‘Who will inspire Chinguma girls’?
Group village head (GVH) Malewa of Chinguma in Traditional Authority (T/A) N’kumbira, Zomba wonders if his community will produce influential women such as former president Joyce Banda, Justice Anastanzia Msosa, Martha Kwataine and Rose Chibambo due to harsh academic and social conditions girls pass through. Chinguma is a community across Lake Chilwa. It has a primary school with one learning block, which accommodates Standard One and Two pupils only. The rest of the classes learn under trees. Besides, the school has no Malawi National Examination Board (Maneb) centre; hence, most youths drop out of school in Standard Seven. Malewa said the greatest contributing factor to girls’ failure to excel in class is distance. He said the nearest Maneb centre is at Kachulu where the girls are supposed to pay K3 000 for a two-way boat ride. “It is costly for most households to raise that amount of money just for their daughter to sit for examinations across the lake.
No wonder you find a lot of teen mothers given that most girls start giving birth as youg as 12 years old – in view of the fact that they have nothing to keep them busy,” said Malewa. The other problem the chief cited was the lack of political will from government in promoting girl education in the area. “Despite the lack of Maneb centre, we have the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) centre. For the past 50 years, we have been actively participating in every election where MEC brings ballot papers and other electoral resources by helicopter. “However, this surprises us on why the government fails to set up a Maneb centre and bring us examination papers by air, just as they do with elections,” observed the chief.
Director of Centre for Advice, Research and Education Rights (Carer) in Zomba Redgeson Namatumbo described the Chinguma situation as pathetic and contrary to Section 30 of the Constitution of Malawi, which states that every person in this country has a right to development. “Education is key to development and women are vibrant agents of that development. It is my plea to government and other stakeholders to intervene quickly in the promotion of girls’ education,” he said.
