Survivors’ delayed relocation affects schools
Some public schools in the Southern Region housing Cyclone Freddy survivors are yet to reopen as councils have not relocated the survivors.
Currently, about 53 000 survivors are in public primary and secondary schools infrastructures seeking refuge.
The development is against Ministry of Education guidelines announced last week that all schools that were temporarily closed three weeks ago due to the impact of the cyclone in Blantyre, Thyolo, Neno and Mwanza districts be reopened on Monday.
The Nation spot-checks in the four districts found that some learners, particularly in Blantyre and Thyolo, are yet to resume classes. However, in Mwanza and Neno, almost all the schools have resumed classes because there were no evacuation camps in the two districts.
At Manja and Naotcha primary schools in Blantyre City, evacuation camps were still operational, forcing school authorities to continue suspending classes.
On the other hand, at Kapeni Demonstration Primary School, only Standard 8 learners have resumed classes as most of the classrooms are occupied by Cyclone Freddy survivors.
In an interview yesterday, Blantyre district commissioner (DC) Alex Mdooko said only cyclone survivors at Nyambadwe Primary and Community Day Secondary schools have moved from the camp.
He said both councils have been facing challenges to relocate the survivors from schools due to lack of tents and alternative places to relocate survivors.
Mdooko said: “By the end of this week, everything will be sorted out because the team is always on the ground so that by next week, learners should resume classes.”
His counterpart at Thyolo District Council, Rosemary Nawasha, said almost all cyclone survivors have not moved from school evacuation camps, a situation that is affecting learners in the district.
She said some schools have resumed classes, but learners and survivors share same rooms.
But spot-checks in other districts such as Phalombe and Mulanje that were heavily hit by Tropical Cyclone Freddy show that the situation is still devastating and that people are still camping in public schools.
Phalombe DC Douglas Moffat and Mulanje DC David Maxwell Gondwe observed that it will take time for Tropical Cyclone Freddy survivors to start relocating from evacuation camps.
Commenting on the matter, education activist Benedicto Kondowe noted that the situation is an indication that government did not have proper plans when announcing the reopening of schools in the four district.
“We hope that government will as soon as possible address this matter otherwise it will be a great disservice to the children,” said Kondowe.
About 57 public schools in Blantyre were turned into evacuation camps, while Phalombe had about 75 schools.
