Education Ministry warns on extra fees being charged in free primary school education

Congestion challenges faced by school with learners sitting on the floor

* The fees include those for examination, summer lessons, exam and report card fees, EMIS code fees, mock examination

* The public, however, asks the government to invest enough funding for primary schools

* Free primary school education in Malawi cannot work

* Where will these primary schools get money to sustain their activities?

By Duncan Mlanjira

Ministry of Education has emphasised that Malawi has a free primary education policy and thus school administrators should not charge extra fees as has been the case.

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A statement from the Ministry says the act of charging fees to primary school learners is against the free primary education policy which the Malawi Government introduced in 1994 and is still in force.

The statement reads: “The Ministry has regrettably noticed that some schools are charging learners various user fee, examination fee, summer school fee, report card fees, EMIS code fees, mock examination, etc.”

“This is unacceptable as it pushes children out of school and the Ministry will not condone such a malpractice. No learner should be sent back from school or denied the opportunity to write school based examinations due to non-payment of such fees.”

Reports indicate that some schools charge Standard 8 learners high fees up to K25,000 and those that fail to pay are denied the opportunity to sit for any examination administered in the school.

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There are also reports that teachers offer learners private lessons after classes and the Ministry takes note that such teachers have the tendency of deliberately not effectively teaching all learning areas and subjects on the school time table in order to justify implementation of summer lessons during holidays where they charge fees.

The Ministry maintains that “public schools in Malawi are tuition free” and warns that “any school or teacher found charging fees will be dealt with accordingly”.

Further, all head teachers have been instructed to ensure that all teachers follow the time table to avoid extending teaching during Summer holidays with the intention of charging fees.

A classroom in the rural areas

Commenting on Facebook over this statement, the public — while appreciating the Ministry’s intervention on this tendency — asked the government to invest enough funding for primary schools.

Lucia Hillary Ngwira observed that most schools are not in good shape; with blackboards in tatters; if at all there are desks, they are mostly broken and that some school block’s roofs leak when it rains.

She asked the Minister of Education to assess the situation on the ground to find out why school administrators charge extra fees and to appreciate the conditions of the government schools.

Learning outside

Former US First Lady Melania Trump appreciating challenges faced by learners when she visited Malawi

Mlakatuli Baluti commented that when teachers engage their learners in summer holiday lessons, the Ministry itself comes along and congratulate such schools when they finally produce good results.

He hinted that primary schools are not developing because the Ministry expects the teachers to write exams on the chalk board; that they should not have exams printed out and that should administer summer holiday lessons for free.

He warned that what the Ministry has done is retrogressive as there would not be high flying results since teachers will tend to conduct themselves in negative motion.

Walking long distances to access education

Towera Mvula — while asking the Ministry to mention the particular schools that charge up to K25,000 — also suggested that the Ministry must provide funds to print out exam papers and to put security guards on government payroll printMayeso?

“Anamvako kuti kuti summer classes are free (where in the world are summer schools administered for free?” he asked.

Gideon Nkosi took this warning with a pinch of salt, saying the Ministry is well aware of the challenges schools are facing that include low pay the teachers receive which is still taxed.

Others said though they knew charging fees for some services was wrong but were forced to still pay in order for their children to get extra mile in the learning.

Those with desks are very few

However, most parents have been forced to have their children and wards drop out of school when they fail to pay the extra fees that are charged.

Masautso Maholo was of the opinion that parents and teachers committees — mostly comprising community members who are politicians —  fuel this “theft through fees” in government primary schools and suggested that if the Ministry is to be seen to be serious enough, it should institute a forensic investigation to have a conclusive report and seriously act on the matter.

“Chiefs are also stealing from communities through what they are calling School Development Fund. They collect monies from communities who in some cases have got no child in school pretending they want to build school blocks at nearest primary school but this does not materialises. Where the money goes — the chiefs know.”

Clean schools like these are few

Sam Salima Jnr. was incredulous that the Ministry of Education is acting on this now, saying they were sleeping on the job as this has been happening for number of years now while Anthony Stax asked if the Ministry should clarify if they give the schools money for printing exams and other stuff that they claim the money is for.

The Ministry should also mention which schools are doing this malpractice and what action has done about it instead of just issuing blanket warnings as has been done.

A lot more welcomed the Ministry’s intervention but were quick to ask the government that all primary schools are well funded by the Treasury — and on time for them to manage their day to day activities.

“People in Malawi are fond of coming up with policies that don’t affect them or their kids. Send your chaps to these government primary schools first then come up with any policy deemed necessary,” said a commentator.

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Some primary schools — both in urban and rural — conduct their lessons under trees and learners are forced to miss classes when it rains while those lucky enough to be in classrooms have lessons interrupted when it rains and the roofs leak.

This was observed by Reign Eugene, who said no learner can grasp lessons while sitting on the floor during winter time in a classroom which has no windows or doors — “not even talking about the damaged chalk boards” let alone having poor state of toilets.

He said that is why school administrators — in liaison with parents and teachers committees — introduced some of these small fees such as development fund and money for exams and report cards.

Aussy Manthalu said: “Free primary school education in Malawi cannot work. Where will these primary schools get money to sustain their activities?” while Abdulkarim Sharif said: “Unless the Ministry provides the primary schools with computers and printers and money for paying guards, this will continue and I don’t see it stopping because they need to pay for these services especially printing examinations.”

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