Malawi Education: Students Get Rewarded for Academic Achievements at Nanthomba Primary School in Malawi, Africa

Education in Malawi has been a constant challenge.While orphans and other vulnerable children need
Malawi is an 8-4-4-education system consisting ofmaterial and psychological support, all the students
primary school, secondary school and universityneed motivation for excelling hence this strategy
education. There is little opportunity for pre-school. Inamong others. The prizes were given on the open
1994, the Government of Malawi decided to make awhile every student was eager to be called.
major change in their education and abolished schoolSince such event occurred, students have greatly
fees for primary schooling; this resulted in an increaseimproved in the above performance areas.
in primary school enrollment from 1.9 million pupils a
year to 3.2 million and an average pupil-teacher ratio ofThe students at the Nanthomba Primary School built
72. The institution of Free Primary Education isby the HELP organization (and their partners) are
successful in terms of the numbers of pupils attendingprimarily local orphans, children from local villages and
but will not be able to meet the costs needed tochildren of National Park employees. Originally, the
support the infrastructure, i.e. 38,000 classrooms. Theschool began with 320 pupils. To date, due to the
government will therefore move forward byeagerness and excitement of an education, the school
strengthening partnerships among all divisions tohas 750 students.  HELP operates the school, as well
receive 40% of the financing needed.as supports three other community schools with
On June 19, 2009 approximately 120 students atteachers aids, in conjunction with the Ministry of
Nanthomba Primary School went home excited forEducation and provides teachers with stipends and
being rewarded of their achievements in differenttraining,which contribute to the upgraded educational
areas. They were rewarded as best achievers instandards of the facility.
class and after school activities, most punctual, mostHELP is in the process of searching for land within
smart and well behaved students. Pens, notebooks,walking distance to the village, with the hope of building
sandals, soap, toothbrushes, etc were the prizes given.a secondary school in the near future.
These items are part of the school donations. Zikomo Kwambiri!