Government reverts to merit in secondary schools

Selection of students into public secondary schools will, with effect from the 2014/15 academic year which starts this September, be strictly on merit, government has said.

A press statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has underlined that admission of students in public secondary schools based on applications has been abolished.

“The ministry has reverted to the merit system of selecting students into public secondary schools to improve the efficiency of the system and more importantly to ensure high quality education and fairness to candidates,” reads in part the statement.

The statement adds that “following this policy shift, the ministry would like to urge all candidates who may not make it to public secondary schools through selection by merit to still pursue their education through the Open and Distance Learning mode available in most of our public secondary schools”.

The ministry has thus warned all head teachers and teachers of public secondary schools to desist from illegally admitting students in public secondary schools including their own wards.

Confirming the abolition of the policy, ministry spokesperson Rebecca Phwitiko said government wants to maintain the number of students in public schools as most of them have been enroling beyond capacity.

Phwitiko said the system will ensure high quality of education in Malawi.