Literacy Work Camp
Eighty five students from boarding and non-boarding schools attended the event. There were 32 Form One, 30 Form Two, 13 Form Three and 10 Form Four students.
The tutorials were conducted by teachers Mr Peter Moutcha and Mr Felix Mkavea. Students were taught three subjects, namely English, Mathematics and Physical Science. Topics included kinetic theory and matter, structure and composition of an atom in P/ Science, question tags, letter writing, composition writing and clauses in English. In maths, there were changing subject of the formula, simultaneous equations involving quadratic equations, geometry, Pythagoras theorem, among others. Form one and two students learned together with form three and four students being together as well.
Students played games like football, netball and athletics after classes. After one and a half hour of study in the evening, students entertained themselves with poem and drama performances, dancing and quiz competitions as well as disco and watching movies. The next day, instead of sports, the students worked at the FOCHTA farm helping with fertilizer application. There were also time for prayers.
James Mphaya (who also taught maths), Cecelia Kamwana and Merolyn Spoon motivated the students with their life experiences. James also taught study tips and carrier guidance. On the final day, a clinical officer from Mangunda Health Centre gave a talk on health related issues to the students and encouraged the students to work hard in class.
According to our student liason officer Austin, “ Students were also exposed to different role models, which is a very rare thing in rural Malawi.” Austin said he had spoken to a number of students afterwards as to how they compared our tutors this time to those teachers who teach them in their schools, and they all agreed that our tutors were much better in explaning difficult subject matters.