BEYOND THE EXTENDED TWO-WEEK CLOSURE: PAVING THE WAY FORWARD
The Education Hub With Benedicto Kondowe
Over the past few weeks, the Tonse alliance has demonstrated that it is no more informed than its followers. When the Ministry of Education first announced that it would keep the schools open, for a fraction of a second we were led to believe that this new government would refrain from making the same mistakes that their predecessors made. However, this semblance of hope soon slithered away. Most decisions on efforts to restore the education sector have been disruptive, incoherent, ill-informed, emotive and full of contradiction.
A little over a week later, Chakwera issued the directive to close schools for three weeks in January 2021. There were no clear intentions, strategies or even reasons for this decision and as a result, literally nothing came out of it except wasting time for our learners. In a manner that is now very familiar with the Tonse alliance, this led to yet another unfounded decision to extend the closure by an additional two weeks.
As the two weeks are about to elapse, the extension is showing glaring signs of meeting a familiar fate as the initial three-week closure. A number of District Education Network (DENs) Chairpersons have disclosed that so far virtually nothing has come out of the extension and that the closure as a whole was profoundly unnecessary. Some have even argued that the closure has put students at an even greater risk of catching and transmitting the virus, since the children are still roaming around. Despite warnings that this would happen if the situation was not properly planned for, the government turned a blind eye when strategic partners stated that it was easier to enforce precautionary measures on students at school-level than it was in their respective communities.
The DENs have expressed concern that if things continue as they have been going at the moment then the education sector might find itself in the same situation it was in last year. They have stated that government failed to engage them in most decisions and has also failed to inform them on the way forward. The assessments and preparation of the schools to determine their readiness for reopening have been blatantly chaotic and inconsistent. Disinfection of schools despite the provision of some resources has been remote. Unfortunately, this has been the status quo since the schools were closed during the first wave of covid-19 pandemic.
Whilst commending government for the recruitment of 3220 auxiliary teachers out of 3270 who play a crucial role in decongesting classes when schools reopen, we note that there are still vacancies for teachers in districts such as Chitipa (6), Karonga (5), Rumphi (11), Nkhata Bay (8), Likoma (1), Kasungu (1), Ntchisi (1), Chikwawa (2), and Nsanje (13). Therefore, government is urged to ensure that the concerned Councils move with speed to clear the remaining vacancies as a matter of urgency. Relatedly, government is also advised to ensure that more teachers are engaged to decongest secondary schools, especially the Community Day Secondary Schools.
Apart from the ongoing trainings in a few select schools as well as the above teacher recruitment exercise, there is nothing tangible happening in most schools be it fumigating, sensitization of school management systems and communities or procurement. The education sector is in a very critical state. There is already enough evidence highlighting that prolonged school closures only compound existing challenges and makes the loss of education even more threatening. Malawi, is still yet to recover from the first school closure in 2020.
Government should then be striving to rectify the mistakes of the past instead of exuberating it even more.
As the two-week extension draws to an end, it is high time the Tonse Alliance starts making decisions that promote and protect the right to education. Government needs to start preparing the preconditions for reopening to safeguard the continuity of the education sector. In order to do this, the government should devise a learning mechanism that ensures that education institutions are safe for all learners and teachers in which case the procurement of personal protective equipment is not only necessary but also essential.
The creation of safety in schools and the protection of teachers should be a continuous and long-term investment.
As it stands, there are about 600 primary school alone that do not have potable water points. The problem is more compounded if we add number of CDSSs without access to portable water. Whereas sanitation and hygiene is key in curbing new infections, government has no choice to overlook such a critical investment.
In addition, the Ministry of Education should seriously consider recruiting and absorbing more teachers beyond the IPTE 13 and primary education into the system on a fulltime basis. The demand for teachers has always been high for the last two decades, and even more so in the covid-era where issues of decongestion and social distancing have become the norm. In the same vein, government should work with Malawi institute of education to produce more textbooks to work towards achieving a 1:1 textbook to student ratio. In the same spirit, the Malawi College for Distance Education (MCDE) should be empowered to support the development of material packs that could be distributed to secondary schools especially CDSSs across the country. These would provide access to tailor made-materials that students could rely on even in times of closure of schools.
Furthermore, the construction of 850 low cost shelters (make shift classrooms) across the country should be expedited in keeping with the prevailing Covid-19 preventive measures. Schools need more infrastructure to keep social distance therefore, the makeshift tents are ideal as a short term measures as they are faster and cost-effective to be erected. We however need more of these as the demand for classrooms is unprecedently too high.
Admittedly, any meaningful and impacting education-covid response will require financial and material resources.
To this effect, government should not only be concerned with mobilization of these resources, but also ensuring that the same are not prudently used for the betterment of the education sector.
It is of paramount importance that government creates systems of accountability and transparency so that tax payers are aware of the flow and usage of the resources in the education sector. As such, we implore government to undertake forensic audit on the Covid-funds directed towards education. In the first wave, government disbursed MK2.1 billion to schools to procure buckets and soaps. Under the recent Special Covid-19 Response Fund of MK17.5 billion, education was allocated with MK5 billion to among other things, drill 640 boreholes, procure 5000 chalk boards, procure PPEs for schools, recruit 3270 auxiliary teachers as well as procurement and erection of 266 tents for high enrolment primary schools, selected secondary schools and higher education institutions. It is also befitting for government to account for the procurement of 10, 000 tablet that were intended to be distributed to learners in rural primary schools during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
As the two-closure lapses, education institutions need to be properly guided on the way forward.
It is imperative that all decisions made by government should be strategic, pragmatic, comprehensive and clear.
Government needs to acknowledge this is not a fight it can win alone; it needs to provide the space for all stakeholders to work together. Therefore, a coordinated and comprehensive response is needed that is built on mutual partnership, openness, as well as fiduciary duty to the Malawian people. Timely announcement of government’s directive on the two-week closure is key for organized reopening of education institutions. Otherwise, Sunday announcement for reopening of schools the following day are chaotic and may pose gaps in the effective implementation of the enforced measures. In this sense, should government opt for reopening of schools based on evidence and data, we urge them to make the announcement latest by Friday this week to allow the school managers to plan ahead.
