TUM applauds Joyce Banda over teachers’ promotion

The Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) on Monday applauded President Joyce Banda for promoting over 16, 000 teachers across the country.
Speaking to journalists at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on the sidelines of audience TUM members had with President Banda, TUM President Dennis Kalekeni expressed gratitude to the  President for considering teachers’ welfare, saying promotions motivate employees resulting in good service delivery among teachers.
“As you might be aware, TUM held a number of meetings with the President personally regarding a number of issues concerning teachers’ welfare.

TUM Executive board members meet with President Dr. Joyce Banda for thanksgiving at Kamuzu Palace

“It is pleasing that as we came here today to meet the President, a number of issues that were raised for her attention and intervention have actually been addressed to the satisfaction of the Union’s leadership as well as teachers out there,” Kalekeni said.
Kalekeni further explained that government so far has also raised hardship allowance meant for rural teachers from K5, 000 to K10, 000, saying this would help rural schools in having required number of qualified teachers as they would be willing to teach there with the monetary motivation.
“Let me also expressed my gratitude to government for increasing the hardship allowance from K5, 000 to K10, 000 to enable those that are teaching in rural areas to be motivated as well and deliver good services,” he explained.
He, however, asked government to do more in terms of rectifying some of the problems encountered by teachers in the country such as paying teachers on time, settle their outstanding arrears and remittances to Saccos, micro-finance as well as TUM should be done in time.
Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Lucious Kanyumba, hailed TUM for their initiative to meet the President and voice out their grievances, saying round table discussions help in resolving problems at hand.
Kanyumba explained that some of the problems TUM raised during subsequent meetings they had with the President were looked into, saying the remaining ones would soon be resolved as well citing constriction of teachers’ houses, school-blocks and teachers training colleges (TTC) among others.
“It was a fruitful meeting between TUM members and the President and they thanked State President for her timely interventions to address some of the challenges met by teachers in the country.
“Government and TUM are happy with the strides made so far in addressing these problems to ensure that teachers’ welfare is taken into account in order to deliver good services,” Kanyumba explained.

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