One of the leading insurance companies in the country, Old Mutual Malawi Blantyre Foundation Trust and Care Malawi has signed a Mk108 million three-year deal with an aim of helping government in improving the education sector.
The partnership will see Old Mutual, Care Malawi constructing furnished classrooms across the country with the first school to benefit from the partnership being Mkanda Primary School in Mchinji.
Speaking after the signing ceremony in Blantyre on Wednesday Old Mutual (BT) Foundation Trust Chairman Taonga Manda said the partnership is there to help government achieve its 2063 vision especially in education sector.
“Through this partnership the Foundation will, in three years, support construction of furnished blocks in selected rural primary schools to the tune Mk108 million.
“In the initial year of 2021, the project will commence with construction of two furnished classrooms and an administration office to the tune of MK36 million at Mkanda Primary School in Mchinji,” said Manda.
According to Manda, the school was selected through a guidance from Care Malawi and Mchinji District Council (Education Office).
“The school was established in 1935 and has an enrollment of 2,703 pupils, 30 teachers with a pupil to teacher ratio of 90 to 1. The school has only 6 school blocks comprising 15 classrooms with most of the blocks in poor condition.
“And because of the high enrollment and inadequate classrooms to absorb all the pupils, almost 36 classes are conducted under the trees hence the need for additional classrooms,” said Manda.
On his part Care Malawi Country Director Amos Zaindi he has higher hopes in the partnership.
“As you have seen we have decided under this partnership to start with education and the infrastructure that has been talked about is part of the bigger project that Care is implementing in Malawi where we are giving second chance to our you boys and girls who dropped out of school due to early pregnancies, early marriages and other social issues.
“When we mobilize themto get back to school in areas where we are working we have seen challenges of lack of infrastructures and materials for learning. Therefore, the coming in of this partnership we will address such part and am happy that am here not only witnessing the great milestone of this partnership but am also representing the people of Malawi especially those from Mkanda who will be the first to benefit from this partnership,” said Zaindi.
Old Mutual Blantyre Foundation Trust was established in early 2020 to play an active role to create a change that has a positive impact across Malawi.
