Govt distributes desks to schools

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) has embarked on a distribution exercise of over 50 000 desks and chairs in primary and secondary schools nationwide.

Speaking when he handed over 100 single desks and chairs at Catholic Institute (CI) Community Day Secondary School in Blantyre on Monday, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Bright Msaka said the ministry has procured 27 450 single seat desks with chairs and 31 425 double seater desks to be distributed to schools to improve students’ learning environment.

He said following Parliament’s  approval for the ministry to spend about K2.5 billion on desks this financial year, the ministry plans to distribute the desks and chairs to various schools.

“We are also constructing additional classrooms, libraries, laboratories and administration blocks in various CDSSs to upgrade their standards. Government is doing everything that contributes towards achieving quality education and providing a good learning environment is one of the contributions,” said the minister.

Receiving the donation, CI CDSS head teacher Olive Pondayapa thanked the ministry for the desks.

She said: “We had challenges as some students would be learning while sitting on the floor and this used to distract their attention. However, we still need more resources here as we just opened three years ago. We need more desks, teachers, classroom blocks and administration block, to mention a few.”

Before distributing the desks, the minister toured Blantyre Secondary School where he called for the need to renovate the school.

The minister also distributed 100 desks to Chimwankhunda CDSS and 50 desks each to Manja and Nyambadwe CDSS.

Msaka expressed government’s commitment to improving the country’s education standards through infrastructure development, providing a good learning environment, training of teachers and upgrading of CDSS so that they become competitive.

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