Self-boarding school fuelling drop-out rates in Karonga

Teachers in Karonga the northern part of Malawi have asked government to fulfil its promise of reducing school distances by constructing schools for not more than seven kilometres from the people’s villages as one way of abolishing the self-boarding initiative in the country in order to minimize the dropout rate cases.

According to the Head Teacher of Mlale Secondary School in Karonga, Belliam Msukwa,   said most drops out cases occurs due to early pregnancy the incidents which comes because students stay alone in self-boarding schools.

He was speaking when receiving a cheque of K167, 000 for 17 orphan students donated by the former minister of Finance Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda,

Msukwa said student face appalling challenges in the self-boarding facilities.

He said girls are subjected to various abuses, including rape, because their boarding houses are not secure.

The head teacher said about 25 girls have dropped out of school only for the last term school season due to early pregnancies and marriages.

“It is so pathetic that government as well as other organizations are reassuring girls’ education while in various schools we are encountering a number of drop out cases from the same girls just because of long distances,” said Msukwa.

“As of Mlale Secondary school some people cover 20 kilometres to reach at the school,” said Msukwa,

He adds that some girls are involved in prostitution to earn a living.

The District Education Manager Scotch Kondowe concurred with Msukwa saying “we are indeed registering more number of drop out cases here in Karonga as only for 2014 school season we have encountered over 2000 primary school learners dropping out of school and in Secondary schools we have registered about 200 students and most of them is because of early pregnancies and marriages.”

In his remarks after presenting the donation, the former minister Mwalwanda express his worry towards the development which he described as a setback to the government goal of educating more girls.

He however revealed his plan of constructing some girls’ boarding schools in his area as one way of reducing such problems.