BLANTYRE (MaraPost)--Primary School Teachers, mainly under the Thyolo and Mzimba Savings and Credit Co-operatives Society (Sacco) have to threatened to down tools from Tuesday the 12th May, 2014 if government fails to give them their dues.
According to the teachers, government has failed to fulfil many of its promises to the teaching fraternity in the country.
Teachers Union of Malawi (Tum) Secretary General Denis Kalekeni said many teachers have not received their arrears as promised by the ministry of education.
“If government fails to honour its promises by the end of this week, teachers will have no option than downing tools.
“At the moment we have not received any information on the payment of the teachers’ arrears by the government,” said Kalekeni.
He also said the Union is not aware if teachers from the south west division have received or will receive their salaries.
According to him, government is yet to decentralise the teachers’ pay roll to the division level.
Minister of Education Lucius Kanyumba admitted that government owes teachers about K189 million in arrears, but promised that government will start paying them next.
“We were owing them about K1 billion, but some got their arrears. We owe them K189 million and is to be paid out next,n” he said.