Malawian students face yet another setback after tropical storm Ana

When Evelyn Makilecha woke up on Jan. 24, it seemed like just another ordinary day. But as she was preparing to leave for Mwananjovu Primary School in the southern Malawi district of Chikwawa, her parents stopped her when they realized that the clouds that were building up were turning into a storm.

The heavy rains and strong winds eventually brought on a tropical storm that lasted three days, causing floods that displaced close to 1 million people in 19 districts, including Makilecha and her parents who sought refuge at Namira-a displacement camp in Chikwawa district.

Although schools in the district were only officially closed for one day, education specialists said the infrastructure damage and trauma caused by tropical storm Ana will have a lasting impact on learners such as Makilecha who were still recovering from COVID-19 disruptions.

Mac Shades Dakamau, chief education officer for Chikwawa district, said people who are displaced are seeking shelter in evacuation centers, schools, churches, hospitals, shelters, and made-up campsites. These living conditions have made it very difficult for the school-going children to attend classes.

The storm affected 398,908 learners from 476 schools and, according to Dakamau, nearly 50% of the learners in his district have been forced out of school.

“The learners have lost most of their school materials like text and notebooks and the situation is made worse because some schools have been completely damaged by the floods,” he said.

Steve Sharra, an education specialist with African Institute for Development Policy, said the destruction that the storm had on permanent school structures has further reduced the number of classes in the country.

Before tropical storm Ana hit, the country students were still trying to recover from COVID-19-related disruptions. Schools in Malawi were closed for the majority of the year in 2020 and another month in 2021.

Shara said learners are now facing a “worse nightmare” as they are currently suffering from psychological trauma — as a result of the storm — which may persist for a longer period.  

“It is important that whatever support is being provided, should include psychosocial support for the children to enable them to have some mental stability so that they can return to class as soon as possible,” he said. Adding that it is also important to focus on girls’ needs because they suffer specific consequences. 

Malawi recorded more than 40,000 teenage pregnancies during the eight months of school closures in 2020.

“Whenever teenage learners are not regularly attending school, rates of teenage pregnancies and child marriages rise,” Shara said. “The government and its partners need to provide continuity of learning and stability to help preempt the kinds of increases in teenage pregnancies and child marriages that we saw in the COVID-19 school closures.”

Mary Shawa, a senior public health specialist at Plan International Malawi, added that there is also a risk of children being forced out of school to assist their parents with farmwork as they try to recover from the financial impact of the storm.

The country’s Department of Disaster Management Affairs estimates that over 1.7 million people in the country were already in need of food assistance before the storm. But now an additional 104,000 families need food assistance as their crops were washed away by the storm, according to Chipiliro Khamula, the department’s spokesperson.

In response, UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations are currently assisting students that have been affected by the storm by implementing initiatives such as the School-in-a-Box initiative where students are provided with learning materials. UNFPA is also providing “dignity kits” to girls and women that have been affected by the floods.

UNICEF Representative for Malawi Rudolf Schwenk said it is important to ensure that this assistance is extended to children in the camps who are not yet able to go back to their schools.

For Makilecha, this assistance is much needed at Namira-a displacement camp.

“I lost most of my learning materials, and the conditions I am living in makes learning almost impossible,” she said.