Take responsibility,Chakwera tells Malawians

President Lazarus Chakwera has asked Malawians to take responsibility for their actions, saying that is a sign of passing a test of character.

The President said this in Kasungu on Saturday when he presided over the commemoration of 40th anniversary of Kamuzu Academy (KA).

Chakwera said taking responsibility for oneself is not easy, but no nation can be built without that foundation.

He said: “As a nation, we cannot have good media if our schools do not produce journalists who regard what they write as a sacred responsibility, we cannot have good healthcare if our schools do not produce doctors who regard their patients as a sacred responsibility.

“We cannot have good government if our schools do not produce public servants who regard the public office as a sacred responsibility.  We cannot have good roads if our schools do not produce engineers who regard the lives of motorists as a sacred responsibility.

“I submit to you that if you come out of this school having not learnt what your responsibilities are or having not learnt to take care of those responsibilities or failing to attain to your responsibilities, then you will come out having learnt nothing.”

He said Malawians’ continued failure to be responsible for themselves is what has destroyed the society even now as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic.

The President said there are many examples of good things in the country that dutybearers provided, but people are not responsible enough to put them to good use.

Speaking earlier, KA board of governors chairperson Francis Perekamoyo said the board of the school always ensures that it preserves the philosophy of the school.

“The philosophy of Kamuzu Academy is to achieve academic excellence and to educate the whole person. The board of governance, therefore, oversees and ensures that the philosophy is achieved and realised at all costs,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Education Madalitso Wirima Kambauwa said the wish of the founder of the school was to create a garden of learning, saying the institution has produced high profile people, including Cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, High Court of Malawi judges, pilots and many other professionals.

The school has over 600 students and about 50 teachers.

KA Founder’s Day falls on November 21, but was commemorated a day earlier.

Dubbed ‘The Eton of Africa’, the education institution was established by Malawi’s founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda in 1981 and modelled on the Eton College in England.