By Bishop Witmos

Mangochi, November 15, Mana: Driving from Mangochi Boma to Blantyre, approximately 20 Kilometers, one reaches Traditional Authority Chimwala. Unlike other areas in Mangochi, Chimwala is unique due to its geographical position. Turning left, one finds Lake Malombe, while to the right there is breathtaking scenery of mountainous topography.  

Mangochi District is endowed with numerous natural resources, including lakes, minerals and mountains. The district boasts three famous surface water bodies: Lake Malawi, Lake Malombe and Shire River.

Largely, situated in the rift valley of Lake Malawi’s Southern end, Mangochi boasts highlands and hills with a minimum elevation of 472 meters such that the district’s topography falls into two distinct categories: rift valley and hilly forest area.

The district also faces challenges in the education sector in the sense that its mountainous terrain, in some areas of Traditional Authority Chimwala becomes hard to reach area making it hard for people to access social amenities like hospitals and schools.

The geographical condition also becomes a stumbling block to learners to the extent that they long endure difficulties in accessing education such that the most prominent public secondary schools; Chimwala and Changali Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSS) becomes too far on foot and too far apart for option.

“Due to the long distance to school, we feel that access to school is no longer a right,’’ says Amina Hassan, a form two student at Changali CDSS. With 148 learners, including 77 girls, most students travel over 10 kilometers to access secondary education.

To address the challenge in the education sector, Member of Parliament for the area, Mangochi Nkungulu, Aisha Mambo Adams approached Mangochi District Council to agree to construct a 50-capacity girls’ hostel at Changali CDSS using Constituency Development Fund (CDF). Completed within months, the hostel is valued at MK43 million and has a kitchen and wash rooms as a package to provide for the girls very well.

Adams, who also serves as the Second Deputy Speaker of the Malawi Parliament, said she was inspired to construct the girls' hostel after reflecting on her own school days, when she faced the challenge of walking long distances to attend classes.

‘‘I was born and raised in this area, I know what it means to walk a long distance to get education. Unlike boys, whenever girls are back home from school they are given a number of household’s chores, a development which demotivate them from continuing with education,’’ says the legislator.

Access to education is well stipulated in the Malawi 2063 agenda, with a goal to promote formal and quality education to every Malawian child. However, as set in the 2022 to 2030 Social Economic Profile for Mangochi, high dropout of school learners is one of the main challenges currently experienced by Mangochi District Council.

For instance, in Traditional Authority Chimwala, population for projected school going age by 2023 was 25,827, with 2,627 number of school going children that were out of school, making Chimwala the third highest area with most school dropouts in Mangochi.

By 2023, having 15 Traditional Authorities in Mangochi, the Traditional Authorities with highest school dropouts was Traditional Authority Bwananyambi with 13 percent, followed by Traditional Authority Chilipa with 12 percent, and Traditional Authority Chimwala with 10 percent as the area registered 1,275 boys drop out vs 1,230 girl drop outs, while in 2021, the same Chimwala registered 1,416 boys and 1,611 girls drop outs respectively.

According to the 2023 Mangochi District Education Management Information System, dropout rate for girls in schools is slightly higher than that of the boys in most Traditional Authorities in the district, due to long distance to school, inadequate change rooms for girls, as well as child marriage.

Considering geographical and social barriers affecting girls’ education and good intervention by Mangochi Nkungulu legislator, Changali CDSS Deputy Headteacher, Maria Jackson, says that construction of the girls’ hostel was a big plus, anticipating that the facility will help to improve girls’ academic performance.

‘‘Changali CDSS accommodates learners that travel very long distances of over 10 kilometers from home, and as a result, performance of some, especially girls, is not encouraging. Most of them dropped out of school.

‘‘Construction of the hostel here is a sigh of relief to learners, teachers, as well as the community. The hostel will assist students to stay within the school premises and this will in turn help them to concentrate on their studies,’’ Jackson adds.

Mangochi District has for the past years shined in the education infrastructure development through CDF such that during the 2023/2024 fiscal year, the district received a total of MK1.2 billion. With the CDF, number of classroom blocks have been constructed in secondary and primary schools across 12 constituencies.

The following blocks were constructed at the following school and constituencies; Malimbasa, Namitambo, Nandembo as well as Mkumba in Mangochi South Constituency.

Classroom blocks were also constructed at Mendo Primary School and Masanje Nursery School in Mangochi Monkey Bay Constituency while Mangochi Masongola Constituency saw construction of blocks at Changwale, Mandimba 2 and Masongola primary schools.

In Mangochi Nkungulu Constituency, Mdinde Primary School classroom block has been re-roofed while Chilumba Primary school toilet as well as Katole Primary School classroom block in Mangochi West Constituency have been finalized.

CDF was also used in Njera classroom block construction in Mangochi North East as the same fund was used in Mangochi Lutende Constituency for Kabuli Primary classroom block construction. In Mangochi South East, Dambula and Msosa primary schools also got their shares of the CDF following construction of blocks.

Economist at Mangochi District Council, Blessings Stove says despite having a highest learner to classroom ratio, of 15 to 1, the district is currently doing fine on infrastructure development.

“The council is implementing infrastructure projects using three funding windows of Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD), District Development Fund (DDF), as well as Constituency Development Fund, and through such funds, we believe that we are on course,” says Stove.

Despite tremendous improvement in infrastructure development, performance in the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination in girls in Mangochi has been hanging between averages, compared to that for boys, for the past three years.

In 2022, for instance, boys pass rate was 63 percent, while girls pass rate was 54 percent, an indication that girls are left behind.

The results also show that CDSS’s in Mangochi are the lowest performers, compared to boarding schools in the district as the results indicate that district boarding schools had 90 percent passing rate, while CDSSs had 51 percent passing rate.

Currently, Mangochi has one grant-aided national secondary school, two district boarding secondary schools, two district day secondary schools, 37 CDSSs as well as 16 private secondary schools.

The secondary school subsector absorbs only 50 percent of primary school leavers, calling for establishment of many public secondary schools in the district.

To address school dropout among girls, a Mangochi-based social activist, Dickens Mahwayo said there was need to lobby for boarding facilities for girls, libraries, as well as teacher houses, in order to attract and retain quality teachers and learners in the district.

"There is a need to construct more Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) in areas where they are lacking and to upgrade existing ones by providing adequate human resources, materials, and boarding facilities," he adds.

On his recent tour to Mangochi to appreciate developmental projects under CDF, DDF and GESD, Executive Director for National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), Dr. Kondwani Santhe observed that through CDF, challenges of inadequate infrastructure, as well as school dropout by girls in the district are minimized.

‘‘As National Local Government Finance Committee, we are satisfied with what we have seen here in Mangochi where MPs are constructing high quality education infrastructures. We are impressed with the CDF outcomes adds Santhe.