Concerned teachers who are also Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) members have asked Government through the Ministry of Education Science and Technology to provide Coronavirus risk allowances to teachers before reopening schools on September 7, failure of which they will put down their tools.
Speaking with reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday at Crown Hotel in Lilongwe, Chairperson of the grouping Stafuel Chitukuta said that teachers are at high risk of contracting covid-19 considering that they will be meeting different learners despite the preventive measures that government has put in place .
He added that not all the learners can be in a position of following preventive measures for Covid-19 as such the same teachers will be teaching the learners on preventive measures.
“We have no specific amount of the risk allowances but government should come in the open and stop playing hide and sake games.
“It is a deliberate move, a delaying tactic because they are aware of these issues but they just want to go with the arrangement to open schools,” he said.
Chitukuta added that they want to emphasize on what their mother body Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) has been complaining to government.
He went on to say that teachers are facing a lot of problems including low wages, shortage of teaching and learning materials, and high teacher-pupil ratio as such not providing risk allowances during this period of COVID-19 is inhuman.
The teachers’ representatives came from Salima, Chikwawa and Zomba.
