Mzuzu Council fails to fulfil promise

Mzuzu City Council (MCC) has failed to live up to its promise of constructing at least a teacher’s house at Mchengautuwa Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) built by Press Trust.

MCC pledged during the ground breaking ceremony of the K100 million ($167 224) school structures earlier this year to construct a head teacher’s house. But when trustee Tony Kandiero handed over the school to government on Friday, it was learnt that the council is yet to construct the house due to financial constraints.

This has affected some teachers at the school opened in September 2015, who have to travel for over 10 kilometres.

MCC chief executive officer Mcloud Kadam’manja said the council needs at least K1 billion ($1.7 million) to construct teachers’ houses in almost all schools in the city.

He said the council is failing to achieve that because Local Development Fund (LDF) has been scaled down.

“The time we were making the pledge, we were banking on LDF. But LDF has now been scaled down. There was a component in it for at least five teachers’ houses. That component is not given any more, which has put us in a fix,” he said.

Kadam’manja assured concerned parties that the council will find other means to source funds for the house.

Northern Region education division manager Pauper Mkandawire said lack of teachers’ houses at the school has affected teachers in offering quality education.

“Some of the teachers come from as far as Nkhorongo and Luwinga [about 10 kilometres away]. We need teachers on campus to offer protection to the students,” he said.

Mkandawire said the new school has helped them increase selection of primary school learners. At least 50 more learners were selected from various primary schools in the city this year.