Staff Members and learners at Namaka Community Day Secondary School in Chiradzulu West are all smiles with the newly built MK21 Million administration block built by Chiradzulu District Council under the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) Project.

The new administration block carters for 19 teachers and 192 learners who were facing problems with the old small and dilapidated school block which was also used as a library.

Head Teacher for Namaka CDSS, Angela Mponda said the new administration block has relieved the school in terms of keeping school documents safe and has created room staff offices.

“With the old building, it was in a such bad state that keeping documents there was a gamble as it could easily be broken into by thieves and even unruly students. To make matters worse during the rainy season, it was leaking which destroyed a lot of documents like books and examination papers,” she explained.

She added that now with the new administration Block, the school is able to store documents properly and safely and the school is now a center for MANEB examinations because there is a good and secure space for keeping examination papers.

According to Mponda before the new administration block, the school was a rejected stone as teachers would return with posting letters when they saw the old administration block.

“Teachers would go back with their posting letters the moment they saw this old administration block, but now teachers are actually fighting to come here because the office is magnificent, spacious and very modern. We are truly thankful because this development was very crucial,” she explained

Chairman for Village District Committee for Namaka, Mikael Mankhamba said after seeing how much the school was suffering in terms of teachers offices and storage space, they told they council that they would prefer the administration Block.

Mankhamba said the school being at the centre; it was only realistic that it has modern offices and classrooms blocks.

Member of Parliament for the area, Matthews Ngwale, expressed happiness over the decision to have a new administration block at the school which he said was long overdue.

“When we met with the committees, I told them to choose something that wilI have a great impact in the community, i am very happy that what the people in the area wanted and has been fulfilled, this is truly a great development,” he said

Maintenance and Works Supervisor for Chiradzulu District Council, Dieuifait Chikuse said the committee members at Namaka were very organized and mobilized themselves well which made the project easier to implement.

He said such projects delay when there is resistance from the communities and lack of proper coordination between the councils, contractors and the communities.

GESD is a Government of Malawi Project that is being implemented by the National Local Government Finance Committee through Local Councils with funding from the World Bank.