The Senga Bay Primary School in Malawi has more than 1900 students. The classes were very large (between 179 to 335 students per classroom) so the classrooms were quite cramped and the school was unfit to facilitate that many students. Only the highest two years were able to make use of the desks. The rest of the students had to sit on the floor or be taught outside. The school started working with morning and afternoon classes to reduce the number of students per class. The children only get taught for half a day but it does improve the quality of education.
The Discover the World Foundation wanted to support the improvement of the quality of education more by improving the school’s facilities and classrooms. The foundation built 3 new schoolbuildings which means they now have 17 in total. They purchased 430 new desks bringing the total to 550. Furthermore, they set up multiple programmes including wood work and fruit and vegetable gardening.
The goal of the project was to improve the students’ quality of living by improving the educational facilities. Because there are more classrooms and desks the number of students per class could be reduced significantly. This resulted in the teachers being able to give each student more attention which improves the quality of education. When students get a better chance at development they also have a higher chance of transferring to high school.
