Adult Literacy Instructors owed K3.3bn allowances

Over 9,000 Adult Literacy Instructors are still waiting to receive their 2018 honoraria allowances from government, parliament committee on social and community affairs has revealed.

It is reported that each teacher was supposed to get a K15,000 allowance pre month but they were not paid for 12 months.

One of the victims, Mebo Noah from Mayani in Dedza district said she is slowly losing hope if she will ever receive her money as authorities keep on changing time for them to receive their allowances.

Noah said after working on voluntary basis as an adult literacy instructor in 2018 she was told that the government wanted to start paying them K15,000 allowances per month and were given forms to sign.

“I only received my six-month allowances but to my surprise, when I went to the bank to get my money in the seventh month, I was told that there was no money in my account and I was told to consult my bosses.

“I then went to visit my supervisor at the gender office in the district and I was told that my name was not part of names that were meant to receive the allowances. The supervisor was however not clear whether I was supposed to continue or stop teaching,” Noah narrated.

She added that together with her friends, she kept on visiting the office and they were just told that they would be paid but to no avail.

Commenting on the development, chairperson for the parliamentary social and community affairs committee Savel Kafwafwa described the development as sad adding that it is retarding the development of Adult Literacy Education in the country.

He however observed that the adult and early education sectors are the ones lacking behind due to improper funding.

“It is not about where the sector is placed, whether gender or education, but is a question of commitment in terms of funding. Shifting the responsibility of these two sectors to education ministry cannot solve anything if funding gaps are not looked into” said Kafwafwa.