Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) is facing growing anger over its K70,000 remarking fee, with candidates and parents demanding answers over who should pay when the board itself gets a result wrong.
MANEB has set the 2026 MSCE re-mark fee at K70,000 per subject, meaning candidates seeking remarks in two subjects will pay K140,000, while those seeking three will need K210,000.
The biggest concern emerging from public reaction is whether candidates should be refunded when a remark results in a change of grade.
“What happens if you ask for a remark and the grade changes? Do they refund your money? Because that would mean the mistake was theirs, so I don’t think you should have to pay,” commented Kondwani Mwabumba on our Facebook page.
Other commenters described the fee as excessive and unfair, saying it could prevent students from seeking a review of results that could determine whether they qualify for university or other opportunities.
“Mwachidule uku ndikukaniza kuti students should not do the remark, nanga mpaka K70,000 like serious? Aah no, it should have been affordable, maybe around K20,000 or K25,000,” suggested Lameck Betha.
Some also questioned whether remarks are worth the cost, with one person sharing that they paid for an English remark in 2018 but their result remained unchanged.
“I tried remark for English in 2018 but the results remained the same,” commented Said Jooma.
However, others took a different view, arguing that candidates who fail should accept their results rather than spend money seeking a different outcome.
The debate has therefore moved beyond the K70,000 price itself to a question of accountability: if a candidate pays to have a result reviewed and MANEB subsequently changes the grade, should the candidate still bear the cost of correcting the mistake?
By the time of publication, MANEB had not yet commented on the concerns.
