Dzaleka (Malawi): the start of the school year reckoned bad

A week before the start of the school year, refugees in Dzaleka camp in Malawi are complaining that all the places in the camp’s only school are reserved for the host population. Several refugee children will not start the first year of primary school because the places are already taken. Their parents are sounding the alarm.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The start of the school year is scheduled for September 16 in public schools in Malawi. Dzaleka camp is no exception.

Several parents are rushing to register their children, particularly in primary school, at the only school located in the Katudza area. However, a major challenge remains, it is places which are already reserved.

“My two children have not been registered, one of them is a bit older. At this school, I met my compatriots and Congolese who have the same problem. We are told that all the places are taken,” says a Burundian woman from the Dzaleka camp.

“By whom when it is a refugee school?” refugees ask themselves. They get the answer that children from the host community were registered long before, an argument that does not convince these refugees.

“It is not understandable. We should be given priority even if it is a school that unites refugees and the host community. And then, it is set up in the middle of the camp. Then, we are helpless while these Malawian citizens even have the possibility of going to other schools!” parents lament, adding that the same challenge is faced by students who are starting secondary school.

“It seems like this is a school strictly open to children of Malawians only,” complain Burundian parents who have been living in Dzaleka for several years.

They are asking the UNHCR and the camp administration to look into the issue that risks dividing instead of promoting integration.

The camp also houses people from Malawi in order to “enable refugees to reintegrate easily.”

“Even if they live here, they are not refugees. If their children become a priority, that is discrimination against us,” say the occupants of the camp.

The grassroots administrators have contacted the UNHCR and the camp president to resolve the problem “that affects several refugee children.” However, the community of refugees criticize the fact that the issue is difficult to resolve as the start of the school year looms on the horizon.

The Dzaleka camp, located in the Dowa district (central region of Malawi), is home to more than 50,000 refugees, including more than 11,000 Burundians.

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Parents and students in a courtyard at Dzaleka camp (SOS Médias Burundi)