Africanews
Teachers' salaries - the delay of it and low paymenti s a major issue in many African countries. In Malawi, teachers rarely get their salaries on time. Over 7,000 teachers have had their April and May salaries delayed. |
The proverbial it never rains but it pours has become a reality for teachers in Malawi. While teachers are still experiencing problems of free primary schoolinguovercrowding and no facilitiesuthey cannot get their salaries in time and some did not receive any in April and May.
Over 7,000 teachers have been affected by the delay. Since schools opened for the third term June 3, teachers, fed up with the state of affairs, have been engaging in a go-slow. Others put their chalk down altogether.
Laments Mabvuto Chimwala, a Standard Four pupil, in Blantyre southern Malawi: "I am not happy to go to school only to be sent back home. The teachers say they can't teach on an empty stomach. They say they have not been paid."
In the capital Lilongwe, in central Malawi, there have been just as many cases like Mabvuto's in Blantyre. In the resort district of Mangochi, southeast of Lilongwe, over 500 teachers marched to the district education office, demanding their salaries. In the Northern Region, teachers in the City of Mzuzu have since last month been assembling everyday at the headquarters of the education ministry on the issue.
Teachers union vice-secretary Mike Sangwa says there are some teachers who have not been paid since January.
The teachers' action has awakened the rank and file of government. Coming from their slumber, they have been pointing fingers at each other. Education authorities have blamed those from the data department for not including everybody on the payroll. Responding, data personnel say they work on information made available to them.
President Bakili Muluzi says money is available but suspects that there are some people who are deliberately creating snags, so government could be seen to be failing to deliver.
The opposition, noting a high cost of living, a lack of provision for public servicesushortage of drugs in hospitalsuand collapsing infrastructure, has interpreted these as signs of government failure and called for a referendum to determine whether the government is still popular or not.
President Mulezi says the Treasury will now be releasing money for teacher's salaries to the Ministry of Education on the 5th of every month, 15 days ahead of other ministries, so that teachers receive their salaries in time.
The Under Secretary in the Ministry of Finance/Fletcher Zenengeya says the problems in the ministry started when the ministry recruited 3,000 new teachers and names of another 4,000 teachers were erroneously omitted from the payroll.
The nonpayment of teachers' salaries provides a window into a system, that apparently, is in a shambles. Problems started emerging as soon as free primary education (FPE) designed to raise literacy levels at an average of 52 percent, was introduced in 1994.
While they worked under pressure, the teachers had to put up with salary delays. They soon started succumbing to the effects of delayed paymentuhunger and failure to meet debtsuand finally on October 30, 1995 disgruntled teachers protested and sent pupils back home. That time it could take two weeks before they could be paid.
They also complained about delays in receiving their leave grants that were due in August, 1995.
In the same month (October, 1995), the Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) flushed out a legion of ghost workers in the Ministry of Education. Some officials, says the union, were taking advantage of the there was recruitment of staff thenuand were making quick money. A teacher's name would appear twice on a payroll at different schools.
"Government records have been showing that two people have been paid when the real person only received his salary The other salary is pocketed by someone in the ministry," Viva Nyimba, CSTU legal adviser, was quoted in The Nation, a daily newspaper, as saying.
Given the predicament teachers find themselves in, it is not surprising to see some, in a bid to make ends meet, give private lessons at a fee at their backyard. Only a few children attend such classes, the vast majority do not.
And the real effects of children not attending class because teachers cannot work on "an empty stomach" are likely to be felt in the long run if government does not make good its promise of paying teachers in time. Additionally, Malawi's dreams of boosting literacy levels may remain as such for a long time.
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