Got a Question?

Do you think the children in Yankho get less work than Trellech?

(Honor, you can ask Mr Assan yourself when he visits at the end of this month!)

How many girls are there?
How many boys are there?
[Another god question Rose. The main thing about schools in Malawi is that because nearly 9 out of every 10 people work as farmers, growing enough food for their families, they sometimes need the children to work on the crops, planting, digging and fertilising them. This means that the children are too busy to go to school which is a real shame because it means that they miss out on learning. However the parents only know growing food for the family so they do not see education and school as being as important - and I can understand that in a way. I am now back from Malawi so I cannot give you an exact number but I would say it is about half and half. Mr K.]

At what age do they children start school and where do they go when they have finished at Yankho school?
[Hello Gemma. The school had a nursery so the children start at 3-4 years. Some of the children in there seem very young. The school offers education up to Standard 7 which is the same as our Year 7. After this, in theory, children would go to one of the secondary schools in or near Area 23 but in reality, many children do not go on to secondary school. In Malawi, all children are entitled to free education for 6 years (basically primary school). This FREE education is in government schools however they are crowded (sometimes 130 or more children per teacher!) so another option is private education - like Yankho. At the school, parents pay 500 Kwacha a month (about £2.50). Many children get bored at government schools being in such big classes and often with not very interesting lessons so just stop attending. The government reports that only about half (50%) of children complete their education to Year 6! (Standard 6). Secondary schools are not a free entitlement so if you want your child to go, you have to pay.....in a very poor country with large classes and school fees and where children are often needed to work in farms and grow crops, you can see why many parents and children ask, 'what's the point?']

Hello Mr King are you going to go to Lake Malawi during your visit?

Hello Patrick, thank you for your question. No unfortunately I am not able to go to Lake Malawi this week. I have heard a lot of things about it and the local people here say that it is very beautiful and not too 'touristy'. I would really like to go but don't have the time. I have eaten Chumbo though, it's a famous Malawian fish which comes from Lake Malawi and I was talking to someone this morning who said that the lake is enormous and people almost think of it as a sea or ocean. You cannot see the other side of the lake apparently it's so far away. See you next week Patrick.

Hi RG5 - Thank you for your great questions -hope you like the information on the website....here we go....

How many people learn and work in Yankho? Maisey
[Maisey, there are currently about 95 children in the school in 5 classes with 5 teachers and a few helpers. The number can go up to 110 but because it costs 500 Kwachas per month (about £2.50) to go to the school, some parents can't afford it so the children have to have some time off]

Do they have cooks and dinner ladies? Louise
[Great question Louise. No they don't because they do not have school dinners. Most children go home but a few stay and have packed lunch. The only kitchen is in Mr and Mrs Assan's house. He is the Headteacher and his house is part of the school. I suppose you could say the school is in his garden]

How many classes are there? Codi
[I'm so efficient, I think I have answered that one above Codi - thank you for your question though]

What do you see on your way from the hotel to school? Verity
[Another great question Verity. Well, I get a white minibus from outside the hotel. I say it's white, it's actually covered in mud so quite brown. That is because the streets and pavements are very muddy, especially at this time of the year because it's the rainy season. I get off the first minibus at 'Old Town' which is a wonderfully busy market area with hundreds of people milling around, lots of shouting & calling out (not like your classroom!) and people selling things at the side of the road. At Old Town I get a minibus heading to Area 23 where the school is and this takes between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the time of day. There are wonderful sights and smells as well as sounds to be heard. The townships that the minibus passes through are quite poor areas so there are people selling corn, mops, fruit and charcoal at the side of the road. The final part is a 5-10 minute walk up a mud track to the school. If it is raining there is a fast flowing stream along the path and you have to dodge the rain and streams to keep your feet dry. See you soon Verity]

How far do the children have to walk to school? Tom
[Hello Tom - most children live close to the school. They all walk and I would guess that the longest journey time is about 10 minutes - no school buses here....and no parking problems!]

What lessons do they learn? Matt
[God question Matthew. The children learn all the subjects that you do really. They also have a Chichewa lesson which is the official language of Malawi, a bit like Welsh in Wales. I have taken some photographs of the children's timetables and wil try to upload them to the school page for you to see.]

How wet did you get in the downpour? Charlie
[Charlie you will not believe how wet got! I actually took a video but it's a bit too big to put on the website - I can do it when I get home. It's the rainy season so it rains (thunder and lightning) most afternoons. This means very heavy rain which, because it's hilly in places, flows down the roads and washes away the top layer of soil. The result is that there are lots of streams in the roads. Yesterday I had to cross the road to get my bus and for all I knew, it might rain for another 2 hours. I literally could not get across without wading through water that was between 20-30 cms deep. I tried going anther way or taking a long way round but we were sort of on an island and the brown water was flowing very quickly. I spoke to the lady on the reception desk at the hotel and she said it is like that most days!!!!! So in summary, VERY wet]

Are there any behavioural problems? Lily
[I had this conversation with Mr Assan on Tuesday Lily and he said there are a few but not too many. I think because the parents have to pay for the children to come to the school, they make sure the children behave pretty well.]

Are there many boys/girls?Ellie C
[I am not sure exactly how many boys and girls Ellie, there are about 95 children at school at the moment but it does change daily. In fact if it rains heavily at lunchtime, Mr Assan finds that many parents don;t bother sending their children back to school for the afternoon lessons!]

Do they have to eat a particular amount of food? Naiomi
[They don;t have to eat particular foods Naiomi but the mst popular foods for Malawians are nsyma (ground up maize / corn on the cob which is mixed with water until it is a bit like a dumpling. You eat it with your figers and scoop up a side dish like beans or onions with it. Malawians eat nsyma 2-3 times a day - it is a staple part of their diet. Other popular food is kavasa which is a bit like potato and comes from the root of a particular plant]

What types of names do the children have? Rhiannon
[Rhiannon, the children have some lovely names. You will see them all when I return because yesterday I took individual photographs of the children and they wrote 'fact files' about themselves like RG5 did for them. You will see them next week. Some memorable names that I have heard this week include Innocent, Gift, Maureen, Deborah and Faith. Mr Assan's daughter had a baby too weeks ago and he is called Tiny....which is probably not a coincedence as he is very small!]

How many children are in each class? Ellie W
[Interesting question Ellie. That depends really because as I've mentioned above, the classes change in size from day to day. The oldest class Standard 4 has six children in while other class have up to 20. There are a lot of little children in nursery]

Tomorrow is Saturday and I am going Bird Watching at school. I cant wait to see you again and hear all about our trip. Mummy is interested in hearing all about your Malawi trip too - have you thought about offering a talk to the interested Mummys and Daddys?
Have a safe trip home - see you back at School soon.

Thanks for your latest email Richard - That's a good idea, perhaps I could do some sort of presentation if people would be interested. I'd be happy to do that. What I am going to do is put the videos that I have been taking onto a DVD and anyone can borrow it from the office once it's finished. I have over an hour so far but not too much...that might get a bit boring!! See you soon Richard

I miss you Mr King. Is it hot and sunny? Have you got a nice drink? What time is it? Love Layla xxx

Hello Layla. Yes it is quite hot here and often quite sunny but in Malawi right now it is the rainy season so each day, usually in the afternoon, there are very heavy thunderstorms which means lots and lots of rain. The rain runs off the fields and gardens into the roads and is very brown and muddy. It flows away and washes the soil away with it. I got VERY VERY wet this afternoon (and I mean VERY wet). The time is now 11pm (9pm in Trellech, it is 2 hours ahead here. When you wake up, the children at the school have been working for nearly two hours and are having their playtime.

I would like to know the afican age of death

Hi Tom. The life expectancy for adults in Malawi is 45. Although you do see some older people around (and 45 years is just an average), people in Malawi do not live as long as in Britain. This is due to a number of reasons like hard physical work, preventable disease (poor people cannot afford medicines) and lack of understanding about how to stay well. Other factors of course include poor diet and a lack of healthy food. It is a weird thought that if I were a Malawian, being 38 now, I would expect to live another 7 years.....however people who live in good conditions and who are in good health will live longer. Remeber this figure includes people in the poorest, most deprived, most challenging areas of the countryside as well as the city.

Do the children have school lunches or a packed lunch?
What time do they start and finish school? Do they have to travel a long way to get to school?

Hello Richard (the children loved the rugby shirt that you donated and say thank you very much).
School starts at 7.30am (5.30am in Wales) and finishes at 12 noon for lunch. Most children go home but some stay. Lessons start again at 2pm and the day ends at 3pm. Yes they do have snacks at breaktime and if they stay for lunch they bring their own. Many children bring bags, rucksacks and drinks bottles for their morning break when they sit out in the yard of plastic sheets. Like at Trellech, the teachers have to keep asking the children not to drop their litter. That's another thing that is the same all over the world!

How do the children get to school?

Hi Lottie. The children ALL walk to school. There is not road to the school, just a mud track, although I did see a lorry near the school yesterday. People who live in this area around the school do not have cars....there would not be anywhere to put them if they did! Some children go to school on their own, others are brought by their parents of older brothers or sisters.

Do the children get lots of nice things to eat?

Thanks for your question India. At breaktimes, the children bring in snacks, often sweets (which Mr Assan tries to stop!) A very important food for Malawians is nsyma which is a little like semolina, made from ground up maize (corn on the cob). It is heated with water and becomes this, a bit like dumplings. It is then eaten by hand and you usually dip it in beans or something else nice like pumpkin leaves. They also eat kasava which comes from vegetable roots and is a bit like potato. All very tasty. Another traditional food is chumbo, a fish that comes from Lake Malawi.

How is Trellech Primary School different to Yankho Elementary School?

Hello Ellie. Gosh where shall I start? I think the best thing to say is that while there are many ways that the two schools are different, there are many ways that are just the same. In assembly, Mr Assan and the teachers have to keep reminding the children to be quiet, sometimes the children need to be told 'calm down' and the children sometimes squabble a little bit (now where have I seen that before?) The curriculum (what the children learn) is in many ways different to ours though there are many similarities. For example, yesterday the Standard 4 class werelearning about fractions while the Standard 3 class were drawing their family trees. Mr Assan is very forward looking and he wants to really improve the way the pupils learn. Like in Wales, he wants to move away from the children being taught (talked to) as a way of learning and towards children learning and finding out through experiences and asking questions. We have both talked for many hours about how children learn best and how we can both improve children's understanding. You understand and remeber things much better if you work things out and make sense of them yourself rather than being told. If you are told things you forget them much more quickly but if learning is memorable & meaningful, you remember it for a long time. Mr Assan and I also talked a lot about using questions in the pictures that we now have of each others school. We learn as much about a picture by asking what it doesn't show as well as what it does and it's also a good way of looking at what we actualy see and what we think or assume. SO - there you are, there are a few differences and similarities. Hope that answers your question Ellie.