Xulendo Revolutionises Learning: A Malawian School's Digital Leap

“I was so excited, I could not imagine that there were machines like that, it was like I am somewhere else, I couldn’t believe that there were machines that could work in such a way,” recalls ICT teacher, Wisdom as he reflects on the first time he used a computer two decades ago.

In 2004, whilst in his first year of study at Mzuzu University, Wisdom was lucky enough to get his hands on one of the universities’ 20 computers.

Though twenty years have passed, Wisdom recognises both the excitement to learn and the challenges of understanding such a new concept in his teenage students at St Mary’s Girls School in Karonga district as they first come into contact with digital technology.

“In the primary section there are no computers, so students find computers when they are in the secondary school, so when they touch computers in the first place, they remind me of myself at college.”

“At university it was not easy, because it was all trial and error. There was a computer room, where students go to after classes, and do what we wanted. Sometimes they gave us assignments to type and we didn’t know how – so it is the same thing for the students when they are first introduced to computers, they just play with it until you direct them,” said the 44-year-old.

Growing up in a village in Nkhata Bay, Wisdom initially had dreams of becoming a doctor or an engineer.

However, due to limited spaces at university Wisdom found himself allocated into the teaching field.

After entering the course Wisdom found his passion for teaching and hasn’t looked back since.

He told us: “I am very happy to be a teacher because when I am interacting with students, especially now as a computer teacher, the way they are when you are teaching them, the excitement which they have is amazing.”

“When they are just introduced to computers in their first year, they are so passionate, they love computers so much, with the advancement we have made so far even teachers are finding it very easy to deliver their lessons so it is really something wonderful.”

Having begun his teaching career in 2007, he came to teach at St Mary’s secondary school in 2018.

When he arrived at the school the young girls only had access to 30 computers and there was no internet at that time.

Nowadays, all of the 600 girls, aged from 13-18, are taught how to use computers with 200 of them majoring in ICT.

It is not just the students who are equipped with digital skills but also the teachers who implement computers into their teaching.

“Teachers are not left out,” Wisdom explained, “the first thing we do is to familiarise the teachers with technologies so that they can guide the students how to search for information.”

Despite admitting some of Malawi’s most academic students, it is not to say that young learners at St Mary’s do not have financial issues that can inhibit them.

“Most of the students that are selected for St Mary’s are bright students, they are selected from across Malawi but are selected without seeing their background.

“Some of them are bright but come from very poor families, and as a result they face challenges to find transport to come to school, for their parents to find school fees to pay for them, and their basic needs as well are a challenge,” said Wisdom.

Furthermore, as a girls’ school Wisdom acknowledged that there are particular difficulties that face female students.

“In Malawi here girls have bigger challenges, as girls sometimes our culture doesn’t put much emphasis on supporting girls,” he continued, “So, sometimes these girls are marginalised from where they are coming from because Malawi has got diverse cultures and, in some groups, they don’t regard girls as people who can contribute to this society.

“There is much need to show to those cultures that put girls behind that they can drive development of the country.”

However, Wisdom is full of hope, which has certainly increased since connecting the school to the internet.

He sees the girls at his school making significant strides thanks to an education program brought to the school in 2022 called Xulendo.

Youngsters at St Mary’s have access to books on the curriculum and videos which help supplement the students’ education.

“This initiative has had a very big impact; most of the teachers are saying they are able to direct students and students are understanding the concepts.”

The introduction of Xulendo has been integral as the class sizes are vast and teachers cannot always respond to the individual questions of each student during a class.

Furthermore, if a student is missing from a class, Xulendo acts as a further resource to help them catch up with any lessons missed.

As a father of two, he sees his son, aged 12, and his daughter, aged 5 already “more advanced” than him on computers, and believes that the next generation of Malawians can achieve greatly by incorporating digital skills into their day-to-day learning.

Looking to the future Wisdom told us: “I hope that students can have even more passion for computers and can go further to do computer science and the like, knowing that now the world is very dependent on computers.”