Govt to pay teachers’ remittances to lending institutions
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology says government will pay teachers’ remittances of about K289 million (US$699 758) to lending institutions by mid next week.
The development follows threats from some teachers to stage mass demonstrations.
In an interview on Wednesday, Minister of Education Lucious Kanyumba said although the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) petitioned government on the same issue in November 2013, the non-remittance of deductions for May and June 2013 occurred because the money was returned to the Treasury after the ministry failed to send it on time.
Said Kanyumba: “When the teachers petitioned government last year, government was owing them close to K1 billion but, we failed to remit K289 million because it was for the 2012/13 financial year and it was returned to the Treasury when the 2013/14 financial year started in July, so there was need to knock at the Treasury’s door to claim it.”
Kanyumba said the money has now been identified and it is being processed so that it should be given to various lending institutions.
According to TUM general secretary Denis Kalekeni, teachers from Mzimba and Thyolo savings and credit cooperatives (Saccos) raised their grievances at an annual general meeting held last week where they agreed to hold mass demonstrations on May 12 if government failed to remit the deductions by that day.
“The matter was discussed and, as a representative of the teachers, I wrote the ministry, communicating the decision agreed by the teachers as they said they had waited for 13 months hoping their issue would be addressed but to no avail,” said Kalekeni.
