Teachers sleeping in office at Chiringani II School

Some teachers at Chiringani II Primary School in Khombwe Education Zone in Blantyre rural have turned a head teacher’s office into a house due to lack of teachers’ houses, The Nation can reveal.

Speaking in an interview, the head teacher, Baston Moyo, said the school only has one house and there are no houses within the community that teachers can rent. He said as a result, most teachers rent houses in nearby townships. However, the townships such as Chilomoni and Chileka are about 15 kilometres (km) away.

Said Moyo: “We have six teachers and we just received two more, but because of lack of accommodation and long distances to the school, I have decided to close my office and turn it into a house. Teachers are now living in my office, but I am not worried because what I want is to keep them at the school.”

He revealed that five teachers recently refused to stay because of the distance and lack of houses.

This is the same story at Chigwaja and Chitakale schools in the zone. The schools are about 10km away from nearby townships. Teachers from the two schools told The Nation that walking on the hilly topography to Chilomoni Township takes them two hours.

Meanwhile, with support from Key 2 Africa, Joshua, a non-governmental organisation(NGO) that assists orphans and their communities in Blantyre, has intervened by constructing a teacher’s house at Chiringani II School.

“It is hard for one to walk 15km to work every day. It is just passion for work. We are informed most teachers do not make it every day and it is worse during the rainy season. We are constructing a house and with availability of more support, we will construct more,” said Lusungu Ngulube, country manager for Joshua.