By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, April 12, Mana: Central East Education Division (CEED) on Thursday awarded best students, teachers and schools in the 2022 and 2023 academic years at a ceremony that took place at Chankhanga Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in Kasungu.

During the award ceremony, Loyola Jesuits Secondary scooped the best school award for both academic years with its teachers dominating in the best teacher category for various subjects.

The Kasungu-based national school which registered 100 percent pass rate in the 2023 national examinations also had its head teacher Father Kenneth Simalawa declared best of best school managers alongside Abel Newa of Mponela CDSS.

In an interview, CEED Manager Billy Banda said the awards, which began in 2016 to motivate teachers and students so as to improve the division’s performance in national examinations, have started bearing fruits.

“At that time, we were on position five out of the six divisions in terms of performance. We quickly improved such that we were position one in 2021, then position two in 2022 and 2023, and our aim is that the division performance must be above the national average.

However, we have some problems in CDSSs because that is where we lack teaching and learning materials and even the resource envelope for managing those schools is low compared to the activities that have to be undertaken,” he said 

To further motivate the teachers, Banda said the Ministry of Education should combine both interviews and teacher performance in schools when promoting teachers instead of using interviews only “which make undeserving teachers to get promoted.”

Director in the Department of Teacher Education and Development, Zizwa Msukuma, said there is need to align individual teachers’ achievements to promotions so that excellence is awarded.

“The ministry is now introducing a Continuous Professional Development Model to ensure that only deserving teachers and those that achieve something as individuals are promoted,” Msukuma said.

He said awarding best performers in schools is another way of setting clear benchmarks that guide and enable schools to achieve the national education standards through positive competition.

Vincent Medson of Chipoka Secondary School and Odala Chafulumira of Robert Blake Secondary School won the best students awards for 2023 academic year after scoring nine points in the best six subjects, including English.

In the other categories, Mponela CDSS was declared the best CDSS for chalking a 71.6 per cent pass rate while Nkhotakota won the best conventional secondary school award with its 98.2 percent pass rate.

Winning schools received microscopes, beakers and flasks while individual winners went away with mattresses and blankets courtesy of Grey Matter, Copyright Society of Malawi and Malawi Secondary Schools Headteachers Association CEED chapter.