For Providence’s sake

Can an illiterate person become a president?  Anne Matumbi’s song Maphunziro kept interrogating past and present students of Providence Secondary School as they marched in Blantyre to raise funds for reviving their school.

This might have been a way of reminding continuing students that education is indispensable for the ambitious aspiring for decision-making positions in life. However, it was an equally timely tale twister for the grads to reflect on the future of their old school which is falling apart and crying for rehabilitation after 80 years of grooming the country’s female high-fliers—including President Joyce Banda.

“Apart from the President who was in the class of 1964-68, the school has produced prominent personalities such as former first lady Patricia Shanil Muluzi, former ministers Patricia Kaliati and Anna Kachikho as well as engineers, doctors, educators and other well-known professionals,” says head teacher, Sister Cecilia Musaiwa of Sisters of Blessed Virgin Mary (SBVM) who took over the running of the Catholic school from the nuns of the Daughters of Wisdom.

However, the nun’s joy quickly fades into a grim tale as the success is being overtaken by signs of the times: ceilings falling off the sockets, broken doors and windows, cracked library walls and other buildings in need of painting and repairs.

When she joined the school in 2009, she says, the hostels, library and dining hall were already beyond repair—a sight that reportedly compelled her to plough through the records of its daughters to figure out who could help.

Her hunt for a concerted approach took shape two months ago when parent and teacher association (PTA) chairperson Louis Kamanga circulated e-mails calling on former students to come together and save their alma mater.

Blantyre district education manager Lucy Vokhiwa, who heads the alumni association in the Southern Region, says the collectivity has revived members’ will to take part in the cause.

“Oneness is the order of life at Providence. We might have thought we were done with school after completing Form Four, but the association is a second chance for us to renew our relationship and help revamp our beloved school,” says Vokhiwa.

She says it envisages holding more fundraising activities which will help maintain the school in phases, a relief to teachers and learners living in a dangerously deteriorating environment.

The school prides itself as lux et veritas, a beacon of ‘light and truth’ for the learners.

Form Three student Patience Pereira reckons being at Providence does not only give her bragging rights but also what the name suggests—a chance like President Banda and other grads had.

“It is not an everyday thing that you see Malawians doing something to ensure their former school is in shape and continues offering better education. To us as students, it is encouraging to interact with people that are excelling in life after passing through the corridors of our school. We can make it too,” says Pereira.

The student is optimistic that the alumni can harness their emerging unity to restore Providence’s glory which has given way to scramble for library books, crumbling ceilings in the hostels and dark nights in the dining hall.

“Problems are many, but we have a reason to celebrate. Being at Providence assures us of quality education and a brighter future if we work hard. We must do everything to salvage the situation if we are serious about girls’ education,” she says.

Providence started as a primary school in 1933. It was later upgraded into a teachers’ training college. It became a secondary school in 1955, with Kamuzu Academy mathematics teacher Bernadette La Rouche among the first four students to sit Cambridge examinations (an equivalent of Malawi School Certificate of Education) in 1959.

La Rouche urges the students to work hard despite the challenges.

“With education, girls can achieve. They are lucky to be in school at a time the world is promoting gender equality. In our time, society was relentlessly pressurising us to marry because many thought girls were not good enough to get educated. Now we know that girls have the right to education like anybody else; they need quality education to occupy the key positions and help develop our country,” says the educator, who has taught at Kamuzu Academy for 30 years.

Inspired by the alumni, she visited the octogenarian school, saw the sorry state and believes repairing the damage is an urgent need.

“I have seen a lot of good schools in my life. I want to see Providence become a modern, well-equipped school with a quality environment for teaching and learning,” said La Rouche.

One can only hope the new spirit brings sanity to the education facility.