The number of dropouts in several community secondary schools in the Malawian central district of Kasungu has sharply declined. A charitable project claims that the computers and supporting technology it is donating to these schools is making a major impact in that decline.
The project, run in partnership between Malawian NGO K2 Taso and Tech Bridges to Malawi, delivers laptops and desktops with preloaded educational content to schools.
It also provides projectors, peripherals, ancillary equipment and lithium solar power systems and has recently installed Starlink systems at five key Community Day Secondary Schools.
Secondary school retention in Malawi is very low, with less than 10% of children completing their secondary education, particularly in rural areas.
Peter Minjale, MD, K2 Taso, said the retention rate among the secondary school students has increased from 26% to 68% since the computers were introduced in 2023.
"These are remote areas and when a child has the device, he becomes quite attached to it and in the process gets the information," Minjale said.
"We’re very proud of how the students are performing."
The local charity, which was also behind a campaign for the inclusion of Computer Studies on the master timetable for national examinations, has entered into partnerships with 35 schools in the district.
The donated devices are preloaded with educational content, including ebooks, which helps to ease the challenge of a shortage of materials in school libraries.
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