SOS Schools in Malawi

Only around one quarter of children in Malawi enroll at secondary school.

In Malawi, there are currently three SOS Nurseries, three Primary Schools and one Secondary School. These facilities provide education to children from SOS Villages and from the wider community. Staff members are well trained and the resources available to students are of a high standard.  Below you can find an overview on the SOS Children education projects.

Elizabeth's Story

Four-year old Elizabeth is always humming songs and loves playing the musical instruments in her nursery band, both proper ones and those made from local materials. “I want to be a gospel singer when I grow up,” says Elizabeth.

Blantyre : SOS Schools

The SOS Nursery at Blantyre has around 85 pupils, around one fifth of whom come from the SOS village.

• The nursery is a bubbly place and each day is full of activity, including games and play. Outside of class, extra-curricular activities include debates, handicrafts and singing.
• The school holds regular Open Days for parents to provide information about the routines of the school and to share our concept for learning.

The SOS Primary School at Blantyre opened in January 2008 and has around 325 students, with approximately a quarter coming from the SOS village and the remainder from the local community.

• The school prides itself on being one of the best, ensuring all learners pass the grade 8 National Examinations. Around three quarters of our students are selected for secondary schools.
• Students take part in national celebration days, such as World Women’s Day and the National Republic celebration. The school also participated in a Library open day at the Teacher Development Centre.

Lilongwe : SOS Schools

The SOS Nursery at Lilongwe has around 550 pupils in total, with 180 new children enrolling in a recent year’s intake.

• The nursery aims to provide an excellent education within a caring environment. Our activities promote the children’s emotional, social, spiritual, physical, creative and cognitive development.
• We believe it’s important to build relationships with other schools and to that end our pupils dance and sing together with children from other nurseries, and share fun days. At our Christmas Play, the children recite poems and rhymes for their parents and guardians.

The SOS Primary School at Lilongwe has nearly 800 students, around 650 of whom attend the regular classes, while the remainder attend Special Needs (where different classes cater for Learning, Behavioural and Hearing Difficulties). Special Needs learners are partially integrated into the main stream for socialization.

• Academic results at the school make it the best in the area, with an average performance over 90% for all classes and in standard 8, the school recently had a 100% pass rate. Over 50 pupils were selected for Government Secondary Schools and 18 went to National Secondary Schools.
• Students take part in a wide range of extra-curricular activities. Sports teams, such as those for football, netball and cricket, play regular matches and the school runs a variety of clubs.

The SOS Secondary School at Lilongwe has around 320 students.

• Academic results at the school are high, with 70-80% of pupils passing the Junior Certificate and Malawi School Certificate of Education, though in one recent year passes in both were 100%.
• The school encourages its students to participate in community service for a couple of hours each week. This may include tasks such as helping to mould bricks for needy families or shelling maize for old people.
  

Mzuzu : SOS Schools

The SOS Nursery at Mzuzu has around 100 pupils, a small number of whom come from the SOS village.

• The nursery is lively place and each term we have themes or topics around which we base the learning.
• Recently murals were painted on the walls inside to brighten the classroom environment and provide a child-friendly environment for our classes. Outside, our children have planted special trees to create a small wood in the grounds.

The SOS Primary School at Mzuzu has around 320 students, who are taught by 13 teachers, including a special needs teacher.

• The school achieves good results in the standard 8 examination, with 100% of students passing in one recent year and around 80% of pupils being selected for secondary schools.
• In sports, the school has two teams for football and netball, who play regularly in local and regional matches. And students are encouraged to take part in community projects, where recently bean bags and brooms were made to distribute in the community. Year 6 pupils also support reforestation by planting trees donated by the Mzuzu City Assembly.