Agonies of an isolated primary school

*One qualified teacher for eight classes

For as long as it is a school day, hoping from one class room to another is an everyday task for one Danny Kayinga.

He is not the District Inspector of Schools (DIS) whom, as a pupil, you used to see surprise teachers in classes or catch them pants down chatting during working hours in those days.

Kayinga is a head teacher at Mubisi primary school located about 60 kilometres north-west of Songwe border post in Karonga.

Yet his hoping from one class to another has nothing to do with the luxury many a head teacher, with so many teachers at their schools, have. It is not a question of spending time to supervise teachers because the head teacher is not allocated any.

Kayinga is the only qualified teacher at this school, which sits near the edge of Songwe River and at 15 kilometres from Ngana, the furthest you can go by road from Songwe border post on this stretch.

Access to the school from this point is by a footpath. Anyone who wants to get there has to walk from Ngana. No wonder, it is the people of Mubisi who regularly come to Ngana for activities though meant for their school.

Lone soldier

Being the only qualified teacher at the school – which started operating in 1968 – Kayinga forfeits the luxury most head teachers have. He does the teaching. Unfortunately, he does that to as many as 280 pupils spread over eight classes.

“On the ground there are four of us. One is still training under the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programme and the community engaged two volunteers to assist with teaching,” says Kayinga.

“But such teachers are not fully recognised which is why I say I am the only teacher here. This is why I have to jump from one class to another to ensure that at least pupils learn something.”

Shortage of teachers in the country is an unfortunate fixture. The 2009 Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) says each qualified teacher is assigned 90 pupils (1:90) in most parts of the country.

Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) officials say this ratio is unacceptable and the ministry is fighting to bring it down. At 1:280, Mubisi’s situation is more agonising, more so considering that the recommended ratio for rural areas is 1:40.

While Mubisi primary school staggers with just Kayinga, every year the MoEST trains 3,700 primary school teachers under conventional programmes and 4,000 others under the ODL.

Misfiring policy

“These teachers are posted anywhere across the country after graduating from the Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs). We are told teachers are posted to Mubisi primary school but they do not stay long there,” said MoEST spokesperson Lindiwe Chide.

“Maybe the nature of that place is what scares these teachers.”

If ever what MoEST suggests is what really forces teachers out of schools in rural settings like Mubisi, such action is done against a policy designed to ensure that they stay there.

Those selected for teacher training sign an agreement before they are fully enrolled in the TTCs binding them to teach in rural areas for a minimum of five years. Thus, with thousands of teachers graduating every year, Mubisi should not have been starving.

Executive Director for Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Benedicto Kondowe says the situation at Mubisi primary school throws spanners in any effort to achieve quality education.

“Definitely, efforts to achieve quality education are under serious threat at this school. And I should suspect that with just one teacher, this school is the worst performing in the district,” said Kondowe.

“Education is not just about access. It is also about achievement. But education cannot be achieved in cases where one qualified teacher mans a full primary school. Definitely, pupils are not taught as per requirement.”

No success

True to Kondowe’s fears, Kayinga talks about a pupil who was selected to Mzuzu Government Secondary School from there in 1991 as the only beacon of success at the school.

He says latest generations of pupils see standard eight as the limit. Though eager to learn, he says, the pupils do not see anywhere else to go after standard eight.

“The nearest community day secondary school (CDSS) where some of these pupils could be selected to is Iponga. But that is 45 kilometres from Mubisi which means most of those selected there would be travelling more than 90km daily,” he says.

“Most pupils walk more than 10km from their homes to the school, some of them with stools on their heads because there is nothing to sit on at the school. It has had no desks since inception in 1968.”

The shortage of teachers and long distance from homes and to the next secondary school still do not complete Mubisi primary school’s list of problems. Once at the school, pupils are juggled between learning under trees and learning shifts.

Kayinga says the school has six classrooms instead of eight. He says the remaining classes learn under trees during the dry season. When it rains the pupils are split into two with one group learning in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

“Are we living to reality when it comes to quality education?” asks Kondowe.

“We need to move away from political rhetoric and start acting with realism. It is important to prioritise such schools when posting teachers.”