Case Story: Stanley Kachidowo
Stanley Kachidowo is a primary school teacher at Mafosha School in Mafosha village, Traditional Authority Chakhadza in Dowa district. He was trained at DAPP Dowa Teachers Training College to work in rural Malawi primary school. In 2016 he was posted to work at Mafosha where he was assigned to be a standard 8 class teacher. During the 2016/2017 academic year there were 31 learners in Standard 8 and when they sat for the Malawi Nation Examination Board (MANEB) exams the pass rate was 100 percent with two learners selected to convention secondary schools and 17 got selected to a Community Day Secondary School.
Kachidowo said his class performed well because he uses learner centred methods of teaching. He said as a teacher who is also a member of the DAPP 400 Primary School (a network of DAPP graduated teachers that stick together to share knowledge and experiences on how to improve the environments around their schools), he believes in teaching and showing as such he uses TALULAR (Teaching and Learning Using Locally Available Resources), he introduced extracurricular lessons and encourages refreshing activities ( football, netball, dramas, dances and poems), sanitation and hygiene (through mounting of hand washing facilities) around the school toilets.
The Deputy Headteacher for the school Mr Chimalizeni Sitinkamu said it wasn’t until Kachidowo’s coming that the school started sending learners to government secondary schools after 13 years. He said the last time learners from the school got selected to convention secondary schools was in 2005. He acknowledged that Kachidowo is a teacher who is passionate about his job and, he, together with the other teachers work hand in hand with the community around the school.
Mafosha primary school has 13 teachers, 10 male and 3 females. In the 2017/2018 academic year, the school’s enrollment has gone up from 584 to 801 learners. Standard 8 class has 73 learners from the previous 31. The increase in enrollment is being attributed to the 2017 MANEB results whose pass rate was 100 percent.
