Life in Dawa Village

Life at Dawa Village in Zomba district, Malawi.

Travelling on Zomba- Kachulu Road, one cannot deny the fact that the road passes through a very remote area. As one travel on this road, one sees a primary school along the road in a very pathetic condition. The school has many problems such inadequate classrooms, inadequate learning materials and the school in an area without any source of clean water and a shop to buy basic needs.

Alima from Dawa Village is 35 years-old-single mother of four. She is also a guardian of three other children left in her custody following the death of their mother- Alima's younger sister- two years ago. Alima's husband died in 1999 after failing to obtain treatment for diarrhea. According to Alima, she said that she helplessly watched him die. This is because she could not afford to hire a car or a bicycle to transport him to hospital. After the death of her husband, she moved back to her home village, Dawa. The fact that she never been to school, employment is difficult to come by.

Right now, her livelihood is from subsistence farming and she also works for other people to supplement her income. She normally starts her day as early as 4.00 am everyday. Her eldest daughter aged 14, and still in primary school cannot attend school all the time as he has to look after her siblings when her mother is busy with farm work. The other problem is that, she walks a long distance on foot when going to school. All the seven children in the family fail to attend school continuously as she cannot afford to cater for all their school needs. Alima and her six children live in a two roomed shack, and draws water from a dried up river in the village which is hazardous to their health. The family daily chores include gathering firewood, drawing water and doing piece works.

People like Alima, are at the centre of focus. She needs to have access to health and education, so that her life becomes a reality and meaningful. The village headman has been working hand in hand with church in advocating for quality education in the area through collective efforts. For the past eight years, he has been requesting Dawa Anglican Church to open a primary school in the village as one way of reducing the rate of illiteracy among the people. Another factor which the village headman insisted on is that, by opening a primary school in the area, it will reduce child employment since most of them are driven due to pangs of poverty. Lots of school going children has been lured out of the district to work in tobacco estates in other districts in the country. Others work in well to do peoples' homes as house boys and girls or nannies, as well as prostitutes in bottle stores.

Let us look at some landmarks that should cause the country to celebrate, since there has been increased access to primary education since 1994 when this country introduced free primary education programme. In terms of access, the country has managed to increase enrolment at primary education from 1.9 million in 1993 to 3.2 million to-date. While celebrating these achievements, the country should lose sight of the many problems which are pulling the education sector several steps backwards, thereby threatening the realization of the education for all goals.

For example, the country is not realizing access to education as it could. Nearly 5 million people are illiterate. Provision of Early childhood Development services is limited to urban areas and very few out of school youths are receiving life skills education. Access to adult literacy is minimal with fewer men than women enrolling in this sector. At primary school level, less than 30 percent of children complete primary education. While primary school enrolment is 3.2 million, only 218,000 pupils have found their way to secondary schools. Enrolment to public colleges and universities is limited to few people. This suggests that a primary school pupil has less chances of proceeding to secondary and tertiary education levels.

Education quality has been undermined by inadequate qualified teachers, inadequate teaching and learning materials, dilapidated and inadequate infrastructure including teachers' houses, and classrooms as well as poor salaries and other incentives for teachers.

Furthermore, the impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers and pupils and gender disparities are some of the cross cutting issues that are impairing the education sector. Disparities in terms of gender and location are also a challenge that needs to be checked. More boys than girls enroll in schools and children in urban areas have better access to quality education than their rural counterparts.

The other challenge is the funding situation for the education sector. For the past two decades, education financing has not been satisfactory. Budgetary allocations to education have either declined or stagnated and have failed to meet international requirements of ensuring a dedication of at least 6 percent of the GDP and a minimum of 26 percent of the national budget to education. Moreover, there is a heavy reliance on foreign aid most of which is coming from donors in order to finance the education sector.

As a priest/teacher working in Dawa area, I together with the church elders have been sensitizing the parishioners at Dawa Village on the importance of education in enhancing socio-economic development. There is also a possibility that a junior primary school will be opened at Dawa in the New Year. The newly built church and a temporary shelter near the new church will be used as classrooms during weekdays. The adult literacy classes being carried out at the church will also be intensified as one way of reducing the illiteracy rate among women, like Alima, in the area.

Last modified: January 11 2011