LCSS Conducts Exit Trainings
The Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) through its Let Children Stay in School (LCSS) project has trained 228 Standard 1 and 2 in-service teachers, 32 Primary Education Advisors (PEAs) and 6 Coordinating PEAs on sustaining the project’s activities. They all hail from the schools, zones and districts where the project is being implemented.
LCSS aims to reduce the dropout rate for children in lower grades of standard 1 and 2 in 114 primary schools in six districts of Chitipa, Rumphi, Ntchisi, Lilongwe, Machinga and Nsanje.
The trainings were conducted from the 11th to the 14 of April as part of the project’s exit strategies. They created a platform for the participants to give feedback on the project’s activities, key achievements, lessons learnt and action plans for sustainability.
Some of the key achievements highlighted during the trainings were; reduced learners absenteeism, successful introduction of school feeding programs, improved learners transition from Community Based Child Care Centres to primary schools, strengthened relationships between schools and communities and successful introduction of income generating activities.
The Coordinating PEA for Lilongwe district Nelson Kachikuni urged the participating schools to use the School Improvement Grants to accommodate some of the activities introduced by the project. “We will continue working with the communities to maintain some of the project’s activities with the locally available resources,” he added.
One of the teachers who attended the training in Lilongwe Lonely Hausi from Chatata Primary School in Mkukula zone said that as one of the sustainability measures, the school invested the sustainability grants they received from the project in a Village Savings and Loan group so they can use the profit to be generated in carrying out the project’s activities.
The project will phase out in May 2018 after three years of implementation with funding from the Rodger Federer Foundation. Some of its activities include training teachers in handling special needs children through in-service training at DAPP Teacher Training Colleges; establishing and promoting school gardens and feeding programs; establishing hand washing facilities; rehabilitating classrooms and constructing playgrounds for the children.
