Police arrest 6 Chinsapo students over protests

Police in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, on Tuesday and Wednesday arrested six Chinsapo Secondary School students aged between 11 and 16 for conduct likely to cause breach of peace after they allegedly participated in blocking the road between Area 3 and Likuni.

The students were protesting against lack of learning at the school.

Lilongwe Police Station spokesperson Ramsy Mushani said five of the arrested children are girls. He said the six were still in custody as of Wednesday.

“The students protested because they said they have not been learning for the past two weeks. Teachers at the school are on a sit-in because they have not received their September 2012 salary,” he said.

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology public relations officer Lindiwe Chide said salaries for teachers at Chinsapo Secondary School delayed because of some technical hitches.

“We had a big technical problem in the month of September which affected the whole ministry. The Chinsapo case was also different because our system was showing that salaries had been paid when on the other end, the cheques were not appearing,” she said.

Chide said all teachers at the school would get their salaries soon as some banks had started making salary payments to some of them on Tuesday.