Kalibu Academy has 40 teaching staff and (700) students, which translates into 1:18 teacher- pupil ratio and all effort is being made to ensure that the ratio does not exceed 1.25 so that each student receives maximum individual attention in class from their teachers.

It is the vision of Kalibu Academy to be a leader in searching for local answers to alternatives to fossil fuels and BIODIESEL. The Academy is therefore focusing its attention in this area by preparing students to come up with answers to the problem. The academy has started to teach students to appreciate their environment. Of foremost importance are the flora and fauna around the school and how they should be protected and managed.

The Academy has presently four science laboratories which are well stocked with all the most modern and necessary equipment for pedagogical purposes. These are the finest laboratories in the country. During a recent inspection tour by University of Cambridge inspectorate he declared that there were few schools in U.K. where the laboratories were as good. According to one of the teachers who has over five years of teaching experience as a science teacher Kalibu Academy’s stock of science equipment surpasses, by far, the stock available at the local Malawi Polytechnic, as well as Chancellor College both of which constituent schools of the University of Malawi. “We have more stocks than we need,” he said.

All science teachers have been professionally trained in fire management in case of fire outbreaks in laboratories in the event of any such incidents.

The Academy has enough computer terminals so that each student in

the information technology classes has an individual machine on which to work.

At senior levels students may choose subjects according to their preferences, although teachers may also guide such students in their choices. Such guidance is based on the particular individual strengths and weaknesses and their overall performance in any particular subject.

The school library has presently in excess of 12, 000 volumes. Stocks of books and are gradually being increased. Each class has an one hour session per week of supervised library reading and research during which the library staff give guided instructions on how to use the facility and how to conduct research. The guided lessons are aimed at imparting into the students knowledge and skills on how to use library facilities and book care apart from acquiring skills in how to look for information “so that when they go to university they will not be lost.”

HOSTELS
Kalibu Academy is a co-educational institution for both boarders and day scholars. It has eight hostels for boys and seven for girls. Currently there are over 500 boys and girls residing on the campus. For day scholars the academy has four school buses and two mini-buses that ferry students to-and- from school every day. The students (after paying transport fees) are picked from and dropped off at specific designated points in town from where they find their own way to their respective homes.