Government is yet to pay about K3.9 billion in honoraria arrears to at least 9 000 adult literacy instructors, accumulated between 2017 and 2019.

Besides demanding their arrears, the instructors also want a hike in their honoraria, currently at K15 000 a month.

Government raised the honoraria in 2017 from K1 000 to K15 000 and asked the instructors to have bank accounts.

In an interview yesterday, an instructor from Thyolo, Luka Mawindo, said government did not pay him for 29 months from 2017 to 2019.

He said government started paying him K15 000 in 2019, but without his arrears.

“As it is, government owes me about K450 000. We have run out of options on how we can recover the arrears,” said Mawindo.

An adult literacy class in session

Another instructor Robert Kazisonga, from Dowa, said when they engaged the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, they were told that the ministry was conducting a head count to ascertain the number of instructors.

“What kind of verification exercises takes four years?” he wondered.

The ministry’s spokesperson Fred Simwaka admitted that government owes the instructors their money.

“It is true that we owe them money, but what happened was that when their honoraria were increased, there was an arrangement to put them on the payroll because they are volunteers,” he said.

Simwaka said with advice from the Department of Human Resource Management amd Development (DHRMD), they embarked on a verification exercise in 2020 which is yet to be completed.

In a separate interview, DHRMD spokesperson Kennie Mtonga asked for more time before responding to the issue.

But education activist Limbani Nsapato said government’s failure to honour the arrears will demotivate the instructors.

He said: “I am aware that for some time, government has failed to honour payment of honoraria to the instructors, which is unfortunate and will demotivate the instructors.

“We appeal to government to address the problem and pay them as soon as possible.”

According to 2018 Malawi Housing and Population Census about 4.7 million people in the country are illiterate.

However, adult learning and education is least funded of all education sub-sectors. This is according to DVV International, a German organisation that offers technical support to government on adult literacy education.

In an interview, DVV International communications officer for Southern Africa Dyson Nthawanji said funding for adult literacy education has been less than one percent of the education sector budget.

“In the past five years, funding declined from K309 million in 2017/18 to about K104 million in 2020/21 averaging just 0.16 percent of the whole education sector budget,” he said.

Between 2010 and 2017, there were over 10 000 adult literacy training centres in the country with an average of 25 learners per class. n

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