By Brenda Kayo:
Lilongwe District Council has permitted unemployed nurses, midwives and primary school teachers in the 13 to 17 cohorts of the Initial Primary Teacher Education (Ipte) to hold a vigil at Kamuzu Mausoleum in the capital city.
A letter from the council, signed by District Commissioner Lawford Palani, indicates that the vigil will start at 9am tomorrow with a march from Capital Hill main gate.
A group of unemployed nursing officers, community midwife assistants and primary school teachers have agreed to hold joint “peaceful demonstrations” to force President Lazarus Chakwera to intervene in their issue.
They want their ministries— Health for the nurses and midwives, and Education for the teachers— to fully employ them.
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In an interview Tuesday, chairperson for the nurses’ group, Frank Kamwendo, said they would only call off the vigil after the President responds to their grievances.
“We have been allowed to hold the vigil as per our request. We will symbolically start from Capital Hill [the seat of government] and proceed to the mausoleum car park where we will be camping until the President hears us,” Kamwendo said.
The nurses and teachers claim that some officials in their ministries are abusing their powers by recruiting their colleagues without formally interviewing them.
Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo could not be drawn to comment on the issues raised by the nurses.
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On his part, Ministry of Education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonera asked for ample time before he could comment on the teachers’ demands.
Leaders of the group have indicated that the unemployed nurses and midwives will don their uniforms while teachers will protest in “decent attire” to prevent intruders from joining the vigil.
About two months ago, disagreements ensued between the teachers and their ministry after the former demanded permanent employment while the ministry felt that it was not possible to do so.
The teachers wrote Chakwera to take action within five days and warned that failure to do so would compel them to camp at the State House.
The ministry responded by saying it could not work on ultimatums and that it was impossible to employ all the jobless Ipte teachers.
“We cannot recruit all teachers that have been trained at a go. It is a gradual process because it requires huge resources,” Nkuonera said at the time.
Civil Society Education Coalition has been calling on government to permanently employ the primary school teachers to reduce the teacher-learner ratio, which is currently above the recommended 1 to 60 in most schools.
Early last month, the unemployed nurses and midwives also gave Chakwera 14 days to help them find new opportunities for work.
“We have been trying our level best to discuss with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Local Government to recruit more than 2,260 nursing officers. Unfortunately, these ministries have been telling us that there are no funds for recruitment,” Kamwendo said that time.
Last year, government stopped a plan by the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives (Nonm) that could have helped some 2,000 unemployed nurses find work in the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Ministry of Labour officials said Nonm had no legal mandate to export labour.
