Learners in Traditional Authority Maseya in Chikwawa District have expressed hope that the construction of Nkudzi Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) will improve access to education in the area.
The school, constructed under District Development Fund, opened in September 2024 with 51 Form One students.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mphatso Wonderful said her friends used to walk five kilometres to Mvera CDSS, an undertaking fraught with many challenges.
She said: “I was about to drop out of school in Standard Eight because I had no hope of attending school closer to home as Mvera was too far.
“But with the new school, I was motivated to work hard to go to secondary school to keep my dream of becoming a doctor alive.”
Wonderful urged stakeholders in the district to support the school with learning resources such as books, desks and science laboratory.
Another student, Precious Henry, cautioned his fellow students against vandalising school property.
“As the first cohort, we should exhibit good bahaviour as the subsequent cohorts will look up to us as their role models,” he said.
Henry promised to work hard to put the new school on the map and motivate other learners from surrounding areas to enrol with the school.
The school’s head teacher Lingston Sechaya said previously, students used to report late for classes at Mvera CDSS because of the long distance to school.
“The situation resulted in high dropout rate. However, with the opening of this school, learners no longer drop out,” he said.
Chikwawa District Council chairperson Martin Goche said the school will improve the quality of education in the area.
“The school has reduced the distance learners used to travel to access education,” he said. The school has one classroom block and no teachers’ houses
