Dowa learners sitting on kitchen chairs

Standard 8 learners at Dowa 1 primary school have expressed worry over lack of desks at their school saying the situation forces teachers to ask them to take kitchen chairs to school.

According to the learners, the situation has disadvantaged some of them whose parents cannot afford to buy good chairs for their children.

Heavily affected are girls who find it hard to participate in class activities like answering questions which require them to stand as demanded by school tradition.

Speaking in an interview, Shadreck Matimati, a Standard 7 learner at the school said he started bringing a chair from home 4 years ago and cannot blame the teachers for asking them to bring to school chairs saying they sit on the chairs comfortably than learning while sitting on the floor.

Matimati asked government to supply desks to his school saying learners write well when using desks than the chairs they bring besides that some of his colleagues cannot afford chairs since some parents have more than one child at the school who may all need a chair.

Concurring with Matimati, 12 year old Agape Mkwanda who is in standard 8, said girls have to be careful when standing to answer questions in class otherwise they end up indecently exposing themselves with boys laughing at them.

Deputy headteacher for the school, George Singo, said asking learners through their parents to bring chairs to school started four years ago after the school noticed that the learners were not comfortably learning while sitting on the floor.

Singo said, as a school, they have been reporting the issue to authorities but nothing so far has been done.

He however said despite the challenge, his school performs well during national examinations citing last year when out of 135 learners, 129 passed while 64 were selected to various National, Conventional and Community Day Secondary Schools.

Primary Education Advisor (PEA) for Boma zone, Morgan Mwale, said reports on the situation of Dowa 1 have been periodically made to the office of the District Education Manager but nothing has been done.

Mwale wondered why many schools in the bordering Dowa East constituency where he was before he was posted to his current duty station are supplied with desks more often besides enjoying other developmental activities as compared to those in Dowa North East constituency which Dowa 1 primary school falls.

But Dowa District Education Desk Officer Josephy Chafukira expressed hope that the school may receive the desks soon adding that many schools in the district are facing a similar problem.

Chafukira blamed the system which is being used to supply desks to Schools suggesting that the Supplies Unit need to be decentralised as one way of speeding up the process as well as cutting costs.

Dowa 1 primary school is under the proprietorship of Nkhoma C.C.A.P. Synod and has an enrolment of over 1,700 learners.

The school has 35 teachers with one special needs teacher and is within less than 3 km from Dowa Boma District Education Office.