The Ministry of Education has launched investigations into a video clip which shows a group of standard four pupils at one primary school in the southern region tilling land at their teacher’s farm.
The video clip which has gone viral on various social media platforms, show a group of pupils tirelessly digging at a certain farm in preparation for the planting season.
The pupils who were being interviewed by an unknown person identified the primary school as Mpata in Phalombe district.
In the clip, the pupils said the farm belongs to one of their teachers and claimed that this is not their first time saying they have for several times been forced to do the job in name of the school’s manual work.
“This farm belongs to our teacher and we always do this after classes, we never get paid, we do it for free. Our teachers tell us that it is part of the school’s manual work,” said one pupil.
Another pupil, who appears to be between 10 and 13 years old, said any pupil who resist to do the said manual work gets punished the following day.
“There is no one who can resist to do the work, but when one runs away, the pupil gets punished to mop at our toilets the following day or on Monday,” said another pupil.
Meanwhile, Malawi’s Ministry of Education through its public relations officer Mphatso Nkuonera has told Malawi24 that the ministry has seen the video in circulation.
Nkuonera further pointed out that the ministry has since launched investigations into the matter and added that an action will be taken at the end of the investigations.
“We got hold of this video clip a couple of days ago. This is being investigated by the ministry. Manual work may not be exactly what is being shown in this video clip. It’s sad. After the findings the ministry will take action accordingly,” said Nkuonera.
