Teachers Union of Malawi (Tum) and quality education advocates have urged the government to improve the welfare of teachers in the country.
Tum General Secretary Charles Kumchenga said one of the reasons education standards have been plummeting is low motivation for teachers.
“Teachers have been struggling to be economically independent for the past 59 years because little is happening to improve their welfare. It is unfortunate that, at 59 years, Malawi is failing to meet the 1:60 teacher-learner ratio. Today, one teacher serves 120 learners.
“In addition, most teachers in the country are living in small and dilapidated houses despite us asking the government to improve the housing situation for teachers. It is high time teachers’ needs were prioritised,” Kumchenga said.
He also said the government has been failing to pay teachers their arrears.
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Quality education advocate Limbani Nsapato concurred with Tum on the need to improve teachers’ welfare.
He said the country should also address other challenges facing the education sector.
“The government should motivate teachers by improving their pay and ensuring that they are teaching and staying in standard structures. The government should provide adequate teaching and learning materials and ensure that teachers are paid timely,” Nsapato said.
However, last week, Secretary for Education Chikondano Mussa said the government is doing its best to improve standards of education in the country.
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Mussa told members of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament during a meeting held on Thursday that they also plan to recruit additional staff.
She told committee members that public secondary schools are being run with a deficit of 30,000 teachers, with the deficit in primary schools standing at 35,000.
“The country’s [public] secondary schools have about 12,000 teachers while primary schools have 110,000 teachers, who are not enough when compared to the number of learners, which continues to grow. I can’t say how much we need but we may need billions [of Kwacha] to fill the gap. I don’t think there will ever be time when everything is perfect but we will always ensure that our teacher-student ratio is manageable.
“To say that we can train and recruit all of them and then get to the preferred one-to-40 teacher-student ratio at secondary and one-to-60 at primary [school level] is not an easy thing and will never be an easy thing. We are just showing that this is what we need; we can put a timeframe but all we need are resources,” Mussa said.,”
She said the ministry plans to recruit 3,000-plus secondary school teachers though the plan was to recruit 5,000.
Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Mark Botomani has described the situation as “worrisome”, saying this shows that people in the country lack seriousness on education matters.
“The government could have looked at priorities. The Ministry of Education is at the pinnacle of our development because for one to have a futuristic mindset, that person must have gone through a class,” Botomani said.
