Malawi Can Learn A Lot From Norway-Legislators

Some Malawi members of Parliament says there is more to learn from Norway on ways of managing population growth, education and women empowerment.

UNIMA Council Firm On Fee Hike Stance

Stakeholders who participated for
the briefing for the UNIMA Council 

Council of the University of Malawi (UNIMA) says it will not overturn tuition fees raise in order to return the strength and recognition of its Degrees in Europe and America as well as home companies. 

The Council told stakeholder’s in Lilongwe on Tuesday evening when briefing them on developments related to the rise of tuition fees in the UNIMA that the revised fees are necessary to improve quality of education which at the moment has gone down.

Mzuzu Needs TTC- Education Committee

Chilenga (right)

A Parliamentary Committee for Education accuses government for overlooking at importance of re-establishment of Mzuzu Teacher Training College (TTC) since long ago it was changed to Mzuzu University.

A lot of members of Parliament from the northern region particularly those from Mzimba district have also been complaining through various forums including in the National Assembly that government has sidelined people of North for not re-establish their Mzuzu TTC.

However, government maintains ‘the decision was normal and there is nothing wrong’ according to Minister of Education Science and technology Emmanuel Fabiano

He argued that the decision to change Mzuzu TTC to University was based on demand for secondary school teacher’s and there is no need to complain for replacement as teacher colleges do not only benefit people from within districts near the college but the nation at large.

“In the first place the Teacher Training College that was in Mzuzu was not for Mzuzu, the people that went there to train as primary school teachers came from other part of the country.” He said

He also mentioned that the decision to change the status of TTC to University without replacement was not new odd by giving an example of similar primary school teacher training colleges that were changed to institution that train Secondary School teachers which now offer Diploma and Degree programmes including Domasi college of Education.

“So what happened in Domasi is similar to what happened in Mzuzu” and added “In a similar way in 1973, government decided that Soche College that was training Secondary teachers at Diploma and Degree level started training primary school teachers”

He continued “Am sure that when the government made the decision at that time was looking at the demand for the secondary school teachers. The demand was very high”

He said “So depending on need government will change the status of an institution so that it meet the demands at that particular time”

He also indicated that in order to promote quality education in primary school level new colleges will be established in Rumphi, Mchinji and in Chikwawa and that funding is available and that by the end of this year they may be completed.

But in an interview, Parliamentary committee on Education lambasts over government failure to make immediate re-establishment of Mzuzu Teacher Training College (TTC) since it was changed to Mzuzu University in 1997.

“This issue has been overlooked by government” reacted chairperson for the Education Committee in parliament, hon. Elias Chakwera who emphasized that “Ideally when Mzuzu TTC was taken over by coming in of the Mzuzu University we needed to relocate Mzuzu TTC to another place so that our numbers in terms of Teacher Training Colleges are not affected by that.”

He therefore asked government to seriously look at the issue “It’s true that when we train teachers in all TTC’s we are not saying that those teachers will be teaching in those districts, but the issue here is that when that TTC was taken way we had lost in terms of number of teachers to be produced and in order for us to regain that number we needed to have a TTC.”

Chakwera said in which case, there is no valid justification that city of Mzuzu considered as centre for the northern region is not equipped with all necessary amenities that could support education such as Teacher Training College.

He therefore said it is an anomaly to have no TTC in Mzuzu and that though there may have excuses but they don’t add-up to anything in terms of what government should be thinking about plan for this country

The Education Chairperson said though the matter was not discussed in the committee but was hopeful that it will take up the matter seriously.

Education Budget Worries Parliamentary Committee

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe walks into
The chamber to present 2015/2016 budget

The promise made by the Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe that enough money is made available in the 2015/2016 Budget for the recruitment of about 10,000 teachers seem to be a mare rhetoric if what the Parliamentary Committee on Education is to go by.

Various Parliamentary Clustered committees  are in their first week of budget scruitny but the education committee has already raised fears that the money allocated to the education ministry is meagre fueling worries that this financial year the ministry will operate effectively including possibility of recruitment of 10 thousand new teachers.

In an interview Chairperson for the committee Dr. Elias Chakwera says the committee in its first day of budget scrutiny has observed with concern that a number of sections in the ministry of education there are shortfalls in terms what the ministry had requested to the treasury and money given to them. 

He pointed out Personal Emoluments vote allocation which has shortfall at around 15.1% yet this is the vote which must have adequate funds to recruit teachers which are about 10,000, he said.

Ministry of Education Science and Technology has his year received K109.8 billion from K90. 8 billion a revision from K81.68 billion last financial year.

"We started with an overview of ministry perspective of what they had asked for and what has been allocated" he said ”In a number of sections there are shortfalls in terms what the ministry had expected and given to them."

Chakwera said the committee noticed that Personal Emoluments vote allocation is short at around 15.1% yet this is the vote which must have adequate funds to recruit teachers which are about 10,000.

The Education Committee chair then indicated that they are going to be looking at subsector by subsector to quantify the shortfall vis-à-vis the expected output which is going to be affected following the short falls.

When presenting the budget Finance Minister honorable Goodall Gondwe mentioned that recurrent expenditure allocation of K674.6 billion, is proposed to increase wages and salaries by an amount that will raise the salaries of the junior grades in the public service. The budget also provides for the recruitment of some 10,500 primary school teachers and 466 secondary school teachers, who are projected to join the civil service during the last quarter of the financial year. 

"These initiatives as well as an annual wage creep scheduled for implementation in December 2016 will raise the wage bill from K198.0 billion in 2014/15 to an estimated K228.7 billion." Added Gondwe