Learners match to district education manager’s office over school committee

Learners at Kaputu primary school in Salima on Friday morning peacefully matched to the district education manager’s office in protest against the school committee members’ decision to take bags of maize meant for home grown school feeding programme.

A few months ago, the school asked each learner to contribute K300 each to buy the maize and soya for porridge.

However some of the learners said they were surprised that for two months now, there has been no porridge.

They were surprised this week when they saw the school committee grabbing a bag of maize each. This irked the learners who matched to the district education manager’s office to present their grievances.

Alex Kamwendo, human resources manager in the office of the district education’s manager assured the learners that the office would probe the matter and feedback would be given to them.

A teacher who asked for anonymity said the school committee members earmarked to share 33 bags of maize.

Both the headteacher and school committee chairman were not available for comment but the situation is not different from most schools across the country where school committee members embezzle openly money learners are forced to pay for development projects.

In urban areas including Lilongwe, school committee members spend all working hours in headmasters offices, collecting money which range from K500 to K1000.

In most cases, there is no transparency and accountability on the use of the money. Learners who fail to pay the school funds are sent back home.

Primary education in Malawi is free.