Various groups are praising the Malawi President Dr Lazarus Chakwera for a 60 Percent increase in the University students’ upkeep allowances from K350,000 to K560,000 per academic year.
On 6th March 2024 at the launch of the University Innovation Pod (UniPod) at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), president Chakwera ordered the Ministries of Education and Finance and the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) to review and increasing the students’ loans and upkeep allowances.
Following the directive, Minister of Finance, Simplex Chithyola Banda has on Monday this week announced in Parliament that the government has finally increased the upkeep allowance from K350,000 to K560,000 representing a 60% increase.
The news has excited various groups including the Private Schools Association of Malawi (PRISAM) which through its president Dr Ernest Kaonga, said the 60% increase in the students’ upkeep allowance, will help in addressing some of the challenges students in public universities have been facing.
Dr Kaonga said amid the high cost of living induced by the economic turmoil the country is sailing through, the K350,000 student upkeep allowance has always been insufficient to cater for public university students’ expenses, a development which left them with no choice but to accumulate debts.
As PRISAM, we commend the State President, Dr Lazarus Chakwera because we adopted some students, who we pay school fees for, but we believe that what the Malawi leader has done will help to alleviate financial challenges among these students, hence developing education standards,” said Kaonga.
The PRISAM president has further reaffirmed his commitment to promoting quality education standards in all private schools, particularly PRISAM-affiliated institutions where he said students’ performance and welfare are now at heart.
Apart from that, University of Malawi students through the Students Representative Council (SRC), say the gesture has demonstrated that Chakwera is a listening president and a caring father who has at the back of his mind the welfare of students in public universities.
However, the Students Representative Council says it is looking forward to the implementation of the other petition they made which includes increasing the number of loan beneficiaries when it comes to tuition.
