Happy comes from a village quite some distance from Mfuwe, in the Jumbe Chiefdom between Chief Mnkhanya (the Mfuwe airport area) and the town of Chipata over 120 km away to the east.He has quite a few brothers and sisters spread between two families. His father and mother are still alive but his father has two wives, one at Kondwelani Farm and another, Happy’s mother, in Jumbe Chiefdom.Polygamy is legal in Zambia and not unusual, particularly in rural areas.
His father suffers from ill health and, as subsistence farmers, the two families struggle to provide for the children at home and are unable to afford secondary school tuition and boarding fees.
Happy started his education at Kamoto Primary School in grade 1 but for grades 2 to 7 he attended Jumbe Primary School where, 2017, he sat his for his Certificate of Primary Education exams achieving a good aggregate score of 750.He was offered a place at Chizongwe Technical Secondary School and Happy’s mother managed to pay half of his school fees for term 1 leaving an unpaid balance.By term 2 Happy’s sister married and, as is the tradition here in Zambia, a bride price or lobola was paid. This money was used to pay for Happy’s term 2 fees. In term 3 the family paid just half of his school fees again, this time selling part of their own supply of crops.The school has agreed that they can pay off the balances owing for terms 1 and 3 over the next year but this means that they will be unable to raise further funds for Happy to return to Chizongwe for grade 9. Here are his end-of-term exam results for last year:
Happy Mumba | 2018 | |||||
Grade 8 | ||||||
Term 1 | Term 2 | Term 3 | ||||
Marks | Grade | Marks | Grade | Marks | Grade | |
English | 34 | F | 48 | 4 | 41 | 4 |
Mathematics | 96 | 1 | 46 | 4 | 68 | 2 |
Integrated Science | 82 | 1 | 83 | 1 | 80 | 1 |
Social & Development Studies | 78 | 1 | 37 | F | 72 | 2 |
Religious Education | 84 | 1 | 58 | 3 | 72 | 2 |
Computer studies | 53 | 3 | 54 | 3 | 85 | 1 |
D&T | 65 | 2 | 51 | 3 | 76 | 1 |
Business studies | 67 | 2 | 78 | 1 | 53 | 3 |
Marks & av % | 559 | 70% | 455 | 57% | 547 | 68% |
Aggregate (best 6 inc Eng) | 441 | 372 | 426 |
Happy is a lovely boy and we have known his family for some time as we arranged sponsorship for his brother, Gordon to attend Mambwe Secondary School. Gordon completed his schooling last year.