Founded in 1912 by the Church of Christ, The Mukuni Basic School was established to educate children between grades one and four. Two classrooms and a teacher’s house were built at the entrance to the village.

It took fifty-four years before the Catholic Church in 1966 made an addition to the school by building two more classrooms for grades five to seven and three teacher’s houses.  

By 1974 the Zambian government contributed by building two more classrooms and two further teacher’s houses. It was almost thirty years before further development to the school was made.

Between 2001 and 2003 the Basic Sub Sector Investment Program added a 3 bay classroom block and a teacher’s house was built through a twinning program with a school in Norway. A school tuck shop was also added.  

First rural high school in district

Up until February 2007 once pupils finished education at the Mukuni Basic School there only option was to board in the high school in town, this was virtually impossible for orphans and low-income families.

However after a successful project funded by The Butterfly Tree the completion of a three bay classroom, with storage rooms and an office, has been achieved making it the first rural high school in Kasungula district. The driving force behind this successful school and the person who encouraged Jane Kaye-Bailey to assist them is Presley Mulenga, their Head Teacher.

Photo: Three bay classroom  funded by The Butterfly Tree

Presley Mulenga, Head Teacher

Aged 46 Presley comes from eastern Zambia and completed school in 1979 with a Cambridge certificate. In 1984- 85 he enrolled at Chipata Teachers College to study teaching as a profession. His first appointment was at Mambova Primary School in the southern province in 1986. In the same area in 1993 Presley was promoted to Deputy Head Teacher at Katombora Basic School. During this time he took a diploma in education, five years later he became Head Teacher at the same school.   In 2002 Presley was sent to Mukuni Basic School as their Head Teacher with his wife Silvia Muwowo and their five children.

Photo: Presley (right) with Charles, PTA Treasurer and teachers

Since The Butterfly Trees’ involvement the school has progressed considerably in the past two years and Jane and Presley work closely together on all the projects to achieve better working conditions for both the pupils and teachers.

There are a total of 31 teachers in all sectors of the school teaching 120 pre-school children, 1000 pupils from grades 1-9 in the basic school and 45 in the new high school, of which The Bedyango is a pupil.  

Photo: Jill (trustee), The Bedyangao, teachers and PTA members

Our achievements with the school so far

• Funding of the new high school classroom
• Completion of two teachers’ houses and a third underway
• Daily nutritional feeding program for the ‘needy’ children
• Sponsorship of over 90 orphans in education
• Provided large quantities of stationary, books and sports equipment, 13 new toilets for the pupils and 4 for the teachers  
• Totally funded a pre-school classroom, equipment and outdoor play area as well as supporting two teachers and a classroom helper. Pre-schools recieve no government support 

New projects

• A new 2 bay-classroom is needed for grades 8-9
• Houses for the 11 new high school teachers, the government were unable to provide accommodation when they arrived at the school and the tuck shop and store rooms are being used as temporary ‘houses’, these are totally inadequate especially for the teachers with families.
• A science laboratory for the high school