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In its 53 years of existence, Musoka Basic School has undergone a lot of challenges, but things seem to be changing for the better.

Head teacher at Musoka School, Kenniber Chifwala explained that understaffing and lack of school furniture like desks were just some of the few challenges being faced by the school.

He recalls how he was filled with a sense of hopelessness when he first arrived at the school, wondering how he would change the negative situation.

“When I came to this school, I had no hope of how I was going to change the situation,” he said.
But with the advent of the Citizen, Voice and Action (CVA) project, things are beginning to look up for the school that had only 4 classrooms and 2 teachers when it was first started in 1960.

“As a school we have seen the benefits of CVA in our community and at this school in particular. This whole process has really helped in the sense that some of the problems we had as a school have been resolved, most especially the relationships between parents, pupils and the teachers,” he explained.

He pointed out that as service providers; the school was able to dialogue with the community and the district leaders to improve service delivery collectively.

It was at a CVA orientation meeting on March 2012, which was attended by representatives from the community, Ministries of Health, Education, Community Development and Local Government and representatives from the office of the District Commissioner that the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) asked head Teachers to give an account of their challenges.

What unraveled were tales of overcrowding, understaffing, high pupil teacher ratios and the shortage of desks.

The DEBS was shocked to discover that Musoka School had 9 teachers against 820 pupils and only 10 desks in each classroom.

Two months after this meeting, five teachers were deployed to Musoka Primary School. And surprisingly enough the school received 75 desks, an increase of 35 from the 40 they had originally requested for.

Mr. Chifwala lauds the CVA approach for these changes and is secure in the knowledge that communities can always make their voices heard on issues regarding their children’s’ education.

“Community members are now free to come and dialogue with the school administration on issues affecting them concerning their children’s education” he said with a smile.