The School

Matandani School is a government primary school in a rural area of Malawi. It is about 19Km outside of the nearest main town of Zomba. The main way of getting to the village is by mini bus for 12km on a tarmac road and then by bicycle taxi for the final 7km along a dirt road. The school caters for Standard 1 up to 8 but struggles with huge numbers of children attending from when the Government made primary education free for all.

The School Crest

The crest as created in 2016 and it reflects the current and future aspirations of Matandani Primary School. Zomba plateau’s presence in the background of the crest reflects the same view from the school. The mango tree represents the robust mango trees at school and it recognizes that large and strong roots are imperative for growth. The mangos on the tree are the success of getting students into secondary school

Similar to the Malawian flag, the Sun rising behind the Zomba plateau shows that the school is improving and it will continue to rise until every student in the area has reached his or her full potential.

Matandani Progress

Student to Teacher Ratio

0:1
Matandani 2012
0:1
Matandani 2018

Humans of Matandani

Meet the Teachers
Meet the Students

# of Students per Standard

Age Gap by Standard

0:1
Matandani 2012
0:1
Matandani 2018
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Student to Toilet Ratio

0:1
Scoil Bhride (Irish School)
0:1
Matandani 2012
0:1
Matandani 2018

Major Milestones

  • We have built an extra 4 classrooms so far to make 12 in total

  • We’ve doubled the amount of toilets. There is now one boy and one girl toilet for every standard!

  • Our new classrooms have helped us split the largest class sizes in half from Standard 1 -4! We are now working on Standard 5 and 6 as the these are also split but one of the classes are being currently taught under a tree.

  • One of the biggest improvements at Matandani was bringing in piped water. We now have a sink in every classroom for drinking water and each toilet block has running water for students to wash their hands.

  • Matandani was one of the first rural schools to get an electricity connection. This allows us to bring in laptops, printers and projectors to use basic technology in the classrooms.

  • We have 10 GB of internet data given to us for free by TNM as part of their corporate social responsibility program. This is amazing, in particular for communication and using online educational resources.

  • The whole school is now running on solar from 2018. This guarantees we can use technology equipment at any time!

  • 168 pairs of glasses were given to students at Matandani after they were tested by One Dollar Glasses!

  • We helped 6 children with clubfoot to get the corrective procedure that was badly needed to correct their condition.

Major Challenges

  • We continue to work on reducing class sizes as intake of students have increased since we started the project.

  • We have days where our water connection stops working. We would love to build another water tank to store water for these days.

  • There is no such thing as substitute teachers in Malawi. We do not get new teachers if someone is sick or goes on maternity leave.

  • There is a need for further professional development for our teachers in areas like inclusion, special needs, basic computer skills and using technology in the classroom.

  • There are children who need basic medical care which affects their performance in school. We would like to help these children overcome these challenges so they can concentrate on school.

The School Crest

The crest as created in 2016 and it reflects the current and future aspirations of Matandani Primary School. Zomba plateau’s presence in the background of the crest reflects the same view from the school. The mango tree represents the robust mango trees at school and it recognizes that large and strong roots are imperative for growth. The mangos on the tree are the success of getting students into secondary school

Similar to the Malawian flag, the Sun rising behind the Zomba plateau shows that the school is improving and it will continue to rise until every student in the area has reached his or her full potential.

Humans of Matandani

Meet the Teachers
Meet the Students

Matandani Progress

Student to Teacher Ratio

0:1
Matandani 2012
0:1
Matandani 2018

# of Students per Standard

Age Gap by Standard

Student to Toilet Ratio

0:1
Scoil Bride (Irish School)
0:1
Matandani 2012
0:1
Matandani 2018

Major Milestones

  • We have built an extra 8 classrooms so far to make 16 in total

  • We’ve tripled the amount of toilets. There is now more than one boy and one girl toilet for every standard! And we built a special girls toilet/shower room.

  • Our new classrooms have helped us split the largest class sizes in half from Standard 1 -8! We now have an A and a B class for each standard. No classes are  taught under a tree anymore.

  • One of the biggest improvements at Matandani was bringing in piped water. We now have a sink in every classroom for drinking water and each toilet block has running water for students to wash their hands.

  • Matandani was one of the first rural schools to get an electricity connection. This allows us to bring in laptops, printers and projectors to use basic technology in the classrooms.

  • The whole school is now running on solar from 2018. This guarantees we can use technology equipment at any time!

  • 168 pairs of glasses were given to students at Matandani after they were tested by One Dollar Glasses!

  • We helped 6 children with clubfoot to get the corrective procedure that was badly needed to correct their condition.

Major Challenges

  • We continue to work on reducing class sizes as intake of students have increased since we started the project.

  • We have days where our water connection stops working. We would love to build another water tank to store water for these days.

  • There is no such thing as substitute teachers in Malawi. We do not get new teachers if someone is sick or goes on maternity leave.

  • There is a need for further professional development for our teachers in areas like inclusion, special needs, basic computer skills and using technology in the classroom.

  • There are children who need basic medical care which affects their performance in school. We would like to help these children overcome these challenges so they can concentrate on school.

School Faciilities

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