By Fostina Mkandawire
Malawi President Professor Arthur
Peter Mutharika on Tuesday called upon members of the clergy, Traditional
Leaders and Civil Society organizations to unite in bringing peace in the
country.
Mutharika was speaking at the official ground-breaking ceremony of the precursed
$90million Secondary Education Expansion For Development (SEED) program Kawale
Community Day Secondary School and later in the day at Kamuzu Institute
for Sports in Lilongwe.
The President’s call comes amid political tension in the country since May 21
elections which has seen some people violently demonstrating against his
victory as declared by MEC.
Mutharika said it was high time the country united to develop the country
inspite of political differences.
He said destroying the country in the name of punishing him, was not a good
idea because the country does not belong to him but to all Malawians.
He said Malawians should love one another, because they are one, and that they
are all God’s Children.
He said demolishing shops, schools, and torching cars will not solve anything
rather it will only retard the country.
“Destroying roads, schools, hospitals and other people’s houses will not
solve anything in the country, rather we should unite and forget our
differences,” he said.
Through the SEED project with Financial assistance from USAID, 250 schools will
be constructed across the country.
Mutharika said it would be sad to see people destroying the newly constructed
schools and therefore warned everyone with ill intentions to avoid such malicious
acts.
“The schools are meant to improve education quality in the country and
that our children should not learn under trees,” he said.
He said out of 100 percent of pupils who seat for Primary School Leaving
Certificate only 36 percent are selected to secondary schools describing the
scenario as an error that needs to be corrected.
He said the goal of his government was to improve education quality in the
country saying that is the reason he is prioritising the construction of
secondary schools and community colleges across the country.
Earlier at the ground breaking ceremony at Kawale Community Day Secondary
School in Lilongwe, His Excellency the United States Ambassador to
Malawi, Robert Scott said 96 new classrooms will be constructed in 30 existing
urban Secondary Schools in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu.
“We will also construct up to 200 new community Day Secondary Schools in
rural areas in every district in Malawi,” he said.
” We want to increase access to secondary school nationwide by as much as
20 percent, the compelling idea is that improved access to secondary school
significantly improves education and key health outcomes,” he said.
Scott said the world will be watching as the US Government works together with
the Malawi Government to test the innovative approach and the transformative
work of the SEED program take place in the country.-MANA