Kondowe blasts lecturers for Chanco opening delay

Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) executive director Benedicto Kondowe has blamed Chancellor College lecturers for not respecting the college’s academic calendar.

The lecturers downed their tools causing a delay of the opening of the institution for a new academic year which was supposed to commence last month.

In his remarks, Kondowe said he understands that it is lecturers’ right to claim for a better salary but he advised them to observe the need to make sure that the academic calendar is not disturbed.

“The right to have better wages is there in our Constitution so we can’t say that lecturers are doing a wrong thing as it is also a responsibility of the government to ensure that its people are receiving enough salaries.

“The problem I am seeing here is that despite that these lectures have a right but they are also violating it because most times they do the sit ins at the time they are supposed to be at work. Lecturers have got a responsibility to make sure that our academic calendar isn’t disturbed,” he said.

The students at the institution have confirmed that their scheduled countrywide demonstrations will go on as planned earlier.

Speaking in an interview, Chancellor College students union President Sylvester Ayuba James said that the day for the protests against the delay of the opening has not been set yet but they might make announcement later.

“We planned that it should be this week as there are some things that we were supposed to fix before we come up with the actual day. But they might be staged on Thursday or Friday,” said Ayuba James.

The lecturers are on strike to force the authorities to adjust their salaries in order to match with their colleagues from other institutions that are under University of Malawi (UNIMA).