Ntchisi District Council reprimands 13 teachers
Ntchisi District Council has fired 10 primary school teachers and interdicted three others for alleged negligence of duty and breaching professional ethics within the past two years.
The district’s education manager Ronnex Banda brought the issue to light on Wednesday during a District Education Network meeting where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dealing in education presented their 2023 quarterly reports.
He said the reprimanded teachers were involved in excessive alcohol drinking while others were indulging in sexual relationships with learners.
Banda said the disciplinary action was the council’s way of showing commitment to achieving sanity, quality and relevance in the district’s education sector.
He said: “We also have a case where one teacher allegedly participated in exhumation of a body of a person with albinism.
“He is serving interdiction while awaiting court clearance. I have brought up this issue because we, as a council, do not condone acts of negligence and we need to move together [with NGOs] to enforce sanity in our district’s education sector.”
District Education Network chairperson Ruth Magonah acknowledged the need for regular submission of reports, saying it was the best way for the respective NGOs to work in unison with the council.
Among the NGOs present was Forum for African Women Educationists in Malawi, who initiated the meeting with funding from Global Affairs Canada through Canadian Organisation for Development through Education.
The District Education Network member organisations also highlighted poverty-induced child labour and early marriages as key challenges to their interventions, saying the two factors have proved to be leading factors of high dropout rates in primary schools.
Ntchisi is not the first council to discipline teachers as Mangochi dis the same in 2021.
