Malawi President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera is scheduled to make his first appearance in Parliament tomorrow on Thursday this to answer questions from members of Parliament.
According to State House Press Secretary, Brian Banda the president will unveil himself in parliament to answer questions from 2 O’clock in the afternoon.
Social and Political Commentator Limbani Nsapato outlines some of the possible questions from Member of Parliament :
1.Reopening of Schools amid COVID 19: Mr. President, thousands of pupils and students are put at risk because majority of schools re-opened on Monday this week without necessary resources being available to ensure full preparation for ensuring enforcement of COVID 19 guidelines.
And there is a budget shortfall of at least MK3 billion. What action is in place to ensure that enough money is available and that all schools have resources to fight COVID 19 before the second phase of re-opening? Moreover, until now, teachers are waiting to hear government position on COVID risk allowances.
What is your position on this issue and when will your administration start to prove these risk allowances to the teachers?
2. Quota System: Mr. President in your SONA you said that even though the previous administration abolished Quota system, your administration will make sure that QUOTA system is DEAD.
Can you explain, what remained from the previous admin that made QUOTA system not DEAD? And what strategies have you put in place to cushion the districts, regions and groups that are under-represented so that they also benefit from University system if MERIT is used, especially given that the central region faced causalities with very few students selected to the university?
Don’t you think that making QUOTA DEAD will go against the policy which the MCP regime introduced and championed after independence when Hon John Tembo, who is one of the advisers of the Tonse government, was a strong person in government?
3. Commencement Date for New Universities: Mr. President, since Parliament approved the bill for delinking of UNIMA to form new universities last year, preparations have been done and what remains is fixing the commencement date.
Can you tell this August House, when the commencement date will be set for these universities?
In your SONA you said that your administration is looking for proposals to finance the institutions, why can’t government just allocate enough funding in the 2020/2021 budget to facilitate the commencement?
4. Youth and Adult Education: In your SONA Mr. President you indicated that your admin will in the coming financial year enroll 400,000 learners in adult literacy classes.
However, can you outline how this will be achieved, since current capacity is below 50% of this target? When will an inter-ministerial committee be put in place to ensure better coordination towards the achievement of the targets in the policy?
5. Children with Special Needs: There is strong evidence, hat children with special needs are being short-changed in the education sector in Malawi and yet little is being done to address the challenge.
Mr. President, what is your vision for Children with special needs as far as education is concerned so that they feel included in the Tonse regime?
6. Expanded Pre-School Education: Mr. President, it was great to hear from the SONA that your government is committed to pre-school education and that you wish to expand its coverage.
Can you explain your strategy as to how your administration aims to achieve wider coverage of pre-school education, given the absence of ambition and strategy in the SONA?
7. Compulsory Primary Education: Compulsory primary education is an important policy reform, and it is good that you made mention of it in the SONA. But given that previous administrations have failed to implement this policy, how should the country believe that you will achieve it in your term of office?
8. Youth Skills Development: Mr. President, with regard to the youth, the bar you set in the SONA around youth skills development was simply low and not inspiring at all, given the high youth unemployment in the country.
Can you explain your vision and strategy to ensure that more youths are skilled and that they benefit from the promise of 1 million jobs?
By the way how many of the promised 1 million jobs have been created to-date and how many youths have so far been employed, two months after being in office?
During campaign, President Chakwera promised to be availing himself in Parliament to take questions as required by the Constitution.
Waste of time. Mr president Sir, please do not bother.