Tag Archives: CSEC

Education, Lifestyle, Malawi

Malawi education rights body engages legislators to tame Chakwera’s apatite for “Chancellorship”

Maravi Post Reporter
Chakwera’s apatite for “Chancellorship” needs to be tamed

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s education rights body Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has appealed to Members of Parliament (MPs) to swiftly come with the law that bar seating Malawi President to become Chancellors of public universities arguing that head of state can not solely be in-charge of high learning institutions while running the affairs of the state.

The call comes after President Lazarus Chakwera is still salivating for public universities’ chancellorship against his campaign promises of seeding off some presidential powers.

CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe observes that public universities’ chancellorship should be left to well-qualified individuals not politicians.

Kondowe told 2021/2022 budget analysis on education conference at Mponera, Dowa on Saturday, June 5, 2021 that the law must be in place to seed off seating President heading public universities.

He cited developed nations including United Kingdom, United States Of America, Germany where chancellorship is given to eminent and capable individuals.

“As much as this ceremonial position but Chancellors are heads institution of high learning whereby university councils report to them. So, such post given to seating President is uncalled for as they are incompetent coupled with state affairs workload.

“Able and eminent individuals must now be chancellors of public universities whereby they will be on top of the game the same way developed nations do hence the need for our lawmakers to swiftly enact a law that bars seating Presidents attaining Chancellorship,” urges Kondowe.

CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe: Time to give chancellorship to eminent individuals

On 2021/2022 national budget allocation towards education sector, CSEC boss expressed worrisome over exclusion of new teachers deployment amid shrinking of teacher-pupil ration in public primary schools.

Kondowe therefore emphasized the need for Malawi to consider more innovative models of financing her education sector such as establishing Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), utilizing diaspora support and introducing levies.

He added that financing education only through the traditional models of budgetary and donor support cannot meaningfully address the numerous challenges affecting education in the country.

Kondowe said authorities should also consider appealing for support specifically towards education from Malawians living in diaspora, saying countries such as South Africa and Botswana have benefited a lot from that initiative.

He further said there is a need to introduce an education levy which should carter for what he termed as “all pressing issues” in the education sector.

“Otherwise, the current Tevet levy is strictly looking at just one component of education which is skills development. We need an education levy that can be used for any other sub-sectors in education. It could be, for instance, sub-sectors such as Early Childhood Development, among many others,” said Kondowe.

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Brainex Kaise lauded CSEC and its partners for the interface meeting saying it has created a strong partnership which will be used to lobby for the realization of the pertinent suggestions the conference has raised.

The meeting–jointly organized by CSEC, ActionAid Malawi, Oxfam Malawi and other civil society organizations (CSOs) aimed at presenting to the stakeholders an analysis of the 2021/2022 education budget

Education, Malawi

Malawi Govt challenged on widening tax base for serious investment in education

Maravi Post Reporter
CSEC with its partners on education financing

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse administration has been challenged to broaden its tax base in order to increase domestic resources available for education and other services.

Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), Save the Children, Action Aid and Coalition for Child Rights made the call during a news conference on Monday, April 26, 2021 in the capital in Lilongwe.

The briefing was part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) whose theme titled; “Education financing, in-line with the policy framing of the One billion Voices campaign”.

CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe observes that the national budget must have the sensitivity to respond to the poorest and most marginalised in order to counteract inequality, discrimination and exclusion in education.

Kondowe added that domestic resources remain the most important source for sustainable funding of education as such government should make a clear commitment to provide equitable financing proportionate with the country’s education priorities, needs and capacities to advance the progressive realisation of the right to education for every Malawian.

“The government must increase its tax base in order to increase domestic resources available for education and other services. Substantive tax reforms are needed to fairly increase the size of the overall government budget and as a result increasing the education budget proportionately as well,” he explained.

Kondowe further said that there is a need to construct houses for teachers, including special needs teachers.

“The state must also guarantee that other targets can be achieved, related to learning quality, teachers professional development, access to cultural assets, global citizenship education and lifelong learning,” he said.

He also said that government must provide free quality education for all and end the trend towards the privatisation and commercialisation of education so that education can be accessed by all Children.

Echoing on the same Leon Matanda of Coalition for Child Rights urged government to improve the quality of teaching through adequate provision of teaching and learning materials and adequate recruitment, remuneration and continued teaching training.

Action Aid Malawi’s Tax Justice for Gender Response Public Services on Education’s Project Officer Aisha Katungwe chipped in with urgent debt servicing calls including debt cancellation for the least developed countries.

According to the 2020/21 fiscal plan, government allocated MK46.00 per learner for Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM) in primary education.

Malawi’s education sector was already facing devastating crisis and the pandemic has only exacerbated this.

The pandemic hit an education system that already has 86,000 teacher deficit in both primary and secondary education and currently leaves 2,592,00 pupils in primary school to learn out in the open due to lack of an estimate 21,600 classroom blocks.

This year’s GAWE theme aligns with CSEC and its partners’ stance that government and international community should ensure more and better financing of education especially during the current Covid-19 pandemic that has affected education of about six million children in Malawi.

Education, Politics

CSEC demands compulsory primary school education implementation

Admin

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The education rights advocates, Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) this week, asked Malawi Government to seriously implement comprehensive compulsory education in primary schools.

This will force parents and guardians to comply with the order that no any child stays home or miss classes.

Julie Juma, the outgoig CSEC chairperson, made the appeal during this year’s CSEC Annual General Meeting where new officer bearers were ushered in to lead the group.

Juma observed that it was not realistic for Government to sit on the demand for compulsory primary education, when it established a clear policy to guide its implementation. Continue reading CSEC demands compulsory primary school education implementation →

Education, Malawi

CSEC dares Malawi lawmakers on innovative financing models for quality education; seeks introduction of levies

Lloyd M’bwana

Students
Students

The education’ rights body, Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) alongside with its partners on Tuesday, challenged Malawi’ Members of Parliament (MPs) on innovative financing models that sorely depends on local resources for provision of quality education.

In a study presented to the lawmakers, CSEC proposes innovative education financing including introduction of fees, levies, girl education trust fund, corporate social responsibilities and Diaspora remittances among others.

The study aimed at analyzing various financing models applied by Malawi and identifying innovative funding sources that effectively and efficiently mobilize and apply resources to critical sectors of education.

This will ensure that the furthest of the target communities are reached first in a transformative way for quality education.

The report observes that despite the lion’s share of government budget going to education, the sector face acute shortage of resources needed to ensure access to quality learning are not in short supply.

For instance, the study disclosed that for the past ten year period from 2007 to 2016, the national budget has been increased nine times from MK17 billion in 2007 to MK158 billion in 2016 with an increase of 29%.

The study adds that over the same period the overall budget increases six times from MK93 billion to MK583 billion with an average increase.

“Recently, the education share has averaged 18.2% of the total public expenditure, 244.5% of the recurrent expenditure and 6.35% of the General Domestic Product (GDP). While this share is within EFA-FTI benchmark, it falls short of local policy targets outlined in the Malawi Government Development Strategies (MGDS II).

“Therefore, innovative financing models or sources will help generating new financial flows for sustainable development that may come from various economic sectors in maximizing the efficiency, impact and leverage of existing resources,” reads the study in part.

CSEC Acting Executive Director Kisa Kumwenda told The Maravi Post that the study aims to ignite policy debate direction on how to bail out the country’s education sector financial challenges.

Kisa said Malawi needs to walk away from donor dependency on critical areas of financing including education for sustainable development.

In his reaction, Dr. Elias Chakwera, Chairperson for Parliamentary committee on education welcomed CSEC resolution study on innovative financing saying the committee will look into it and make thorough recommendation to the whole August House.

Chakwera was quick however to point out on tightening rope holes on financial management that any penny collected through the proposed models are best served in the interest of Malawians.

“These are good funds sourcing mechanism which must be embraced if the education sector is to make positive strides. For instance, introduction of levies, but misappropriation of public funds remain a big challenge which must have proper controlling mechanism to address theft”, urges Chakwera.

CSEC engagement with Malawi Parliament is part of the global campaign in which the organization alongside Africa Network Campaign for All (ANCEFA) and Action Aid International are advancing to African leaders’ commitment towards quality education enhancement.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) with its partners has launched a “Call to Action” for increased and sustainable financing to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Four.

The campaign intends to remind world leaders and governments to keep the promise to allocate 20% of the national budget allocation sector in developing countries including Malawi.

The initiative also is advancing on tax justice that its earnings must properly be used in crucial sectors of local people’s wellbeing including education, health, water and sanitation.

Education

CSEC engages Treasury on tax justice for quality education financing 

Ausborn Banda

pupils

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)- Malawi’s education rights body, Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), this week engaged the Ministry of Finance on tax justice measures wherein revenues collected is channeled to appropriate social sectors, including education.

CSEC engagement with the Treasury is part of the global campaign in which the organization, the Africa Network Campaign for All (ANCEFA) and Action Aid International, are advocating to African leaders to make commitment for quality education enhancement.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE), with its cooperating partners recently launched the “Call to Action” for increased and sustainable financing to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Four campaign.

The campaign intends to remind world leaders and governments to keep the promise to allocate 20% of the national budget to the education sector in developing countries.

The initiative also advocates for tax justice; in this scenario, the call is for Government earnings (through tax revenues), must be properly used in crucial sectors for the wellbeing of local people; such wellbeing includes the education, health, water and sanitation sectors.

Despite the education sector yearly allocation of the lion’s share of Malawi’s national budget, the sector continually grapples with numerous challenges; among these being pupil-teacher ratio, poor infrastructure, and delayed teachers’ salaries.

This is the reason CSEC with its partners, engaged the Treasury to revisit its commitment towards tax justice measures for quality education sector financing.

“Malawi’s national budget favors the education sector a lot, but the area still faces numerous challenges, which need to be considered with a critical eye for improvement. We want tax measures in collecting revenues to bring serious investments in education.

“When we talk about tax justice, it is when Government properly uses revenues from the public to finance social programs including education. This encourages people to pay more tax as they value their money in proper usage. Let our leaders invest seriously in education as it holds every nation’s future,” urges Lucky Mbewe, CSEC’s Board Vice Chairpeson.

In his response, Secretary to the Treasury, Ben Botolo, acknowledged that there are gaps in quality education, he nonetheless blamed Malawi’s population growth, which is surpassing public finance expenditures.

Botolo observed that increased fertility rate contributes to population booming, which in turn puts pressure on already minuscule resources.

The Treasury Secretary however, assured the public that Government will make use of revenue collected from the public and make proper use of it.

“Malawians must now revisit their reproduction and consider how many children a family needs to have. The nation needs to have laws to regulate child bearing to at least three per family. This will contain the pressure of population growth.

“The Treasury is therefore committed to provide quality services that must tally with the value for money, which people pay through tax. We will make sure that any penny is accounted for. The education sector will always be Government’s priority number one,” assures Botolo.

In this year’s national budget, the Parliament approved an allocation of 18 percent for the education sector, but teachers’ living conditions, and infrastructures remain poor with students in public schools receiving instruction under trees.

The recent UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) policy paper, shows that education’s share in total aid declined for six consecutive years.

The report disclosed that aid to education from world’s richest nations dropped from 10% in 2009 to 6.9% in 2015.

The GEMR study has therefore indicated that while developing country partners in Africa made great pledges during the 2014 replenishment, most have not translated the pledges into actual budgets.