LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) on Monday, March 8, 2021 suspended teachers’ strike and asked teachers to resume their work today, Tuesday.

This follows TUM, Presidential Taskforce and Parliamentary Committee on Education meeting they had at Parliament building.

Presidential Taskforce Member Innocencia Chirombo said they have agreed that instead of giving teachers masks and hand sanitizes they should turn the resources into monetary form so that teachers should be given the cash.

Chirombo went on to say that this will be done once the presidential taskforce together with the Ministry of Education approved.

TUM’s Willie Malimba described the meeting as a step forward and he asked the teachers to report for duty from tomorrow saying they have only suspended the strike because they are going to continue if government fails to meet their agreement.

“From tomorrow onwards teachers should go back to work, and l believe they will because they were waiting for my words. We have just suspended the strike not calling it off,” he explained.

Chairperson on Parliamentary Committee on Education Brainax Kaisi said they will be following up on the issue as there are also other agreements on issues such as promotion and arrears.

He, however, expressed concern that students have been at home for long.“We are very much concerned that we are killing the nation since if you want to kill the nation, you kill the education standards,” he said.

Teachers in public schools had been on strike for two weeks as they demanded Malawi Government to start giving them MK35,000 a month as Covid-19 risk allowance.