Ministry seeks to reduce teacher to pupil ratio

In a bid to reduce the high teacher to pupil ratio in primary schools, Minister of Education, Science and Technology (Moest) Bright Msaka says the ministry plans to construct more teacher’s training colleges (TTCs) to train more teachers.

He also said the ministry will be hiring graduating teachers to ensure that there are enough qualified teachers in primary schools.

Speaking yesterday during a ground-breaking ceremony for Chikwawa Teacher’s Training College, Msaka said he was concerned with the challenges teachers in public primary schools face in managing huge numbers of learners.

“Government is, from this year, starting to construct three colleges. This one here, another one in Mchinji and another in Rumphi. Every year, about 1 800 teachers will be graduating from these three colleges and this will help reduce teacher: pupil ratio from the current 1: 75, which is very high,” he said.

Msaka said the recommended ratio is 1:60.

He further said his ministry is discussing with Treasury to have all graduating teachers hired and receiving salaries in the first month of employment.

Msaka said last August the ministry hired 9 630 primary school teachers.

“We are also working on rectifying some of the challenges faced by teachers including issues of leave grant arrears, promotion arrears and salary delays,” explained the minister.

Chikwawa Central legislator Zaheer Issa hailed the ministry for implementing the project in the district, saying the college will help enhance education standards in the district and create jobs for locals.

In his remarks, the area’s Traditional Authority Katunga encouraged parents to send children to school so that they become useful citizens in future.

Funded by Arab Bank for International Development in Africa (Badea), Saudi Fund for Development and Opec Fund for International Development (Ofid), the K8.5 billion ($11.62 million) Chikwawa TTC project will be completed in two years’  time.

Currently, Malawi has eight TTCs.