Special Projects & Activities at Primary School for the Deaf
Several things have set the school apart and encouraged acceptance by the community at large. In the year 2000, the school was given a set of handbells and students learned to ring using color-coded music. They ring often at school chapel, at the CCAP church English worship service and at special events. As far as is known, this is the only handbell choir in Malawi. The teachers have been given their own set of handbells which are not color coded and work to learn how to ring when someone is available to teach them.
In 2013, the teachers at the Primary school for deaf were introduced to e-readers (a.k.a. Kindles) as part of after-class teacher training. They were given time to explore the possibilities and asked if they thought these could be used by the older students. They expressed great enthusiasm and in 2014, the school began using e-readers from the Worldreader program. Donors in Estes Park, Colorado provided funding for 50 reader units, each containing 100 books. Mr. Jolia Mahemane was appointed project manager and Mr. Mzondi Longwe built a storage unit to keep them secure and to provide a way to charge the units when not in use. Originally, it was thought the Kindles would be used by the oldest classes (Senior Primary Unit) and these students were trained in the care and use of the units. Younger learners soon began to ask “when is it our turn?” and training was extended for Class 4 to class 6 (Lower Primary Unit). Within two years, it had been extended as well to Classes 1-3 and so now all students except Preschool have access to e-reading. The school timetable has been altered to include at least 2 periods weekly for each class to use the e-readers. One of these periods is for formal class work; the other is set aside for individual choice recreational reading. The program has encouraged reading which in turn has improved test scores and overall general knowledge. The younger students have some books in beginning reading (Chewa and English); older students read many of the English classics, poetry, novels, biography and some textbooks. Books are added regularly and each unit now contains 410 books.
E-readers are also in use at the Secondary School for the Deaf for both classroom work and recreational reading.
Solar lighting was installed on one of the classroom blocks in 2014 with the help of Mr. Richard Keller and Mountain View Presbyterian Church in Loveland, Colorado. The system provides light for 3 classrooms and has made possible a nightly study hall for the oldest students . After dinner, learners in class 5 through 9 are required to be in study hall for 2 hours with teachers serving as monitors on a rotating basis. In 2018, Headteacher Mr. Mondwe said that Class 4 had asked if they, too, could attend study hall; they were disappointed when he said they must wait one more year. The solar system also provides back-up power to re-charge the Kindles in case of an extended power outage.
In 2017 the school began the “Square Foot Gardens” project as a step toward self-sufficiency. Because it is a Primary school, Embangweni School for the Deaf may not charge school fees. But, unlike most other primary schools, this is a boarding facility and so responsible to feed and house the learners. The government of Malawi provides a small stipend but it is not sufficient to feed the 200 students. The school has almost always had a garden which was cared for by the support staff. The Square Foot Gardens project was originally proposed by Carol Nussbaumer to 1) provide food and 2) teach the students skills they can take home to their villages. Vegetable seeds were donated by the Nussbaumers and by their home church in Colorado. The hope was to not only grow vegetables but to grow them even in the dry season. This has not yet happened, but progress continues.
Each learner in classes 5 through 9, plus the students in the Vocational Education section, is assigned a plot of ground inside the garden area. The learner is responsible for working the ground, planting seed, carrying water as needed, weeding and eventually harvesting the crop. Each plot is about 2’ wide and 4’ long; they are separated by paths a foot wide so no one ever steps into a planted area. They have also started compost pits near the kitchen which has decreased the need to buy fertilizer. Results have been very good and the learners have been eating their own produce for a good portion of the school year.
Also in 2017, the school petitioned Loudon Station for permission to clear 1.8 hectares of mission station land for a maize garden. The land was cleared and planted by the older boys with supervision from the teachers. In May, 2018, the school harvested 36 – 50kg bags of maize and in 2019 harvested 99 – 50 kg bags of maize. They also plant beans, pumpkins and soybean plants around the maize.
Visitors are always welcomed at the Embangweni School for Hard of Hearing, whether for a few hours, a few days or several weeks. They can simply observe classroom activities or can share skills in teaching, craft projects or in other areas such as first aid training, teacher workshops and the like. There is no need to know sign language or the regional language of Chitumbuka. All the teachers speak English; older students understand spoken English using speech reading (“lip reading”) and are more than willing to help volunteers learn sign or will write on the chalkboard their questions and answers in English. A visit of any length tells students and teachers “I know you are here and I care about you.”
Click a button below to see other pages.