The National Registration Bureau (NRB) is yet to pay some teachers in Karonga district who were hired to carry out child registration exercise in the just ended national child mass registration exercise.
NRB which is under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security hired primary school teachers as registration officers through the Ministry of Education and promised them a sum of MK40,000 each as allowance for their entire exercise.
However, the teachers have not received their allowances as agreed days after the exercise came to an end in the development, a development which has angered the teachers.
According to one of the teachers who opted for anonymity, both NRB and Ministry of education officials are not coming out clear on the date when they will pay the teachers their allowances.
“When the NRB officials are asked they always said the money was being processed,” said one of the teachers, adding that “We were being treated as slaves throughout the exercise; we were left without food the whole day not even a bottle of water.”
As not enough, Education authorities from the district through Primary School Education Advisor (PEA) recently summoned the teachers at Rukuru Teachers Development Centre (TDC) were they were shouted at for asking for their allowances.
The authorities further threatened to dismiss any teacher who will keep on complaining about the allowances and slavery treatment they suffered under NRB and Ministry of education officials.
“Is this the improved welfare the ministry of education promised its teachers? Are we still in the one party era where people should not express their grievances in the fear of losing their jobs? Has slavery come back in Malawi where people will work neither without being paid nor given food?” lamented one of the concerned Teachers
Both National Registration Bureau and Ministry of education officials are yet to comment on the development.
NRB carried out mass child birth registration campaign from October 24 to November 4, 2022 targeting over 600,000 children under the age of 16 in Lilongwe Rural East, Karonga and Mwanza districts.
