Idle Time is the Devil’s Playground

Ever since we started our work with the Standard 8 students at the end of July we’ve been bothered by the Ministry of Education’s calendar for these students. Across the country Standard 8 students took their National Exams during the first week of September. They will find out their scores at the end of December and some (hopefully many) will start Secondary School in the middle of January. If you’re wondering what fills the gap between their exams and the beginning of Secondary School you’re not alone – that’s what’s been bothering us. These children, some of whom are upwards of 20 years old, are given 4 months of holiday.
That’s 4 months filled with opportunities to get into trouble. As we’ve discussed before, the educational system is hard enough without endless temptations for some of the students to fall off course. And, just to be clear that we’re not being paranoid, after witnessing several of our older students spending all day one day last week drinking beer in the market, our Head Teacher Mr. Banda confirmed all of our concerns.


We’ve been thinking a lot about how this time can be managed better since there doesn’t seem to be much chance the calendar will change any time soon. Monday morning we spent a while brainstorming with Mr. Banda about this problem and we’ve come up with an idea that will hopefully work. We want to gather the class together and ask them to think about the issues and needs in their respective communities and their individual concerns about their futures. We want them to think for themselves about how they can use their time to better their surroundings.

For example, many girls in the villages drop out of school to care for younger siblings. Maybe some of the Standard 8 students can spend a few hours teaching them to read and write. A few other examples we thought of are apprenticeships/internships with some of the local tailors, carpenters, tinsmiths, nurses and shop owners, assisting the elderly in the villages and starting a part-time nursery. We want to help these kids along in the process but the goal would be to have the program driven by their own ideas and concerns. That way it can hopefully last beyond our short stay. Stay tuned for updates...