NAMWERA COMMUNITY: NACC Drama screening approach yield promising results
Figure 1.
MASONGOLA 1 PRIMALY SCHOOL CHANGING PERCEIPTIONS THROUGH DRAMA… LEARNING SESSION CONDUCTED BY NACC
As the saying goes people tend to remember and learn more through what they see as it holds a long lasting memory than what they hear.in an effort to combat the tendance of school dropout among students at Masongola 1 primary school in Namwera ;Mangochi T/A Jalasi Needed Action for Community Care and Development {NACC} organization had an interactive learning session with the students through showcasing a drama called Akandechele which has 6 volumes in total; this is an educational drama made to make the learning process and behavior change communication more effective, for the numbers of school dropout not to increase in Namwera community.
The drama was made in the local language to resonate with the students who speak Yao and Chichewa in their locality. After each screening episode of the volume1 which has 3 parts in total the drama was paused in which the students were asked to reflect on the lessons learnt in that particular part so as the messages intended should be put across. This interactive format has proven to be highly effective as it had kept the students engaged in the messages which fostered a deeper understanding of the critical issues at hand, which are the importance of education, the risk associated with early sexual relationships, school dropout as well as early marriages which are prominent in the community.
“I have learnt that we should not follow our friends’ bad advices to start sexual relationships for luxury as it will affect us academically and we may end up getting sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and dropping out of school in the end “one of the students said.
The lesson learnt from the drama which elaborated Akandechele’s decision to start indulging in sexual relationship while at school because she was copying what her fellow girls did in the village without considering the negative consequences that followed because of the decision she made. Both boys and girls took part in the discussions of the topics put forward from the drama that was being watched; as issues of school dropout not only concerned females but also male students because education is for all.
Since the program was introduced, there has been a notable improvement in the way other students thought about the issues as they resonated with the ideations brought forth by NACC; by addressing the root causes of school dropout the innovative approach has proven to be effective; statistically the dropout levels have decreased comparing to the numbers in the early years before it started.