from Kayanda 1 village in Senior Chief Mwenemisuku in Chitipa District, says the area had difficulties to access quality education because the nearest school was almost 5 kilometres away.

“Our children could start school slightly above the enrollment age because of the long distance to school,” Mulungu explains.

Mulungu says after looking at the challenges for their children to access quality education in the area, the communities decided to request for a school in their area to ease the long distances learners were travelling to attain quality education.

“The nearest school was Chato Full Primary School, which is at a distance of 5 kilometres away. We are now happy that our children start school at the age of six,” he says.

He then applauds the government through Chitipa District Council for introducing Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which he says has helped the area to construct Sanga Junior Primary School.

He also applauds their Member of Parliament (MP) for supporting the request the communities made using constituency development fund.

Member of Parliament for Chitipa East where Sanga Junior Primary School is located, Kezzie Msukwa says he decided to be in support of construction of the school after seeing that children from the area were walking long distances to school and others dropped out at a tender age.

“From Sanga area to Chato or Sokola Primary Schools, it is about 5 kilometres. So, for learners, walking long distances to school was difficult. As a result, children from the Sanga area could start school older than the enrollment age of six,” Msukwa says.

Msukwa says people who were attending school from the area were few hence his decision to be in support of construction of the Sanga Junior Primary School.

“I intend to support construction of other school block, which will accommodate standard four to six. We want learners who are in standard three to transition to four at the same school.  We want Sanga Junior Primary School to be a complete full primary school in the next five years,” he says.

Leave no one behind (LNOB) is one of the six Guiding Principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. LNOB is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The LNOB represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN Member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity as a whole.

A teacher at the school, Joackim Ngonya, attest to the fact that the government walk the talk by implementing what it says that it does not want to see any child drop out of school due to long distance to school.

Ngonya says construction works for Sanga Junior Primary School started in 2019 up to 2020. The school has enrollment of 50 learners from standard 1-3. And it was opened in January 2023 in term 2.

Ngonya says learners are now happy because they are accessing their education within their village saying the school has one qualified teacher and two volunteer teachers.

“The terrain of the area is mountainous and it was difficult for children to climb each and every day to and from school. That is why the children from the area and surrounding villages were starting school a bit older.

“This is now history because of the construction of Sanga Junior Primary School. This has eased the burden children and even parents were having. The learners are now able to access education less than a kilometre away from their homes,” Ngonya explains.

Chitipa District Education Network (DEN) Chairperson, Sydney Simwaka, describes the construction of Sanga Junior Primary School as good news to the people of Chitipa and Misuku in particular.

Simwaka says the Chitipa District Education Network as an education stakeholder welcomes the development as learners in the junior section were having challenges to access education due to the topography of the area.

“I hope the good gesture will be emulated by the other constituencies just to ensure that education services are brought closer to the people.

We urge the parents to utilise the facility by sending their children to school,” Simwaka says.