With 1,800 pupils and only 22 teachers, St James Primary school needs support. Krizevac Project funded the building of this school in 2006, but overcrowded classrooms and too few teachers mean that children do not have the best environment to learn and thrive. In the past we have provided volunteer teachers to help, but that’s not a sustainable solution.
We are currently working to improve standards through the introduction of a teaching assistant training programme. Once qualified the teaching assistants will bring the pupil:adult ratio down to about 1:40 which greatly increases the chance of each child receiving some individual attention. The teaching assistants will be employed by Beehive (funded through the rental of JCB’s) and they’ll also run holiday and out of school clubs for more vulnerable children. Every child at St James benefits from a meal every day provided by Mary’s Meals. Once a year, Krizevac has distributed a pencil case to each child; these are kindly donated by students in schools across the Midlands, this project was instigated by Emily Clark a Lay Chaplin from Cardinal Griffin in Cannock.
Children in Malawi start school at 6 years old and they have 8 years of primary education. Unfortunately, many children are needed to stay at home to help with jobs, others may miss a year because of illness. This can mean that some children are as old as 18 years before they leave primary school. They learn in Chichewa until year 5, after that everything is taught in English which is the other official language of Malawi. 
