TO: BEVERLY KUBIK
I’m Patience Eliya, a third year student at LUANAR Banda Campus. I write to you in appreciation following the gift I have received. Having myself given a Personal Computer is quite an honour. This present will have a very positive impact on my academic performance.
The past 2 years of school were very hard as I had to borrow a computer every time I was given an assignment and I could even miss deadlines sometimes, it was also hard to access online articles and other reading materials.
I deeply appreciate your support of my studies.
Yours Faithfully,
Patience Eliya.
July, 2020
Patience Eliya is back in school now but writes this about what happened when the Pandemic struck Malawi.
I’m Patience Eliya, a third-year student at LUANAR Banda Campus. Here's how my academic life has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic It has been three months now…..
This pandemic has affected me as a student in many ways. The first one being, it has delayed my academic programme. I would have been completing my third year of study by now if it weren’t for this pandemic. This is also delaying my long term plans and goals as well.
Before the closure of school’s we were having our mid-semester examination, I do believe that we will resume from there once the schools reopen. My worry is that my performance will be greatly affected since I do not have enough study materials here at home and it’s hard to focus on studies as there are a lot of distractions.
I have been academically inactive for so long thus leading to deterioration in cognitive skills. Due to the same issue, it will be difficult for me to refocus on my studies once the schools reopen. As I have already stated above that I am a third-year student, it is therefore required of every student to conduct a research study for the completion of the four-year study. I am currently working on my research project and it is difficult for me to access other sources of information for example books from the school library. It is also difficult and expensive for me to access online articles and other online materials from the internet here at home this is because we don’t have any WIFI facilities unlike at school where there is free access to WIFI.
The other problem I’m facing here at home due to the pandemic is that it is so stressful staying at home with no academic future insight as I don’t know when the schools might reopen. Staying at home is also tedious as I have to do chores all day every day.
As I’m waiting for schools to reopen I will try to find other ways to keep myself occupied.
We were notifed about the school closure one Friday evening in May by the former president of Malawi. ‘Due to the Coronavirus pandemic all schools are to be closed and all students in boarding schools are to leave the school premises by Monday morning’ He said something like that in his announcement. We were in the middle of our mid-semester examination when the announcement was made. I thought it would be just a short holiday considering standard 8 and form 4 students were preparing for their primary school leaving certificate examination (PLSC) and Malawi school certificate of Examination (MSCE) respectively. I lost all hope when the ministry of education canceled the 2020 PSCL and MSCE timetable for examinations.
After a month and a half, happiness filled the hearts of many students, me inclusive when the Ministry of Education announced that schools would resume on the 13th of July. I was eager to go back to school to continue where I had left off. All that changed when the cases of the disease in the country multiplied like bacterial and they told us school would resume later than sooner.
Until now the date to reopen schools hasn’t been announced yet.During this long holiday, I tried to make myself occupied by involving myself in a small business. This did not go as i had anticipated. After my business failed, i tried to find a job and I was lucky enough to find one as shop assistant but I couldn’t start working because it was so far from home and it meant being in contact with a lot of people thus exposing myself to the virus. Currently I am just staying at home helping with the chores until it is safe for schools to reopen.
This pandemic has affected me as a student in many ways. The first one being, it has delayed my academic programme. I would have been completing my third year of study by now if it weren’t for this pandemic. This is also delaying my long term plans and goals as well.
Before the closure of school’s we were having our mid-semester examination, I do believe that we will resume from there once the schools reopen. My worry is that my performance will be greatly affected since I do not have enough study materials here at home and it’s hard to focus on studies as there are a lot of distractions.
I have been academically inactive for so long thus leading to deterioration in cognitive skills. Due to the same issue it will be difficult for me to me to refocus on my studies once the schools reopen.
As I have already stated above that I am a third year student, it is therefore required of every student to conduct a research study for the completion of the four year study. I am currently working on my research project and it is difficult for me to access other sources of information for example books from the school library. It is also difficult and expensive for me to access online articles and other online materials from the internet here at home this is because we don’t have any WIFI facilities unlike at school where there is free access to WIFI.The other problem I’m facing here at home due to the pandemic is that it is so stressful staying at home with no academic future in sight as I don’t know when the schools might reopen. Staying at home is also tedious as I have to do chores all day every day.
As I’m waiting for schools to reopen I will try to find other ways to keep myself occupied.
