By Mphatso Nkuonera, Ministry of Education PRO
Chiefs and villagers from Sub Traditional Authority M’ndola in NkhataBay thronged the Ministry of Education headquarters in Lilongwe in order to force Government to change its decision to handover Chimbota Girls Secondary School to its former owners.
Last year, Chimbota Community Development Organization handed over the school to Government to run it as a Community Day Secondary School, but Government turned it into a boarding secondary school for girls in the district due to a lack of feeder schools.
The organization’s Executive Director, Kelvin Troughton, however, wants his school back to run it as a private entity.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday after meeting the Secretary for Education and other senior officials, Chief Katema, real name Faith Kamanga, said that people from the surrounding communities are challenging Government’s decision to surrender the school back to Chimbota Community Development Organization, who they said previously failed to run the school.
She said, “Kelvin already failed to run the school due to financial challenges, and handed it over to Government to run it. Since then, things have been going very well because it was turned into a full boarding school for girls from Nkhata Bay.
“It is very disheartening, now, to learn that he wants to take back ownership of the school. We don’t want this to happen. He informed us chiefs and the villagers that he had no resources to pay teachers and provide any other needs.”
One of the concerned parents who accompanied the chiefs from Nkhata Bay, Modester Banda, said that parents are concerned that their children who study at the school will be transferred to other schools if the Government does not rescind its decision.
“Under the leadership of Mr Kelvin and his organisation, there were numerous problems because our children walked long distances and there was no security for them.
“When the Government was engaged to run the school, things changed completely because our children had adequate security and this prevented the learners from indulging in malpractices that could hinder them from proceeding with education. People from Chimbota are not expecting to face these problems again,” said Banda.
Secretary for Education, Chikondano Mussa, confirmed hosting the Nkhata Bay chiefs and told this reporter that the Ministry of Education will look into the concerns raised by the communities.
“I can confirm that chiefs and community members from Nkhata Bay visited us and have so far written the Ministry in protest of the Government’s decision to return Chimbota Girls Secondary School to its former owners as indicated in the letter we sent to Mr. Kelvin Troughton and his organisation.
“Government’s stand is that the Ministry will look into the matter by conducting consultations for further advice. Meanwhile, the Government will proceed to transfer the students and staff to other schools as earlier communicated,” Mussa said.
During the meeting, chiefs also told Ministry officials that Troughton has thrice failed to show up for dialogue between his organisation and the community to amicably resolve the wrangles.
