The CLSS workshop. The rooms are ready, the tool have been bought, saws, planes and work surfaces are waiting to be used.
But a workshop is not just walls and machines.
As the idea formed, it was about more than just craftmanship. It was about practical education. It was about giving pupils a space in which they not only listen but also work. They don’t just learn the theory, but how to actually make things themselves.
This is not a given in Malawi.
The workshop in progress
The economic situation in the country has worsened in recent years. School fees have been abolished by the state, which sounds like progress at first. However, in many places there is now a lack of funds to finance schools at all. Repairs are being postponed, budgets cut and margins narrowed.
This affects the workshop too.
Practical education requires materials. It requires planning. And it requires a sustainable concept that goes beyond individual projects. A workshop is not self-sustaining.
Hard working people build the workshop at CLSS
The workshop at CLSS will be used for craft lessons in future. A teacher is currently working on a concept that will firmly anchor practical content in daily school life. The aim is to teach basic craft skills, promote structured working and equip pupils with skills that extend beyond the classroom.
At the same time, they’re looking at how to realistically calculate material use and costs. The workshop isn’t the end of a project, but the start of a development process.
It’s there.
Now it needs to grow.
Photos: Ivan Chevillotte