Case Story – Psycho-Socio Activities Keep Learners in School
Petros Tchayasimbi is a volunteer teacher at Nyankhwale full primary school in Mpatsa education zone, Nsanje district.
“I am 24 years old and I come from Chapananga in Chikwawa district. I was trained at DAPP Amalika Teacher Training College (TTC) as a teacher and I completed my studies in 2018.”
Under the partnership that exists between DAPP Malawi and the government of Malawi through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s Education Cluster, I and my fellow graduated teachers from DAPP were tasked to come and voluntarily support our fellow teachers and learners in primary schools and communities that are recovering from the devastating effects of the floods that affected parts of Malawi in 2019.
I joined Nyankhwale primary school on 10 June 2019.
“The teachers at this schools welcomed me so warmly and they have been so supportive, assisting me when I am preparing for my work especially the lessons.”
According to the enrolment records, Nyankhwale school has 772 learners and 10 teachers. Following the devastating floods, some of the challenges that the learners whose families were affected had been missing school, reporting late to school while others had been psychologically affected from the trauma.
The idea of the Education in Emergency program by the Education Cluster in the Ministry of Education is to offer psycho-socio support to children and community members that were affected during the floods.
Some of the activities that the Volunteer Teachers are using to assist in the recovery from the psychological trauma include engaging learners in sporting activities to ensure that no learners are left behind.
“During school days, especially in the daily assemblies that we have here at Nyankhwale, we use music and dances to cheer up the learners before classes and this is something that the learners find interesting,” said Ntchayasimbi.
The deputy head teacher for the school Mr Felix Dobo said the introduction of this project has been encouragement and now some learners who used to miss school have started going to school again.
“We are actively working with the school’s Mother Group committee to mobilise parents and guardians to send their children to school,” he added.
Through the Education in Emergency program, DAPP Malawi has deployed 25 teachers who are voluntarily working in eight districts of Mangochi, Balaka, Zomba, Phalombe, Mulanje, Thyolo, Chikwawa and Nsanje.
DAPP Malawi through its four TTCs groom teachers who are specifically trained to teach in rural Malawi primary schools.
The teachers get equipped with skills that allow them to excel in rural settings; prepared to become change agents who play leading roles in community building efforts.
To date, DAPP has trained over 2991 teachers in its four Teachers Training Colleges of Amalika, Dowa, Chilangoma and Mzimba.
