TTC hostels, staff houses held hostage

A K1.3 billion payment dispute has left seven completed hostels at Mchinji TTC locked by the contractor, forcing the college to train 210 fewer student-teachers a year and derailing efforts to meet global education standards. The college currently accommodates just over 400 student-teachers against a planned capacity of 600. Seven completed hostel blocks remain withheld by the contractor, according to both the Ministry of Education and the contractor S.R.

Nicholas, denying space to 210 additional trainees each year. Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Ken Ndala confirmed in writing that completed structures remain with the contractor due to outstanding payments. “The Ministry owes the contractor some resources for the completed works.

The amount may not be disclosed as this is a contractual issue between the contractor and client,” Ndala said. A source in the Ministry of Education at Capital Hill said the outstanding amount hovers around K1.3 billion, including accrued interest. “We have also faced losses from other government contracts where we finished the work and were never paid… We are not prepared to find ourselves in the same situation,” he said.

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The impasse comes as Malawi’s public primary schools struggle with overcrowding far above both national and international standards. The 2024 Education Management Information System report puts Malawi’s pupil-to-qualified-teacher ratio in public primary schools at 64:1. That is above the Ministry of Education’s own benchmark of 60:1, and 50 percent above the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) recommended standard of 40:1 for quality basic education.

With 5.2 million learners in public primary schools, Weekend Nation illustrative calculations show that Malawi requires an estimated 86 667 qualified teachers to meet the national 60:1 ratio. To meet the international 40:1 standard, the requirement rises to 130 000 teachers, our illustrative calculations show, further establishing that at current staffing of about 74 000, there is a gap of 12 667 against national targets and 56 000 against international benchmarks. Education analysts say losing 210 training spaces annually at Mchinji alone sets back progress toward both benchmarks at a time enrolment continues to rise. Education governance expert Limbani Nsapato called for urgent intervention to resolve the impasse.

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