Frustrated unemployed primary school teachers have disclosed their plan to meet with the former head of state who is also Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate, Arthur Peter Mutharika over their fate.
The group includes IPTE 13 to 18 primary school teachers who are over 10, 000 in total.
Confirming the development, the group’s leader, Wonderful Gama said they’ve already penned Mutharika on the same and the outcome is positive.
According to Gama, their decision follows the current government’s failure to hear their longtime cries.
He said they want to ask Mutharika to eliminate the current system of recruitment for primary school teachers and persuade him to recruit them all especially when he gets into power.
“The current system only recruited 2,600 teachers over the last five years and the reliance on auxiliary teaching positions with minimal compensation. It is a bad system and we have been trying to engage with the government on the same but to no avail. Our voice has been useless to the current government. That’s why we’ve decided to meet Mutharika,” he said.
Gama however denied rumors that the decision meant that his group was endorsing Mutharika.
“No no, this is not a political move but it’s undeniable that during his term, Mutharika managed to recruit all graduated teachers. And now that we have a new system of recruitment, we want to ask him not to abandon his old system,” he added.
DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba failed to respond to our questionnaire however, our inside source confirmed that the letter has been received by Mutharika.
“APM received their letter and the meeting is already on. However, we have been instructed not to disclose more information to the public as of now because of political reasons,” said our internal source.
Meanwhile, Jackson Caesar-Msiska, a social commentator from Mzuzu and Executive Director of Youths Action Campaign (YAC), has endorsed the move, calling it the best decision.
He has since urged the group to do the same with other presidential candidates.
The government is yet to issue a comment on the matter.
