With an average student to teacher ratio of eighty-three to one, teachers in Malawi face many challenges in their classrooms. Particularly, a desperate lack of teaching materials. In an effort to address this challenge, Goods for Good launched the Teacher Supply Closet initiative.
This initiative supports teachers in Malawi by providing them with the educational and creative materials needed to enhance their lessons and improve the learning environment. Students and teachers in the United States collect and donate new and unused goods through supplies drives at their schools, and in the process, learn more about the culture, history and challenges of their peers in Malawi.
In 2007, Goods for Good piloted the Teacher Supply Closet program at St. Mathias Primary School, a rural public school in Dowa District, Malawi. The success of this pilot program demonstrated that the availability of materials greatly improved classroom morale and enhanced teachers’ ability to engage students in the learning process. Building on the success of the pilot program, G4G has rolled out the Teacher Supply Closet program to 13 additional primary schools in Malawi.
“Teachers no longer have to spend their limited personal money on teacher resources [and so they have no] excuse for not preparing lessons and they are preparing more responsibly”
- Aaron Lewani, Goods for Good Program Officer, Malawi
“Our school is one of the best schools in the area in sending standard eight students to secondary schools. Much of these results are attributed to the availability of teaching materials.”
- Martin Banda, Head Teacher at St. Mathias Primary School, Malawi
