By Sarah Gwetsani
Teachers across the country are racing against time to meet the demands for Teachers Council of Malawi (TCM) K25,000 each for their licenses with fears that failing to pay this amount after the expiry of the deadline which is 31st December,2024 they will no longer be teachers come January, 2025.
President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera his government charging primary school teachers K25000 each for a Teaching License
Even though these teachers are forcibly been encouraged to pay K25,000 each, most of them do not know the objectives under which the TCM was established and are just paying the money unknowingly afraid of losing jobs.
Unlike the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) which deduct K1000 each from each teacher by virtue of joining the teaching profession, TCM is receiving payment of K25,000 through the bank deposited by themselves and not direct deductions on their pay slips.
However, it has been established that some teachers have not paid TCM k25,000 through their respective banks for various reasons one major one being the money is too huge and contrary to what teachers are pocketing per month as their salaries.
In the past, from reign of Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, Dr. Joyce Banda, and Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, long serving teachers were issued with Authority to Teach as licenses for free.
When President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his MCP were voted into government in June, 2020, they brought in new reforms in the education sector one of it being paying K25,000 for Teaching Licenses a development which is making some teachers to shake their heads as If they have horns in disbelief.
Mrs. Esnath Kaliza Banda of Area 49 in Lilongwe, a retired teacher, has asked the authorities to explain to the teachers why they are demanding K25,000 from each teacher making the Teachers Council of Malawi (TCM) the richest organization on the land not only in Malawi but the whole world.
Kaliza said it is sad that beside teachers receiving low salaries per month, government is milking K25,000 each without mercy claiming that some teachers have gone for no promotion for 20 years in service and government is demanding K25,000 from those that are considered to be useless in the public service.
She said as of today, teachers across the country are affiliated to two teachers’ bodies TUM and TCM wondering what is it exactly government is looking from teachers claiming that teachers are being invited to sit for promotion interviews while those picked are the ones not even attended the interviews.
“If each teacher is paying TCM k25,000, how much is government collecting from over 80,000 teachers across the country? At first, TUM was the richest organization and this time, TCM is the richest and is worth to be called a standalone organization,” said Kaliza.
She has appealed to all teachers across the country never and ever to give votes to the MCP government, this government has no welfare of teachers at heart advising those who will picked to man registration and voting centres, not to exchange their pain and sufferings with money from MCP for it to bounce back into government in 2025.
