Education minister dismisses anti-quota movement queries on form 1 second selection
The Minister of Education, Science and Technology Dr. Williams Susuwele Banda says all students who have been selected to various public secondary schools across the country during the second selection were selected based on merit.
Susuwele Banda made the sentiments after the Quota Must Fall Movement noted that the second selection list which was released by the Ministry was dominated by students from Southern part of Malawi.
The movement, a grouping that advocates for the abolition of quota system of selecting students to institutions of higher learning, noted dominance of learners from Southern Region districts of Phalombe and Mulanje to national secondary schools.
But addressing the media on Friday the Minister of Education Banda said the second selection was strictly based on merit.
“This selection was strictly based on Merit Principle in all categories of secondary schools. Economic and Proximity Principles were not considered in this selection as it was stipulated in the press statement which the Ministry released on 22nd October, 2019.
“This means that students were not confined to their Education Division but spread to other divisions for the purpose of building national unity,” said the Minister.
Susuwele Banda added: “For District Boarding Secondary Schools, students in the District filled the spaces within the District where as Conventional Day and Community Day Secondary Schools, students from feeder schools within the community were considered as the case has been”
The Ministry released the 2019 Form One second selection results on 27th December, 2019 in which 17,831 students were selected into various secondary schools to fill the gaps created by those who did not report.
A total of 125 students were selected to National Secondary Schools while 3,105 students were selected to other Conventional Secondary Schools and 14,381 students were selected into Community Day Secondary Schools.
In an analysis posted on his Facebook page, education rights activist Limbani Nsapato said out of the 125 students selected to national secondary schools, 29 students representing 23.2 percent are from the Northern Region, 17 or 13.6 percent from the Central Region and 79 representing 63.2 percent are from the Southern Region.
The analysis highlights that the first selection had shown that 1 893 students were selected comprising 267 (representing 14.1 percent) from the North, 782 (41.3 percent) from the Centre and 844 (44.5 percent) from the South.
Said Nsapato: “A comparative analysis shows that North has gained by +9.1 percent while South has gained by +18.7 percent, but the Centre has lost by -27.7 percent. This would imply that the best winner of merit principle is the South while the loser is the Centre.”
He also contends that the merit principle has disadvantaged girls, becoming now a setback to move towards gender parity while on the economic front, the system is also said to have disadvantaged girls from rural areas.
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Confused opposition zealots. Shame!
Eeee komatu that’s why timaopa kukuvoterani. Ndinu anthu ovuta. You believe you are the best. You cried for merit. When they apply it, you are exposed and left out. Then you cry foul.
The government is very clever.Whenever people complain about quota system on selecting students .The government always say they have used merit system.The truth is that the government Will continue using quota system.Missionaries please take your schools,control, select students based on what they have achieved not where someone is coming from. Northern Malawi has around 15 secondary schools, central Malawi has around 30 secondary schools and southern Malawi has around 32 secondary schools, excluding all community day secondary schools and private secondary schools.Why should government keep sending students from southern Malawi to other regions yet they have more secondary schools,I hope this is for dominance.God is watching .May be in the north there are more good teachers who can teach better than their counterparts in the southern Malawi.Hard worker ndi hard worker or mukokerane zimawonekanso anthu akamagwira ntchito.
Apparently, seems like there is nothing that will convince critics that this selection of the students was based on merit.
The critics should simply look at the evidence, and accept that they themselves have zero evidence of broad based favoritism here.
They really want “quota” only when it favors their lot, and not when it benefits the whole country, by district and region! Kidzikonda kokha basi!
Consider this possibility: The recent ascendancy of the aLhomwe and aYao in this country has something to do with education. And the high success rates we see in our education system at all levels, especially by the former, is very likely a positive feedback loop.
No stopping them.
Could have started with examination leakages in the candidate districts
Move with time and not Stone Age thinking
The entire second selection process was aimed at selecting Phalombe students to national secondary schools. That’s all. It’s very sad that even educated fellows can be rescued like my honorable minister. Education has not helped in this case rather than just a title. Someone will account for these decisions and not later but soon !!!!
There is no employment any way. You can educate the kids of your girlfriends from Chiladzulu, Thyolo and Mulanje but they will end up loafing at home. Good luck form one candidates.
Atumbuka kulila ng’wing’wi. Manamizana kuti ife ayawo ndalomwe we are dull. Mwanyatu
So now in Phalombe,Chikwawa,Mulanje etc we have got more brighter pupils and Rumphi,Karonga,Nkhata-bay,Mzimba you name it?…But this government is full of trash and shit.
Shit is when somebody believes his tribe has monopoly over knowledge. By the way, so many students change district of origin to beat quota system
Why not?
That is a self centred stereotype thinking that people from your region are bright
Yes, there are brighter students in those districts. The Northern districts were surpassed by the Lomwe belt in the mid 1990’s. At this time in the development of Malawi, quota disadvantages students in the Northern districts. Although historically, students from the North used to perform better than others, it was not that they were genetically superior but their parents valued education, and passed this to them. Now, most Malawian families are pushing their kids to study and do well in school.
Make life tough for the foreign students so that they head back to where they came from. There is no justification for Northern or Central schools being filled with students from South when the converse is not true
People from Mulanje and Phalombe have become hardworking. They realised the importance of school. Don’ waste your time complaining, encourage you children to work hard.
Don’t fool Malawians we know DPP is doing all this to the advantage of Lomwes so that they in the long run take prominent positions in government period!However you can not fool all the people all the time!
Limbani Nsapato is in the MANEB board, those who do the selection. He is from Phalombe or somewhere there. He hates northerners with a passion. He has a big nose (both literally and figuratively) and seriously supports the quota system and the ‘genocide’. What else do you expect? Hitler has resurrected!!!
The solution is simple: Natives and communities of secondary schools which have been invaded by Lomwe students should resist the students. They should “tell them” they are not wanted which will make them leave. It isn’t right for Lomwe districts to be colonising other districts not in this age. It is only through resistance that will free the schools invaded. We are aware that students in these districts had access to exams and answers to make them appear bright and dominate other tribes. We don’t know why the so called education experts could not reveal the shit. If nothing is done we will see the same this year and years to come if DPP remains in power. Invaded schools and communities resist.
You must be from the North who benefited from Black pen secrecy so you think the Lomwes are doing the same.
this is stupid. How many northerners are there in the south and centre. what if these two regions decided to make life unbearable for them. Think before you make foolish suggestions.
This is all rubbish and nepotism. How do you justify a student from Phalombe being selected to Chaminade secondary school,while no student from Chitipa or Karonga being selected to Zomba Box2 or any other southern school? Are you telling me that Phalombe and Mulanje have brighter students by a statistical ratio margin of 5:1? DPP is a very evil party and will try its best to destroy the Central and northern regions through capturing of Secondary and University spaces potentially for students from the two regions- the whole scheme is partly political and partly aimed at creating few future technocrats of the two regions.
You wanted merit and this is it. Mumaona ngati merit means dominance from North…mwagwa nayo.
Quota system is bad for the country and its bad for the future generations to come in malawi.stop in now.The country has divided.Build more secondary schools and universities that’s all.All secondary schools were not built by northerers ,it was missionaries and government.why missionaries can’t just take there schools and select students from their terminal examinations.Manebo is evil and the higher education pole who select students to university are evil too.
Dpp is contradicting itself, because quota is into play since 2009, now does it mean DPP is ashamed of its own policy? why should you say its a merit based system when you have all preached quota system policy since Bingu days? If you a minister and who seems lost at what he is up to what a shame