Seventeen-year-old Eric Mkandawire from Maula Community Day Secondary School in Nkhata Bay District has dropped chemistry as he prepares for this year’s Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.

His decision is not a reflection on his teachers’ abilities but, rather, a consequence of resource constraints that make practical learning impossible at the school.

“Science subjects are best understood with practice. We do not have a laboratory here, so it’s really difficult to rely solely on theory. I’ll sit physics examinations instead; it’s enough, and I don’t want to carry a heavy burden, which is why I dropped chemistry,” Mkandawire said.

Ironically, Mkandawire aspires to become an engineer.

In his class of 38 students, only nine will sit physics examinations, and seven will sit chemistry examinations. This means 74 percent and 82 percent have opted out of these subjects, respectively.

Unlike Mkandawire, classmate Gift Mgabu Phiri, 17, plans to sit examinations in all science subjects— physics, chemistry and biology—but is sceptical.

He says they only conduct practical lessons for the science subjects when examinations are on the edge.

“We only learn when examinations are around the corner, mostly once a term,” Phiri lamented.

“This feels like preparing to fail because candidates at other schools do experiments regularly.”

Deputy headteacher for the school, Austin Simfukwe, acknowledged the challenges.

Simfukwe said they currently do not have a science laboratory and sourcing apparatus and chemicals for experiments remains a persistent challenge.

“We used to have a mobile laboratory but it broke down many years ago. We had apparatus and chemicals, some of which expired and we cannot replace them,” he said.

The storeroom where the remains of the apparatus are being kept is dingy and tiny. It has cracks, termites are landlords and the remaining tools are damaged and dusty.

The situation is clearly different at Mzuzu Government Secondary School, which has a considerable stock in all its laboratories; items for biology, physics, chemistry and computer lessons and experiments.

Fazila Manduwa, a student at Mzuzu Government Secondary School, said access to well-equipped laboratories makes her learning experience, particularly for science subjects, manageable.

“When we learn in class and then conduct experiments in the laboratory, it becomes very easy for us to remember what we learned even in examinations,” she said.

One of the science teachers at the school Lilian Chisi said one the subjects that