District Commissioners (DCs) on Tuesday denied the Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe’s report that they have received funds for paying primary school teachers’ leave grants.
Both primary and secondary school teachers across the country are on sit-in which started on Monday 5 June due to the development.
Gondwe said this in Parliament on Tuesday when he was responding to Chitipa South Member of Parliament (MP) Werani Chilenga who asked government to explain to the house on Tuesday why primary and secondary school teachers are on a strike and what action it has put in place to make sure that classes resume.
The Chitipa South legislature Chilenga said he was worried with government’s silence on the matter saying “the sit-in is crippling the country’s education.”
While defending the Ministry of Education silence on the matter, Gondwe said his ministry has already put forward some measures to end the strike.
According to him, his ministry has transferred funds to the councils to enable the councils pay leave grants to teachers.
He said it is up to the councils to decide when to pay the teachers.
Minister of Education Emmanuel Fabiano while concurring with Gondwe said teachers will get their leave grant through their councils before the end of the 2016/17 financial year.
However, Mzimba DC Thomas Chirwa and Karonga DC Richard Hara dismissed the claims by Goodall Gondwe and Emmanuel Fabiano saying that government only gave them authority to process payment of teachers’ salaries adding that no funds have been transferred to them to effect the leave grants payment.
