Orant Sponsors Laboratory at Malawian School
Partnership leads to investment in science education in rural Malawi
For the first time in the school’s 26-year history, Ngala Community Day Secondary School has a laboratory with lab supplies and chemicals. Orant has sponsored the laboratory at local school, Ngala Community Day Secondary School. Feel the excitement Ngala students and teachers share due to this development!
Orant sponsors laboratory at Malawian school
For form three student, Regina Mwale, the idea of attending classes when she was selected to Ngala Community Day Secondary School in her Primary School Leaving Examinations filled her with worry. Since she had no other option, she started attending classes after a week of struggling with the thought of attending a school which had no laboratory. Learning at such an institution, fear always gripped Regina’s mind whenever the thought of practical exams crossed her mind.
“There were days that fear could almost overpower me and I could think of dropping all the science subjects as they require experiments. This was because our school never had a laboratory, let alone laboratory materials.”
Lab materials are necessary for school examinations
15-year-old Regina explains how hard it was for most students to understand some lessons as they could only learn the theory part of some concepts that required experiments. This, in turn, could affect the students’ performance during their Malawi School Certificate Exams (MSCE), which are required for application to university.
Lack of lab supplies affects students’ ability to learn
For years, Ngala CDSS has been called a humanities school owing to the lack of a science laboratory at the institution. Many students, when selected to Ngala, opt instead for other schools which have laboratories.
“For the past two years, there were no MSCE students who registered for physics and chemistry from Ngala CDSS as students were afraid of failing practical examinations since they lacked hands-on experience. The only option the school had was using Madisi Secondary school’s laboratory during MSCE. However, this was costly for our institution as Madisi Secondary school is about 45 minutes from Ngala,” says the head teacher of Ngala CDSS, Wadi Idon.
The local community came together to sponsor a school
Seeing most students in the community dropping science subjects and others failing, the school management committee thought of using their collective effort with the students’ parents to build a laboratory. Using the school development fund, the school management committee and students’ parents undertook the demanding task of building a laboratory – and succeeded!
Since the funds were not enough to cover the laboratory materials and chemicals, Orant’s Education program donated lab chemicals and supplies to support the school’s effort, so that the students will have everything they need to perform experiments necessary for exam preparation.
Additionally, Orant has sponsored students at Ngala CDSS since 2018, allowing us to know the students, teachers, and community well, and to see how hard the students are working to achieve their dreams of passing the MSCE.
Orant plans to support local schools in the future
Recently, our Education program has started supporting schools around the Kasese catchment area with school materials such as books, laboratory materials and study materials. We believe that with this approach we will be able to reach out to many students and this will bring a great impact to schools.
“A big thanks to Orant’s donors for this positive gesture. Recently, the Ministry of Education has been putting effort in science subjects. With this gesture, Orant has complemented the government’s effort,” says Mervin Chilongo, the Desk Officer for Secondary Schools for the Central East Education Division, who graced the donation event.
Click here to learn more about our education program.
