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| Matilda Chakaka attends high school, thanks to readers. Danna Harman |
For Malawi girls, high school is only the first hurdle
A small group of girls funded largely by Monitor readers aims to make the most of their opportunity.
from the August 15, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Secondary school is difficult
Matilda was a top student in the Bowa village primary school – but secondary school has proved a challenge. She goes to the Lilongwe Girls Secondary School in the capital – a sprawling institution with rundown classrooms and long, dim dorm rooms in which 30 or so girls sleep side by side, doing homework, snacking and gossiping all sitting cross-legged on their beds.
"I would like to go to Bunda College of Agriculture next year," her best school friend Mercy Chaonaine, a tall, outgoing girl, says. "Me too," echoes Matilda.
But later, the C-plus student admits she is not sure she will get in anywhere and has no idea what she wants to study anyway.
"My ambition was to be a doctor but I have difficulties in mathematics and physical sciences so I have changed my ambitions," she says.
She could be a "manageress" she mumbles, "… of human resources..." Her voice trails off. "I don't know much about it."
It's quite possible that Matilda will return to Bowa, help her parents and four siblings with their small subsistence corn and tobacco farming, and get married. She is not enthused. "I don't really like going home anymore," she admits. "I don't like the hard work. And it's boring."
Matilda reflects on her future prospects and allows herself a little teenage sigh of despair. "I think my education will not help me back in Bowa," she announces. "I will not be any better than someone who has not gone to school."
The elder women of Bowa understand her sentiments – but beg to differ.
"There is no opportunity for her here, that is true," acknowledges Fanis Chakaka, Matilda's mother.
The elder Chakaka, a red woolen hat pulled down over her brow, her face, just like her daughter's, a study in seriousness, speaks slowly: "But you get other things from school. You become smarter about everything."
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