Govt hikes cost of learning

Government has raised school fees in all public secondary and tertiary institutions with effect from the 2015/16 academic year.

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Principal Secretary, Lonely Magreta, told journalists in Lilongwe at a press briefing on Saturday that government has, among other factors, considered to raise fees so as to improve quality of education in the country.

“We cannot be talking about quality education when there are no resources, the learning environment is poor and diets are of low standards. All these need funds to improve and the funds can only be available when there is the spirit of cost-sharing and not leaving everything for government,” said Magreta.

She said the current fees were too low, unrealistic and discriminatory between government-sponsored and self-sponsored students yet opportunities after graduating were the same.

Apart from raising the fees, government has also abolished upkeep allowances in public universities from the 2015 intakes while intakes up to 2014 will continue receiving their allowances until they graduate.

Magreta said in public universities, government-sponsored students were paying only K55 000 while self-sponsored students were paying K275 000 per year, but now the fees will be standardised since government sponsorship has been abolished.

She also said the case was the same at Domasi where government-sponsored students were paying only K1 500 per year for either a diploma or degree course whereas self-sponsored students were paying K180 000 for a diploma course and K220 000 for a degree course, but now the fees structure has been standardised.

Previously, there was no fee at teacher training colleges (TTCs), but now students will be required to pay K105 000 per year, which represents 20 percent of the total training cost per student and government will foot the remaining 80 percent.

Magreta clarified that although upkeep allowances have been abolished at TTCs, students will be entitled to a K20 000 allowance per month during teaching practices in their second year of training.

While welcoming the development, Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe has faulted government on poor planning, which will inconvenience parents.

But Kondowe has pleaded with government to find a way of supporting needy students at secondary level, noting that a number of them are already failing to access education because of fees.