Stakeholders have asked authorities to prioritise young people from Dowa when selecting students to pursue various programmes at Mponela Community Technical College.
The Dowa District Labour Office in conjunction with the Mponela Community Technical College will this month be interviewing young people who are prepared to undergo entrepreneurship skills training in the district.
The Community College which offers courses in various fields such as motor vehicle mechanics, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery, painting, decorations and tailoring among others, has been one of the best technical colleges in Malawi.
Dowa NGOs, stakeholders and Members of Parliament have expressed their reservations over the college’s intake of students saying it is not meeting the desired outcome of putting the priority of the Dowa youths first.
Speaking in an interview, Dowa District Civil Society Organisations network chair, Maxwell Kadutsa asked the officers who are set to interview the candidates to put the interest of the Dowa youths first as the owners of the college.
Kadutsa said it is worrisome to see students coming all the way from Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe securing their places at the college while the owners who are the Dowa youth in majority not considered for the reasons best explained by the interviewers.
Speaking at the elevation ceremony of Traditional Authority Kayembe to Senior Chief recently, Dowa West parliamentarian, Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi accused the selection team of favouring students from other districts and not those from Dowa as the owners of the Community College.
Kusamba said 11 students were picked from his constituency for the 2017 session out of hundreds who applied, a development which is raising fears that the college is not for the Dowa youths.
However, Dowa District Assistant Labour Officer, Joseph Kachigamba, said the claims are baseless since not all people who hails from Dowa staysm in the district hence the same with the Mponela Community Technical College in the district.
Kachigamba appealed to the applicants to include in their application letters the constituencies and wards in which they are from so that interviews be held in their respective areas with the venues to be announced later.
Mponela Community Technical College formerly Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute (MEDI) was established during the reign of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leadership and government of the late Ngwazi, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Tavanawo.
baseless and senseless