:National Assemblies to take over primary schools by Henry Chilobwe, 24 November 2005 - 08:39:19 Government has decided that primary school education will from January fall under local assemblies in line with the decentralisation policy that is giving powers to local government authorities.
According to Blantyre City Assembly officials, who held a briefing at Zingwangwa Secondary School Wednesday, local assemblies will be responsible for recruitment and payment of salaries for the teachers as well as buying of learning materials and construction of classroom blocks.
Secondary and tertiary education will not be affected by the new arrangement.
The officials explained that the rationale behind the new arrangement is to ensure that primary schools are properly managed and that each school should have enough teachers and learning materials.
Education Minister Kate Kainja said the government will still be in control of teachers’ training colleges as well as the formulation of policies on education while the assemblies will be responsible for implementation.
“The people responsible for primary education at the ministry headquarters will still be there to coordinate efforts of the assemblies,” she said.
But the Teachers Union of Malawi (Tum) has warned that the development will lead to further deterioration of education standards if it is implemented without proper planning.
Tum Secretary-General Lucien Chikadza said: “Government must be careful with some of these imported policies. They should do...thorough research first before they implement this or the teachers will be frustrated which will in turn lead to a collapse of the education system. Primary teachers are the key to the future of our nation.”
The Zingwangwa consultative meeting, also attended by district education officials, almost became uncontrollable as teachers noisily echoed their discontent with the new arrangement.
Coming out clearly was the fact that the teachers want to be paid their pensions first before they are absorbed into the various assemblies.
“Why can’t you give us our pensions first and conclude our contract with government and later those who want could sign new contracts with the assemblies? Our main fear is that we may lose our pensions which we have worked for all these years if this system is implemented.
“The problem is that you have come here to impose your decisions on us and you want us to just rubber stamp the decision. But we warn you that if you are not careful you will kill education in this country. How are these assemblies going to care for all of us when they fail to look after their own employees who are just a handful?” queried a teacher from Mlambalala Primary School in Blantyre.
But District Education Manager for Blantyre City, a Mr. Chigadula, who refused to give us his first name because he did not invite reporters to the meeting, parried the teachers’ fears, saying a special account will be opened in the respective assemblies where pension funds will be transferred from the Ministry of Education.
Similar resistance was also reported in meetings that took place in Bangwe, Ndirande and Chilomoni primary education zones on Monday and Tuesday this week and last Friday.
Director for Local Government Services Stewart Ligomeka said although there are fears that the system might face huge financial obstacles since some assemblies do not generate enough income for their operations, the money for running schools and paying teachers will still come from the central government through Treasury.
“Teachers salaries will be uniform in all assemblies and the money will come from Treasury but the only difference is that teachers’ salaries will be processed at the district level. The system will work as the old one where we used to have Local Education Authorities.
Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education Coordinator Limbani Nsapato said the devolution of education to local authorities will help solve some of the problems such as scarcity of teachers in some districts.
“The districts will be able to recruit teachers according to their needs so we hope that schools will now be able to have adequate teachers. Secondly this will reduce teachers’ migration to the urban areas that left rural schools in dire need of teachers,” said Nsapato.
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