LIKOMA: Education at a Price

CHILDREN OF A CONSTRAINED ISLE

The education landscape in Likoma mirrors the district’s ugly face—a constrained Island.

During Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) examinations in May, about 300 students from Likoma and Chipsera secondary schools were packed in St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral.

FROM CHURCH TO EXAM ROOM

The mood was that of happiness and anxiety as the learners knew that they were entering the final half of a journey, often susceptible to transport problems that exert uncertainty on them.

“It is difficult to transport the examinations to the islands because they need utmost security only rivalled by ballot papers. You cannot guarantee their safety on ships and boats that are usually congested with people and cargo, which includes basic goods for schools,” said district commissioner Charles Mwawembe.

To get to the examination centre, some students walked about five kilometres from Nkhwazi and Makulawe on either ends of the larger island.

Their colleagues on the mainland have the luxury of cars, minibuses, taxis and other quicker modes of travelling, but Likoma islanders have to walk long distances.

This costs them the time that those who live close to the examination centre were harnessing for studying and other final touches.

One may wonder why the Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) and the Ministry of Education are denying the students the liberty of sitting national exams in their respective schools as do their colleagues at Chizumulu Community Day Secondary School across the lake.

MSOWOYA: HAULING BOARDING SUPPLIES MAJOR PROBLEM

After two weeks of transporting the students to the churchyard in a vehicle whose roadworthiness is doubtful, Likoma Secondary School deputy head teacher Duncan Msowoya said bringing examination centres closer to the learners is not a priority on the institution’s hierarchy of needs.

"Our main worry is how to purchase foodstuffs and other necessities for students. 

Oftentimes, there is no maize at Likoma Admarc Depot, forcing teachers to travel to Nkhata Bay or Mzuzu to buy the grain.

“This can be more costly and difficult when Ilala is nowhere," explained Msowoya.

The on-and-off water transport also affects collection of salaries by teachers at the school which has 401 students.

The deputy head teacher said the learners usually endure two to four days without attending classes when the teachers go to Nkhata Bay where the nearest banks are located.

When the lake is windy, the trips become rough—spelling further tough times for the learners as their teachers are sometimes trapped in Nkhata Bay for nearly a week.

Locals recall that for nearly a decade in the 1970s and 1980s, the teaching staff on the island comprised locals only because those on the mainland were scared of transport problems and other hurdles.

Today, natives account for four of 12 teachers at the main secondary school. This means a teacher serves 33 learners. This might be a better teacher-pupil ratio than the national expectation of 1:50.

International standards require a ratio of 1:40. However, Msowoya said this masks a shortage of teaching staff because the school runs two streams—A and B—from Form One to Four.

"Last year, government deployed four teachers to reduce the ratio, but one did not come. This has been the trend for years because the island is notorious for transport hiccups, poor mobile phone networks, shortage of recreation facilities and lack of banks," said Msowoya.

To make and take calls at the school and its surroundings, cell phone users descend on the football ground and neighbouring hills.

For banking services, they sometimes send auto-teller machine cards via friends, workmates and relatives heading to Nkhata Bay.

Besides, there is shortage of classroom and boarding accessories at the school opened by the Anglican Church in 1964.

Before it became a full secondary school in 1984, it was a self-boarding junior secondary school with students from Mpamba, Usiska, Kavuzi, Chintheche and other faraway pockets of Nkhata Bay.

VESTIGES OF SCARCE DESKS

At present, the 401 students share 100 desks. There is also a shortfall of beds and the learners scramble for 90 mattresses.

"Replenishing classroom and boarding materials is difficult due to low funding and skyrocketing transportation costs. We primarily rely on the fees students pay,” said Msowoya.

A spectacle at Nkhata Bay Port would spell out answers or at least give clues to what it takes to haul education dispatches to the island.

As early as 6am on June 6, boarding master McWesco Vyabudika was loading bags of maize into a privately owned passenger boat that would eventually take slightly over 12 hours to get to Likoma on a stormy day.

HAULING MAIZE FOR LIKOMA SECONDARY

Bought in Mzuzu, each of the 59 bags cost K500 to get to the island by boat. The K29 500 expense, K33 000 fuel allocation for a lorry that carried the haul to Nkhata Bay and the teacher’s  accommodation and meal allowances offer a glimpse into how maize stock-outs at Likoma Admarc impact education budget.

But once unloaded at the island, the cargo lasts four weeks only, said Vyabudika.

"Teaching and learning at Likoma is very terrible without Ilala," said the teacher after enduring exorbitant and unstable private boat rides for close to a year when the ship was undergoing rehabilitation.

During the period, he stated, students from the mainland were reporting late at the beginning of every term, sometimes up to four weeks. Equally delayed were departures at the end of the term.

The students have spent a year without taking part in sports competitions and educational tours.

"For a year, interaction with the Northern Region Education Division hit a worrisome low as supervisors rarely visited the island’s schools," bemoaned Vyabudika.

Likoma Secondary School, a favourite destination for pupils in the island district’s eight primary schools, is deteriorating at a time it is expected to be delivering quality education for all.

ST PETER'S ANGLICAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Save for Mbungo and Chizumulu primary schools, the lower learning institutions are predominantly owned by the Anglican Church. They include St Peters, St Michael’s, St Mark’s, St John’s and St Mary’s.

Mbungo Primary School head teacher Joseph Chirwa and his St Peter’s counterpart Isaiah Mlongola believe children of Likoma face narrowing chances to excel and proceed to university not just because they are socialised to value fishing more than education.

Education standards are also affected by irregular availability of teachers, teaching and learning materials and quality controllers who scarcely visit them.

Of the 80 students that enrolled with the school in the 2012/2013 academic year, 20 are girls whereas 15 are from other parts of Nkhata Bay.

One of the girls, Vanessa Kadewere, said Likoma gives her better chances in life than Chipsera or Chizumulu community day secondary schools where the shortage of necessities is worse.

Unfortunately, Vanessa lacks role models and has only one confidante—Connie Mandala—the solitary female teacher in the dozen at Likoma—for her worries as an adolescent girl.
Malawi is vying for Education for All (EFA) goals, which guarantee quality basic education for every child, including girls.

The agenda for  quality education might have missed on T/A Nkumpha's six-point litany of urgent needs, but it is certain that achieving EFA goals requires government to improve investment in Likoma as an isolated district with unique realities and challenges that favour a departure from conventional approaches to get rid of widening disparities.