As the summer comes to an end the highly anticipated opening day of Loyola Jesuit Secondary School in Malawi, which will see the enrolment of its first ever students, moves closer and closer.

On 07th September, 2015, we expect 144 young women and men to arrive on Campus in Kasungu to begin Form One (Grade Nine) studies. As a “grant-aided” school (Salaries of teachers are paid by the Government), we cooperate with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to assure everything is in place to welcome these students.

The Ministry will assign 60% of the students, based on results of National Examination of Standard 8 graduates. The other 40% are chosen from those who have taken additional Examination administered by the Education Office of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Malawi. We look forward to a good mix of girls and boys from across Malawi.

VISION AND MISSION

Our LJSS Vision is graduates who are persons of competence, commitment, conscience and compassion, who are aware of their responsibility to contribute to the transformation and development of the Malawian society according to Christian values.

Our LJSS Mission is to provide quality secondary education to girls and boys that embodied the characteristics of Jesuit education with special commitment to the less privileged and to character formation based on Christian values.

In a previous blog post Peter writes: “We Jesuits of the Zambia-Malawi Province early established schools in the areas we worked. Charles Lwanga College (a tertiary teacher training institution) and Canisius High School are located in the southern province of Zambia; Leopard’s Hill Jesuit Secondary School is in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. In the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, nearly five thousand refugee youth attend schools set up by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

And when we decided to open a school in Kasungu, Malawi, we happily decided to clearly identify it in the Jesuit tradition by naming it “LOYOLA Jesuit Secondary School.”

“Please help us keep alive the Loyola tradition in LJSS”.

To learn more about this green shoot in the desert, the promise of education for generations of Malawians, please visit the Loyola Jesuit Secondary School website.

Rear of Administration Block

Front of Administration Block Conference Hall

Main image caption: Eager primary school students look anxiously at possibility of being among first LJSS students.

Head Teacher (Principal) Fr. Simon Makuru, S.S., has worked diligently to prepare curriculum and text books that will enable LJSS to get off to a good start. And Project Director, Fr. Alojs Podgrajsek, S.J., has seen that the classroom, hostels (dormitories) and kitchen/dining room facilities are all in place to welcome the students. Fr. Peter Henriot, S.J. works as Director of Development for the new school and is responsible for fundraising and communications.