Public Reforms strategies baffle teachers

The civil service reforms, being chaired by Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima, have baffled teachers with the head count process bringing anxiety among many teachers as it requires them to incur a lot of money, Malawi24 has established.

The process requires teachers to provide certificates and other documents including bank statements of which is becoming costly as banks are charging a fee aside many other teachers finding it difficult to access their bank details. The head count process has been done in order to find out how many civil servants government has.

Commenting on the matter, General Secretary of Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) Dennis Kalekeni said there is a need for government through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) to strategize how best teachers should be handled as a lot of them are finding difficulties in accessing bank details, adding that the process is also costly as some do not stay close to the banks.

“This has brought much anxiety as banks are charging almost 2,000 Kwacha and this seems costly”, said Kalekeni.

Kalekeni further said this is not new to teachers because head count always happen in the civil service but the strategy being used is bringing worry to most teachers.

The Civil Service Reforms were established by President Peter Mutharika after assuming power in May 2014 and its aim is to delink politics from the operations of the civil service.