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(NYASATIMES) Opposition leader throws weight behind education quota system

Opposition leader throws weight behind education quota system
By Nyasa Times
Published: March 29, 2010

Malawi’s Leader of Opposition in Parliament Ephraim Abele Kayembe has said his official position on the government education quota system policy is that he supports it.

The quota system of selecting students into public universities based on a minimum number of places plus on merit in each district has raised heated debate and controversy.

“I decided to consider all factors that could be looked at before taking an official position on this system as leader of opposition. I also wanted to consult widely with the public and all relevant stakeholders on the issue so that I can competently gauge the feeling of the majority of Malawians on the issue,” said Kayembe in a statement.

“While I would not like to say with confidence that this system of ensuring that educational opportunities are equitably available for all Malawians in this country is the best long-term option for the nation, I would say the picture looks good when we consider it at national level.

“When we go a bit deeper to consider that some districts have invested more in education and that they have developed more vested interests, then comes issues of differences in achievements,” he said.

The opposition leader said while he had no specific statistics to back up or reject quota system of selecting students into universities, consultation with some relevant stakeholders revealed to him that the majority of Malawians were in support of this system.

“Of course there is a feeling in some communities that this system will aggrieve certain students and/or individuals as they believe that they will be marginalized.

“But I hold the view that such fears are not necessarily founded since they may originate from common beliefs that may not be supported by evidence. Generally, there is a feeling that we should learn to share the small cake that we have and therefore I am in support of this policy,” Kayembe said.

He, however, said that the government policy required regular reviews during implementation so that Malawians were able to understand its impact, both beneficial and adverse.

“It should be a system that is subject to review and redesign based on evaluation,” he said.

“To avoid misunderstanding this policy issue, I think it should not be termed as quota system; it is in fact education opportunity rationalisation across the country aimed at providing more opportunities for all to achieve equity in accessing higher or university education,” he said.

Government, however, calls quota system “equitable access to University Education.”

“A rigorous regular appraisal of the system should be put in place in order to assess its impact on all Malawians. Results of such appraisal should be shared transparently with all stakeholders and groups with specific vested interests,” Kayembe said.

He said the reviews would inform the nation whether indeed the system was marginalising some groups in Malawi.

“I wish to suggest that we take an inclusive approach towards implementing this system. The system may be called ‘Rationalisation and Equitable access to University Education’,” he said

He suggested that the system should ensure that all universities should be involved in the system, be it government, private or church- aided and that 10 students per district on merit at that district level.

“The rest of places should be left in the pool for a normal nationwide merit system.

“The areas that are failing the most are the rural schools in Central and Southern regions of Malawi and there will be need for government to invest in the development of educational improvement to ensure that we can after say six years go back to the nationwide pool selection,” he said.

He said the investment should focus on three key areas: improving accommodation for both teachers and quality of classroom space; inspection regimes to ensure that teachers are doing their jobs and to develop a nationwide strategy for training and deploying home/ school liaison officers who must be piloted in the centre and south to encourage parents to get involved and support the education of their child, not with just the school fees, but with moral and motivation support as well.

“We need to create a relationship between the parents and the school, so that the days when pupils are closing schools and getting their results, these must be celebration days where parents are also invited to attend and cheer their children as they get results.

“As a nation, we should not be seen to be weakening the strong, but strengthening the weak as one singer has recently said. No system of selecting students to universities will be perfect; there will always be room for improvement based on facts and evidence, hence the need for regular review of the system so as to assess its impact,” Kayembe said.

Labels: EDUCATION, ELIMINATION EXAMS

posted by MrK @ 3:13 PM