Four teachers arrested in MSCE exams leakage

Four secondary school teachers have been arrested in the capital, Lilongwe after they were caught selling some of the leaked Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination papers, police confirmed on Friday.

The four teachers were arrested after police and Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) officials approached one of them to buy the papers which the teacher is said to have been selling at K2 000 ($5) per paper.

In an interview, Lilongwe Police Station spokesperson Ramsay Mushani said the first teacher to be arrested was identified as Malingaliro Ali from Chipasula Secondary School in Lilongwe and was found with English papers one and two.

“The arrest of Ali led to the arrest of three other teachers, one from the same school and two others from Bwaila Secondary School. During interviews, Ali claimed to have sourced English Paper Three from a fellow teacher they were invigilating together at Lilongwe Girls Secondary School,” said Mushani.

The other three arrested teachers, according to Mushani, are Benson Chavula and James Kamba both from Bwaila Secondary School also in Lilongwe, and Yotamu Banda from Chipasula Secondary School.

“Upon their arrest, Chavula and Banda mentioned James Kamba a teacher at Bwaila Secondary School as the one who provided them with the materials they also supplied to Ali,” added Mushani.

Since the MSCE examinations started on June 26, there have been fears of a massive leak which followed the arrest of eight students from Blantyre, Lilongwe and Nkhotakota.

Since then, there have been several arrests of students despite a blame game between the Malawi Police and Maneb as to who is responsible for the leakage.