Blantyre — IT is seven o'clock in the morning when 16-year-old Ayidah Ledison finally arrives at Mpandadzi Full Primary School, in Mwanza, having walked for close to seven kilometres to attend the day's lessons.

Fearing the wrath of her teacher, she immediately enters the thatched hut -- partitioned into two rooms -- serving as a classroom and sits on a stone before joining in the lesson proceedings. Mwanza is about 100km south of the commercial capital, Blantyre. The only piece of furniture in the room is a worn out chalkboard, from which 78 pupils are trying to get a glimpse of what the teacher has just scribbled. Save for a Malawian flag, hanging conspicuously on a wooden pole, there is nothing to show that the structures on the 10-hectare piece of land are indeed the biggest part of history to a school that has been in existence for 32 years. Consisting of two classroom blocks with four reasonably furnished rooms and a block of two other classrooms made from poles, dagga and grass, the structures at Mpandadzi FP represent diverse challenges Malawi continues to face, more than four decades after attaining its independence.

It is also against this background that both the governmen t and the non-governmental organisations are already skeptical of the country's ability to attain UN Millennium Development Goals, signed and agreed on by most governments, Malawi included. Millennium Development Goals are eight priority areas identified by the United Nations that governments are expected to work on towards the development of their nations. Some of the goals include eradication of poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases as well as developing a global partnership for development. Countries have up to 2015 to fulfil these goals. With a population of over 13 million, Malawi is one of the 12 poorest nations in the world, occupying the 165th position on the Human Development Index ranking of 177 countries. Poor road infrastructure, inadequate essential services such as lack of properly built schools and houses have stalled development in the Southern African country, where 60 percent of the populat ion lives below the poverty datum line. The impact of HIV and Aids and high levels of poverty within both the urban and rural set up has further worsened the plight of thousands of Malawians, a development the government of Malawi is grappling with.

With a debt burden standing at 150 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), coupled with chronic droughts, Malawi is finding it difficult to lift the lives of its people out of grinding poverty. Driving around some of the country's residential areas, among them Limbe, Nancholi, Sunnyside, in Blantyre, one notices untarred roads, running through the residential areas -- whether it's in the high or low density areas. In the industrial zones and some parts of Blantyre city centre and Limbe, roads are in a bad state with dilapidated buildings adding to the sorry sight of the city's view. Despite the underdeveloped infrastructure at most schools outside Blantyre, the government is determined to extend education to all. The governm ent of Malawi has introduced free primary education as part of its efforts to meet its Millennium Development Goals. Malawian President Bingu waMutharika, told parliamentarians at the official opening of the Malawian parliament early this month that over the last 10 years, education standards had fallen. Mpandadzi is clear testimony of his concern. As one moves to the rural areas, there is certainly no joy. This is where the majority of the country's population lives and struggles to eke out a living through subsistence farming. A shortage of land has added to the woes of Malawians. There is not enough land for everyone, a situation that has seen half of the country's population experiencing chronic food shortages every year. According to Care Malawi, 80 percent of Malawians depend on agriculture or agricultural-related activities for their livelihoods with over half of smallholder farmers owning less than one hectare of land. "Most households farm less than 0,5 hectares of land, which would typically produce enough maize for a few months of home consumption. "Shrinking per household land availability and related decrease in soil fertility and productivity are the most significant challenges regarding access to natural resources," noted Care Malawi in a presentation made to 20 Southern African Development Community journalists on a two-week poverty reporting course in that country.

In addition to this, rural Malawians suffer from physical isolation from infrastructure, both periodically and on a continuous basis, noted Care Malawi. Like many rural schools in Malawi, Mpandadzi is isolated in the middle of mountains where communication and service provision from government and other providers can only be accessible by four wheel-drive vehicles. Accordingly, for the past two years, the school has not been receiving learning material such as textbooks and exercise books for its 780 pupils from the government because the roads to the school have bec ome impassable. ActionAid is in the process of constructing a classroom block at Mpandadzi, with the assistance of the parents who meet 25 percent of the building costs.