Community, NGO fight over CDSS

Communities from Sub-Traditional Authority (ST/A) Mndola in Nkhata Bay District on Monday thronged the Ministry of Education headquarters in Lilongwe to push government to change its decision to hand over a school to its former owners.

Last year, Chimbota Community Development Organisation (CCDO), handed over the school to government to run it as a community day secondary school (CDSS) but government turned it into a boarding secondary school for girls in the district.

CCDO executive director Kevin Troughton wants his school back to run it as a private institution.

In an interview after meeting the ministry’s Principal Secretary Chikondano Mussa and other senior officials, village head Katema said people from the surrounding communities are challenging government’s decision to surrender the school back to CCDO.

“Troughton already failed to run the school due to financial challenges and handed it over to government to run it. Since then, things have been going well because it was turned into a full boarding school for girls,” she said.

Modester Banda, one of the concerned parents who accompanied the chiefs to Capital Hill, said parents are concerned that their children who study at the school will be transferred to other schools.

Mussa confirmed meeting the concerned people from Nkhata Bay and said the ministry will look into their concerns.

“They have written the ministry, protesting government’s decision ofreturningChimbota Girls Secondary School to its former owners,” she said.

But Troughton described the communities’ action as misguided.

He said: “The school was established in 2013 under CCDO as an independent entity to close the two-hour long distance that girls were covering to the nearest school. 

“After all, the ministry handed the school back to us in April.”