MP Nyalonje wants DPP govt action not empty promises
Mzimba North Constituency legislator Agnes Nyalonje has asked government to stop “making empty promises” and revamp the education sector.
The vice-chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Education blamed government for failing to employ newly trained teachers while primary schools in many districts lack qualified teachers.
She said this at a meeting M’mbelwa District Council organised to find ways of improving education in Mzimba where one teacher serves an average of 94 pupils. Government requires a teacher to serve less than 60 learners.
Nyalonje said unless government provides enough teachers, school blocks and teacher’s houses, education standards will continue deteriorating.
She asked: “How do you expect education standards to improve when we have a very high pupil-teacher ratio? This means a lot of kids go to school, but do not get to learn because they do not have teachers’ attention,” said Nyalonje.
She said it is shocking that pupils cram classrooms without desks and learning materials.
Statistics provided by the district education manager Funwell Chiwowa show half of teachers in Mzimba have no house, four percent of learners drop out, 27 percent repeat while 30 percent failed Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PLSCE) last year.
In an interview, Chiwowa said his office plans to redeploy teachers from schools with more staff to understaffed institutions.
“Government is aware of the persistent problems, including lack of teachers. Unfortunately, it is government’s duty to recruit. We only receive those government deploys to this district,” he said.
The fool claps when a politician makes a promise; the wise ones clap when a politician keeps a promise.
The issue of employment, not only of trained teachers, but other professions, is a big problem. It is a problem, not only in Malawi, but many African countries as well, e.g. Kenya has more qualified teachers than it can employ. The problem is that if all trained teachers and other professions are employed, the wage bill will shoot, and the donor IMF has been against a bloated wage bill. We have to choose between continued IMF support or employ all trained personnel and fail to get IMF support.
We are more accountable to IMF than our own people. These problems will never end as long as we incline ourselves to multilateral institutions……..
So we live for IMF leave by their RULES sha
Its either you dont know what you are talking, or you did not understand the article.