A group calling itself a Concerned Teachers has told Teachers Union of Malawi ( TUM) to call off the strike saying it is holding learners and students at ransom.
According to confirmed information, the group is being bankrolled by the State House to counter TUM as part of “divide and rule” tactic.
Team leader of the group Harry Kamwanza, who is a headteacher at Mchinji Secondary School TUM should have fought for salary increment which has been a concern for a long time than a mere Covid19 risk allowance.
He says TUM should remember that not all teachers are TUM members and the does not please many teachers.
Kamwanza calls on TUM to call off the strike as the negotiations go on.
However TUM members have warned President Chakwera against policising their concerns.
“I’m of the TUM members and I would like to challenge government that these childish tactics will not help. This is one of the tactics of government to divide and rule as tool to weaken our stand on the matter. But they are in for a shock. We know that President Chakwera has bankrolled this rebel group to cause havoc in our genuine concerns about COVID-19 allowance. But if this is the path President Chakwera and his team believe is good to end the fiasco, let us wait and see,” said the TUM member who didn’t want to be named
“TUM must remember that not all teachers fall under their mother body as some opted not to join for reasons known for themselves. So TUM must not bulldoze us into a situation we are not part of,” said Kamwanza.
Kamwanza has also said TUM has also created an imbalanced situation as private schools are now in full swing while poor Malawians who can not afford to send their learners to private schools are suffering at home.
amazipusani choncho. Kulibrsalary increment. Govt harmonized salaries. They can’t raise for teachers only. Yanu inali allowance yomweyi. Am mcp also but am telling u the truth. Tell the govt to close the schools and only open when u have PPEs and Vacine. Asakuzuzeni…. Everyone at real risk is getting something.
Shame on you Chakwera. You’re an apology of a clergyman.
Shaaa
This tactic will not succeed.
Their request might look awkward and lacking sense. Its questionable especially when looking at how these guys do their work that at other times of the year they seem to receive free salary when the pupils go on acadmic breaks. However, for someone who has experienced teaching thats not the story. These guys continue working even during that period. There are schemes of work at which they are supposed to plan their work and after knocking off each day they have to draw lesson plans for the next day and to hunt for teaching materials and sketch for some to make their lessons easy for all the learners because in a classroom there are 3 types of learners: Slow to fast learners. Other teachers do sacrifice their money and time to help their slow learners. It is stupid to buy jijo’s rants thrown at teachers and yet he is a mere journalist who has never taught and experienced what teachers undergo in real teaching scenario. Their request must be scrutinised and to have looked into their fears before starting blaming them. They are humans too and amongst them there are risk groups too, who may die after contracting the virus. Remember with this virus as it is now is the game of the survival of the fittest. Without the more effective vaccine the lives of their high risk group must be considered because some of them may contract it in the course of their duty from their virus resistant pupils who may act as carriers. May be had it been that the school was opened after the vaccine was started like in argentina and bearing in mind the effectiveness of it, their demands would have been rabbished.