Thanks to the support of Fonthill Foundation, the pupils at Mazembe Primary are excited to be receiving their new desks.
Primary schools in Malawi are government funded and free to attend but are very under-resourced. In many rural schools underfunding has meant that there is often no money for basic equipment. Many children do not have any desks at all in the classroom and have to sit all day on a concrete floor or sit outside on the ground. Often if the classrooms have desks it is not uncommon for three pupils to have to share one desk, as there aren’t enough for the ever-increasing class sizes. Having a desk is a vital part of learning, making it easier to write and concentrate in the lesson, creating a much better learning environment.
The majority of the classrooms at the primary schools that we support don’t have desks so our aim is to be able to continue to provide new desks so that eventually all children in the six primary schools are able to sit at a desk and learn more effectively.