By Chrissy Nkumba
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi government through Ministry of Education has sent a warning shot to all government schools to stop the malpractice of charging primary students fees.
In a statement signed by the secretary for education Chikondano Mussa said the Ministry has regrettably noticed that some schools are charging learners various fees such as on registration, Examination, summer, report cards and many more.
In most cases the amount charged are exorbitant and vary from one school to another, those that fail to pay are denied the opportunity to sit for any examination administered in the school.
According to Mussa this pushes children out of school and the ministry will not condone such malpractice as this defeats the purpose and spirit of the free education policy introduced in 1994 meant to increase equitable access to education.
Mussa added that the ministry has provided guidance to be followed in all schools.
Amongst one of the guidance is to let the school committee to decide whether school development fund should be paid or not.
Failure to comply a disciplinary hearing will follow the offender therefore the general public is being adviced to report such cases.
Mussa Further said that the ministry has noted with great concern that some teachers in some schools have a tendency of a deliberately not effectively teaching.
According to the statement it would like to instruct all headteachers to ensure that all teachers follow the time table to avoid extending teaching during summer holidays with the intention of charging fees. In cases where some learners fall behind in their learning outcomes, remedial lessons should be conducted.
The ministry has reminded headteachers that public schools in Malawi are tuition free and any school or teacher found charging fees will be dealt accordingly.