Auxiliary Teachers to afford a smile as government increases honorarium.

In an effort to improve the welfare of primary school teachers in the country, the government of Malawi through Malawi Education Reform Program, (MERP)  has set to increase honorarium for Auxiliary Teacher, (ATs) from MK80, 000 to MK120,000  when recruiting them in the 2024/2025 academic calendar.

In an exclusive interview with our reporters Ministry of education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonela said , apart from recruiting teachers, MERP has several components including; School Leadership Programme (SLP) that targets 10, 600 school learders across the country, School Improvement Grant (SIG),  1,000 sanitary rooms, 2,605 learner mentors (role model female teachers) Common Zonal Tests among many, aimed at improving primary education.

He saud the programme is also aimed at ensuring that standards on teacher-pupil ratio is met as at primary school, a teacher is supposed to handle 60 learners representing a 1:60 ratio.

According to the Ministry, 2024 academic calendar is therefore expected to recruit 4,200 auxiliary teachers which are going to be deployed in all the six education divisions and to all the primary schools in the 34 education district.

The program is being implemented through government of Malawi with funding from World Bank and the Global Partnership on Education.