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.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
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… Read more »
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,… Read more »
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