Public schools continue to lose land meant for sports facilities to new classrooms or encroachment while new schools are being established without sports facilities, a development that has affected the development of sports, our investigation has revealed.

Data  covering 6 065 primary schools and 1 411 secondary schools as sourced from the Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) shows that there is an acute lack of sports infrastructure in most of the institutions nationwide with poor or no sports infrastructure.

School children taking part in Massa talent identification

This is despite Malawi’s Sports Policy of 2009 stating that the ministries of Education and Sports “shall ensure that all institutions, public and private have sports equipment and infrastructure”.

Noting deteriorating standards of sports in schools, the Ministry of Education recently directed that all schools should hold a ‘sports day’ once a week, but with schools lacking sports facilities and equipment, teachers from schools we talked to say implementation of this directive is impossible.

According to our findings, in Blantyre urban out 282 primary schools, 59 have no facilities while 16 out of  32 secondary schools have no recreation facilities.           

For instance, at Zingwangwa Secondary School, the school football ground which had a complete running track, was handed over to FCB Nyasa Big Bullets for stadium construction project.

In Blantyre Rural at Chisenjere, Chikwembere, Liwiro and Kachanga, land meant for sports facilities was used to construct classrooms.

In Mwanza 30 out of 75 primary schools and secondary schools have no facilities.

At Chimwembe in the district, a borehole was drilled on the piece of land meant for sports while at Chidoole the land was used to construct classrooms.

“We had acute shortage of school blocks,” says a teacher from the school.

Mulanje has 183 primary schools and 35 secondary schools and 15 secondary schools and 34 primary schools are affected.

At Nansongole sports land was also used to build classrooms as well.

Zomba has 225 primary schools and 37 secondary schools. Out of these, 51 primary schools and 17 secondary schools are affected.

Balaka has 174 secondary schools and 26 secondary schools. Out of these, 40 primary schools and 11 secondary schools have no facilities.

At Rivirivi, Phalula, Nsunuzi schools had their sports facilities used for classrooms.

Thyolo, which has 212 primary schools and 61 secondary schools, 95 do not have facilities.

In Lilongwe Rural East which has 283 primary schools and 36 secondary schools, 26 schools have no facilities.

At Ching’ombe Primary School, part of the ground was used to construct school blocks.

Lilongwe Rural West has 283 secondary schools and 53 secondary schools have no facilities for sports.

Lilongwe urban has 314 primary schools and 55 secondary schools. In total, 24 primary schools and 11 secondary schools are affected.

 At Kawale, the school ground was used to construct toilets.

“That marked the end of a school football ground which was also used for netball,” explains one of the teachers.

In Nkhotakota’s 174 primary schools and 37 secondary schools, nine schools lack facilities.

At one of the affected schools Mdyankhanga, the land was used to construct school blocks.

Kasungu has 388 primary schools and 60 secondary schools and out these 23 primary schools and 10 secondary schools have no sports facilities.

At the Boma, a hall was built on land meant for sports while at Chulu their land was used to construct a new teachers’ development centre.

In the Northern Region, the worst affected by lack of sports facilities is Likoma Island which has 10 primary schools but only Likoma Secondary School and Chipyela CDSS have sports facilities.

Nkhata Bay has 210 primary schools and 50 secondary schools and 46 primary schools with 27 secondary schools have no facilities. At Usisya, the ground was also used for class blocks.

Mzuzu’s 67 primary schools and 21 secondary schools have a share of lack of facilities.

Fourteen primary schools and four secondary schools are affected.

Mzimba North which has 287 primary schools and 56 secondary school, 28 primary and secondary schools are affected.

At Enukweni primary school, the land meant for sports was sold by council.

Ministry of Sports spokesperson Isaac Mwepa said the ministry was aware of the situation.

He however, the situation deteriorated due to lack of coordination between the two ministries after sports was detached from the education ministry.

He said: “When sports and education were under one ministry, it was very easy to co-ordinate. But it is difficult for the ministry of sports to control sports in the Ministry of Education while the Ministry of Education was focusing on teaching and learning.

Mwape said increase in enrollment in schools also affected sports.

He explained: “When free primary education was introduced, there was need to increase number of classrooms and some of them were constructed on sports grounds.

“Unfortunately, some of the schools that were constructed at that time had no provision for sports facilities in their designs.”

He, however, said the two ministries are working together to improve sports facilities in schools.

Mwape said: “It is pleasing to note that the two ministries are now working together to revamp sporting activities in schools.

“A National Schools Sports programme [Malawi National Youth Games] has been introduced.

“This will result in construction of sports facilities in schools that we do not have, renovation of dilapidated facilities and development of guidelines that will ensure that all new schools construction project include sporting designs.”

Ministry of Education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonera on the other hand, said the ministry is committed to promoting sports through instruction.

He said the ministry has trained more than 1 800 sports teachers in sports administration and distributed sports equipment to sports disciplines such as football, netball, basketball and volleyball.

Despite assurances that the two ministries will ensure that schools have sports facilities, Ministry of Education is currently constructing 15 Primary Schools in Urban and Rural Areas Project with no sports facilities.

The schools are Bwemba, Mgona, Ching’ombe, Chidzingwe and Chayamba in Lilongwe, Mbayani, BCA Hills, Chapima, Mzedi and Namalowe in Blantyre, Mtiya and Chinamwali in Zomba, Mzilawaingwe and Chiludede in Mzuzu, Chisoka in Thyolo. n

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