2 head teachers, pupil arrested over Malawi primary school exams foul play

Malawi Police are keeping in custody a 15 year-old pupil for gaining access to this year’s national Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PSLCE) examination at Likhubula Primary School in Blantyre.

The pupil, name witheld on legal reasons gained the access by using examination number 25016/229, but had no Identity Card, which is issued by the Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB).

It was later transpired that the examination number in question belonged to John Patrick Foster, who was duly issued with an ID.

“It appears this chap did not pay for the ID. Some pupils were allowed to sit for the exam on first and second day of the exams without the IDs because their IDs were not readily available due to other logistical hiccups.

“The IDs for the remaining pupils were brought on Friday and were subsequently given to the owners and ushered into the examination room. It is at this point when [the pupil]  was discovered to have been writing the exams without authority from MANEB,” explained Blantyre Police spokesperson Elizabeth Divala.

Gaining access to national examinations is contrary to Section 14.2 (A) of the MANEB (Amendment) Act, 2003.

MANEB administered the 2015 PSLCE examination to standard eight pupils from Wednesday 6 May to Friday 8 May.

About 290,000 prospective candidates had registered to sit for this examination, according MANEB Public Relations Manager Simeon Maganga.

“The administration of this examination was successful as there was no leakage and all examination administration centres successfully administered the examination without fail.

“There were no problems with candidate identity cards despite being introduced this year at PSLCE level. There was overwhelming support from the public especially on tip offs on suspected cases of cheating which we are still following up,” said Maganga.

He also revealed that through  general public’s tip offs on suspect  organized cheating in some schools, MANEB recorded a cheating case in Nambuma, Dowa where preliminary investigations revealed that Head teachers of Chisepo and Chinzili Primary Schools had been meeting in the staff-room at Chinzili Primary School, strategizing on how to assist their candidates.

“Our findings indicated that they drew up a budget of K15,400 to feed invigilators. This was financed by candidates from both schools who paid K500 each.

“It was further discovered that the Head Teacher of Chisepo Primary School collected K21,000 from his candidates and we are yet to establish how much the Head Teacher of Chinzili Primary School collected,” explained Maganga.

Following these findings, the police arrested Head Teacher at Chisepo Primary School, Mr Gideon Kalinde,42; and Head Teacher of Chinzili Primary School, Mr Steven Sajeni, 43, as their act was contrary to MANEB (Amendment) Act, 2003, Section 14.

They will be taken to court soon but investigations on the matter continue.

Meanwhile, MANEB is still following up other tip-offs on suspected organized cheating in other schools.

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