The Independent Schools Association of Malawi (ISAMA) has challenged government’s decision for form four students not to pay school fees ahead of the MSCE examinations retake.

This comes as the Ministry of Education has outlined measures to be followed as form four students head to school from 28th December.

One of the measures is that schools should not demand fees from students.

However, ISAMA President Joseph Patel has said that they want the students to pay 20 percent of their school fees.

Patel has also said that they had initially agreed with government that students in private schools should be paying 20 percent from their initial fees.

He said they are now surprised that government has made a different directive.

Patel vowed to again engage government to address the situation which he dubs as ‘ erroneous’.

Form form students had a rude awakening earlier this month when a massive leakage of examinations papers led to a cancellation of the national examinations.

They were initially due to re-sit in March next year, but President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera described the time frame as too long.

He then ordered that the examinations be written not later than January.

Credit: MIJ