Malawi: Govt Summons Teachers Union of Malawi for Crisis Meeting

By Owen Khamula

Ministry of Education officials have summoned Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) for a crisis meeting following a threat for a nationwide strike in May as way of forcing government deal with outstanding grievances.

Ministry of Education spokesperson Manfred Ndovie said the government want to resolve the grievances, 24 in number amicably without TUM withdrawing labour of its teachers.

«We will meet TUM soon. We were supposed to meet them sometime back but we indeed failed to turn up, not because out of disrespect but because we needed to thoroughly consult on some of the issues, as you might be aware that there is an issue of K160 million arrears, we needed to consult treasury on the issue,» he said.

TUM president Chauluka Muwake said it was a joke for the government to tell those who successfully passed interviews and were promoted to Grade K or PT3 that they would get to their new position after someone on the same grade dies so the government would just make a replacement.

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Most teachers in Lilongwe confirmed this an interview and Nyasa Times has copies of one of the teachers who successfully passed the interviews and the government wrote her a promotion letter only to hold the promotion later until someone dies so that she could be replaced.

Muwake also said most secondary school teachers were not paid in March and the government has not yet paid them until now.

TUM also accuses the government of threatening to withdraw promotions of some primary school teachers who were promoted on understanding that they would take up rural school positions.

«The ministry says it wants to withdraw the promotions because they had not gone to the schools where they were posted yet the government has not given them transport. Let the government provide transport,» he said.

He also claimed some secondary school teachers have not yet received leave grants for the last school calendar.

Fuente de la noticia:  Malawi: Govt Summons Teachers Union of Malawi for Crisis Meeting

Fuente de la imagen: http://www.operationworld.org/files/ow/maps/lgmap/mala-MMAP-md.png