In an effort to complement government’s efforts to making sure that no child is left behind on education, Kalumbu Youth Club in Ntcheu district has engaged gule wamkulu to be going door to door in various village to send back to school learners who dropped out.
In an interview with this publication, Samson Chimchere who is the chairperson for the club and is also registered as Kalumbu Youth Action for Development (KAYADE), said the move follows rising numbers of learners who are dropping out from school.
Chimchere said their statistics indicate that 46 percent of junior primary school learners in the area of Traditional Authority Njolomole, dropped out of school and thus prompted him to launch the “Go Back to School” campaign.
He indicated that for a successful campaign, the youth club thought of engaging gule wamkulu which will be going around door to door in the areas of over ten Group Village Heads under Traditional Authority Njolomole to force all learners who left school to return.
“As pioneers of development not only in Kalumbu village but the whole of Ntcheu district, we saw it important to embark on this campaign which aims at sending primary school leavers back to so school.
“The campaign which is two weeks old now is underway and since its inception, together with gule wamkulu dancers who are our campaign partners, we have managed to send back to school 53 learners in age range of 6 to 15 and we are so grateful for the progress,” said Chimchere.
Chimchere further told this publication that the club is in discussion with secondary schools graduates in the area to volunteer themselves to have part-time lessons with these primary school learners so that they can easily catch up with their friends who never dropped.
Lyson Maloko is the Community Based Educator (CBE) under Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) and says that his office will make sure that the campaign is successful for betterment of the district’s education record.
Maloko further added that his office has agreed with Kalumbu Youth Club that every parent who will be promoting learners’ school dropout, will be dealt with accordingly and has since urged traditional leaders to help the campaign so that it should achieve its goal.
In a separate interview, Ntcheu Police Station Child Protection officer, Sub inspector Jexon Majiga, commended Kalumbu Youth Club for the campaign which he said needs to spread to other parts of the district and the country at large.
He encouraged all the participants in the campaign to refrain from abusing children in the process of taking them back to school claiming his office will not hesitate to act on any violation of children’s rights.
“Our role in this campaign is to sensitize all the parties involved which includes; parents, members of Kalumbu youth club and the gule wamkulu dancers on the need to respect some other rights of these children.
“We for sure know that in course of sending these children back to school, these gule wamkulu dancers may resort to beating them, so we are sensitizing the gule wamkulu on their boundaries during the campaign,” explained Majiga.
He further added that the police will also form crime prevention committees in all the areas where the campaign is being carried out who will be trained to be primarily handling issues of abuse in their respective areas.
