2011
A presentation event was held where all the children who had done well in the examinations received an exercise book and pen with the best girl and boy in the class receiving a metal pencil case. A number of parents of children attended and were very
proud of their children’s achievements.It was decided to name the new Youth club the Dineen Chimteka Trust Youth Club, after the founder of DSS, Phil Dineen and in appreciation of the work and fundraising done by the trust for Chimteka and the girls hostel.
The treasurer of CCS, Paul McDonald, visited Chimteka and all the schools in the area.
A Youth club has been formed to look at ways to engage the youth from the local villages who have limited education and a lack of opportunities
with a local “youth leader”.
February
2009 and earlier
The Chimteka Full (Senior) Primary School
The Chimteka Community Day Secondary School (CDSS)
March
Francis addresses a conference about Early Childhood Development (ECD) being attended by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health.
A number of issues need to be addressed; increased use of the library, school feeding program and absenteeism amongst staff.
The trickiest issue is the absenteeism amongst staff as this is a problem faced by all schools in Malawi and all civil servants. Government teachers are paid very poorly and sometimes go for months without receiving any pay at all.
2010
October
A very large number of children are coming to the hall for Children’s Corner Activities, and it would appear to be successful in getting the children to interact and spend time productively.
September
We started to run a pilot “Children’s Corner” in the Community Hall; aiming to get children of all ages (particularly orphans and vulnerable) to conduct activities (playing games, drawing and writing memory books) in a structured but sociable environment.
July
A welder from Chimteka Trading Centre was required to conduct maintenance on the playground at Chimteka Centre; happily due to the fact that it has been used so much.
May
•The Peace Corp have asked for an assessment of Chimteka Secondary School with a view to placing an Education Volunteer in the future.
•The training of a Librarian for 5 days has begun. Shadrick was chosen due to his reliability and dedication plus good
English Language abilities. Irene donated us a very useful book published by Peace Corps about setting up a small library.
We pay an annual subscription of 500 Mkw and the National Library based in Lilongwe will supply us with books on a
6 monthly basis starting with 100 and gradually increasing.
April
John assisted Francis prepare the standard 8 mock exam for the whole education zone.
A further classrooms in the secondary school have been re-furbished.
An extra lady teacher has been given to Chimteka II Junior Primary
Many of the classrooms in all schools are either new or re-furbished.
The Chimteka Pre-School
Chimteka Community Based Child Care (funded by UNICEF) and Katakungwa CBCC (funded by CCS) provide Child care to young children and also Chimteka CBCC provides supplementary feeding. They are run entirely on a voluntary basis by "care givers".
The children are from 2 - 6 years of age and attend from 07.30 to 11 am five days a week.
The Chimteka II Junior Primary School
The official starting age for primary school in Malawi is six, and the primary stage lasts for eight years. The Junior primary takes some of the younger children (around 6-8 years) who find it too far to walk to the Full Primary. There are 4 classrooms which were opened in January 2010 and the school was built by the schools charity "Eleven to 1" in Scotland. CCS has built houses for the 4 teachers, which encouraged the government to provide the teachers.
This is situated 3.5 km from the centre of Chimteka and has 1,370 pupils with 783 boys and 587 girls. There are 13 teachers in the school, 3 of which are female. The school has 10 classrooms.
and 8 classes (standards). It is a big school with very large classes and a high pupil:teacher ratio. CCS has started a program of renovating,painting/making mortor floor repairs, which is having a positive impact on the learning environment. CCS also plans to introduce more desks or benches (around 220) into the classrooms.
There is a great need for a girls' hostel as some have large distances to travel. Also a school feeding program is a high priority
Renovated classrooms
This is located 100 metres from the Full Primary School and consists of Forms 1-4.There are 166 Boys and 109 girls with 9 teachers, thus a good pupil:teacher ratio. It is run by the government and is well kept with mains electricity. There is also great need for a girls' hostel here. One building would serve both schools. The other problem is school fees which stops the poorer child attending.
The official starting age for secondary schools in Malawi is 14 and the secondary level lasts for four years.
The government is now the dominant provider of education in secondary schools,
providing education to 65 percent of all the pupils attending secondary education. However, Very few children from poor households attend secondary schools, particularly in rural areas.
