Teachers strike shocks Government

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Manfred Ndovi

The Malawi Government has expressed surprise that some teachers have started conducting a sit-in, saying the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) has managed to solve some of the problems facing teachers in the country.

Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) gave government until 30th June to address problems facing the teachers in the country.

Some teachers started the sit-in on Friday following government’s failure to resolve their grievances.

Manfred Ndovi
Manfred Ndovi says the Education Ministry has sorted the problem out.

However, spokesperson for MoEST Manfred Ndovi said government has managed to solve some of the challenges but claimed that they are failing to solve the other problems due to financial problems facing the country.

“We wrote a letter to TUM on the 28 describing the progress of the issues they raised and at the moment we are waiting to hear from TUM,” said Ndovi.

He added that they thought TUM would have first responded to their letter before allowing the teachers to go ahead with a sit-in.

Among other issues, the teachers want government to give them their arrears and to provide transport for teachers who were transferred to rural areas.

But Ndovi said government has failed to transfer teachers who were promoted to various schools due financial problems since the ministry needs 6 million Kwacha for the exercise.

On the issue of salary arrears, he said the ministry advised the Accountant General to honour the payments.