Alumni honour retired primary school teacher

Former learners of Mwanawanjovu Primary School in Chikwawa District have honoured a retired teacher who saved the school from closure in the early 1980s.

The alumni gave the teacher, Bagi Selemani, K300 000 and goods worth K170 000 which included a suit, a pair of shoes and groceries. They also donated footballs and chalk to the school.

Speaking during a visit to the school to honour the teacher, one of the alumni, King Norman Rudi, said they still appreciate the role Selemani played in their lives.

“He was the only teacher at the school in the early 1980s. He taught Standards One to Six alone and it is still a wonder how he managed to keep us busy.

“We, therefore, thought it proper to honour him as our own living hero instead of waiting for him to die and honour him with empty eulogies,” said Rudi, who works for the Malawi Electoral Commission as regional elections officer for the South.

In his remarks, Selemani observed that what the alumni did was rare, saying most people assist their former secondary schools and not primary schools, let alone remember those who taught them during their formative years.

He, therefore, commended the former learners for remembering him and the school.

“We often hear about former students establishing groups to assist their secondary schools, but they forget that for them to make it to secondary school they went through a primary school,” said Selemani. n