The Centre for Democracy and Economic development Initiatives (CDEDI) has expressed its disappointment over the cancellation of this year’s Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) on grounds that it was leaked.
According to Sylvester Namiwa, CDEDI executive Director has said it is not pleased with how government has handled the issue at the same time stressing that CDED would not condone any examination malpractice.
“It is worth noting right at the onset that CDEDI is not and would not condone any examination malpractices,” Namiwa said.
He added; “However, CDEDI is disappointed with the way government has handled the whole scenario as it was highly emotive, hence the students had no choice but to resort to widespread protests,”
Namiwa further added that the decision made by the minister of education Agnes Nyalonje and authorities from the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) has left candidates, parents and guardians and educational stakeholders such as school owners with more questions than answers.
The statement further outlined points that CDEDI was expecting from the statement made by the mister of education, among others, CDEDI said they expected the minister to explain the factors that led to the leakage of the examinations and the consultative process that was used conducted in order to arrive at the decision to cancel the examinations.
Furthermore, CDEDI is demand that the minister should reveal “modalities that have been considered during the waiting period for the examinations to be re-administered” and the criteria that have been used to declare March 9, 2021 as the start date for re-administering the fresh MSCE examinations.
“A roadmap on how the school owners are to handle the process of re-administering the examinations from the time the candidates have been sent home, to the time they are expected to come back and sit for the examinations,” added the statement.
CDEDI further worried that it is very unfortunate that the incident happened a month after schools were opened from a long break due to Covid-19 pandemic which contributed to high school dropout rate of students especially girls, due to early marriages and teenage pregnancies.
“It is very likely that the cancellation of the 2020 MSCE examinations will result into more students’ drop-outs, a development that is very worrisome,” fears Namiwa.
Lastly, CDEDI appealed to Tonse Alliance government to embrace the spirit of “consulting widely on matters of national interest, and desist from making emotionally charged decisions, which are most often too costly to the taxpayers and hit the poor and the marginalized very hard”
