By Monica Tambala:
June 2016: “School director, arrested for duping form 4 students MK1 million meant for examination fees”.
February 2018: “Head Teacher slapped 7 years IHL for embezzling student’s examination fees.”
April 2018: “In for swindling MK1.2 million of student’s examination fees.”
June 2020: “Arrested for misappropriating over MK 4 million meant for examination fees.”
Such were familiar headlines before the Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) introduced the Electronic Registration and Electronic Payment (E-Registration and E-Payment) of examination fees which was launched on October 12, 2022.
The process of collecting money manually from students and keeping it until all students had paid was a long, tedious, tempting and challenging experience for some school management authorities who considered the task a great risk.
As headteacher for Dowa 2 Full Primary School, Thandi Wezi Banda laments; “My experience before E- payment was a bit tough because as Head, I had to keep examination money paid by learners for a long period of time while waiting for all of them to pay, it was a challenge because keeping huge amounts of money was very risky.”
Before E-registration, some schools had to draw free hand registration forms making sure they had enough copies to distribute to Director of Education Youth and Sports (DEYS) and MANEB which is now a thing of the past.
Mayani Secondary School Head Teacher and President of Malawi Secondary School Head Teachers Association (MASSA) for Dedza District, Joshua Nkhata recounts a similar ordeal at his school when it came to manual registration and payment of examination fees.
“Before the introduction of E- registration and Payment, it was tedious and costly work since we had a lot of money that was going towards stationery and transportation to and from MANEB offices.
“Some students also failed to pay within the time limit where as others failed to complete paying for their exams which the school had to pay on their behalf,” says Nkhata.
Nkhata also laments high rate of non-payment of examination fees by some external candidates who would register and not come to verify their subjects where as others registered without being ready as to which subjects they want to sit for.
“Most of these challenges have been addressed with the introduction of E-Registration and Payment, it has taken the burden from school leaders to process payment because it is now the guardians and parents who have taken up the task,” he said.
It was not only the school leadership who were weary of the work they had to do as parents and students also faced challenges when it came to trusting the authorities when many others were duping and lying going away with so much money which left the students stranded and unable to write exams nor access the results for those lucky enough to write.
Frank Kalimanjira who went to Hope Greenlight Secondary School in Lilongwe before enrolling with Lilongwe Technical College was not happy with the way individual schools could change examination fee payment deadlines at will ignoring the one officially set by MANEB.
He says the doctored deadlines gave unnecessary pressure to parents when set before, while some relaxed knowing the school would extend even if payments were not timely made.
“This E-method is better as compared to the previous one because I can pay for myself as a student and school authorities are not directly involved with the money unless otherwise which has reduced the number of examination fee theft,” Kalimanjira said.
Emmanuel Kalimanjira concurs with Frank Kalimanjira of area 38 Lilongwe saying he is happy that the Ministry of Education through MANEB launched the E-Payment method which has significantly reduced theft cases and many students are able to sit for the examinations which they paid for.
He says it was not only the school authorities who were at fault and hard to trust but parents were also unsure whether their children paid the money they were given by the parents.
“We were also worried and unsure if the children really paid because not all children are serious with their education, some would actually misuse the money for their own benefits which was a problem for us as parents to source funds to replace,
The new payment method is easier to use because I can easily go to the bank or use Airtel money, Mpamba and other methods at my convenience without going through so much trouble,” said Kalimanjira senior.
The E-registration and E-payment initiative began in 2021, but was launched on 12 October 2022 and is now being rolled out across the country.
According to Public Relations Officer for MANEB, Mayamiko Chiwaya, the migration was done to increase efficiency, effectiveness and accountability in the management of national examinations.
“There were some cumbersome processes which we had to deal away with such as, time consumed for schools to hand deliver registration data and errors made at the examination centres during registration of candidates of which remained despite data cleaning,” he explains.
He says the migration has so far reduced the anomalies by 90 per cent such that, they had minimal errors during registration and few cases of examination fees embezzlement.
“The embezzlement was due to the fact that some parents still handed over their wards examination fees to schools to pay to MANEB on their behalf which can be attributed to resistance to change or lack of mind-set change,” he says.
Center for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education Executive Director, Lucky Mbewe also commends MANEB for the system that is helping parents and improving accountability and transparency of funds.
“We need to move with technology in the 21st century otherwise issues of fraud, robbery and corruption have been a challenge when it came to administering examinations,
Moving forward, I would like to urge the board to consider engaging all learners through their school heads in order to address all challenges they face before closure of registration process knowing that any new system is bound to have challenges,” he said.
So far, the only challenge with the new system according to Headteachers, is the lack of a volume bundle for as the the E-methods are internet data dependent. The Parents have also asked the Malawi National Examinations Board to intensify sensitisation methods so that many parents are aware of the new payment methods to reduce avoidable anomalies.
Secretary for Education, Chikondano Mussa recently told the media that, the ministry is implementing a number of transformative initiatives which are aligned to the MW2063 agenda like the e-registration and e-payment at MANEB, recruitment of 4, 125 intern teachers, hiring of 2, 605 female role model teachers to promote girl education and construction of 10, 900 cost effective classrooms across the country among other numerous flagship development in the education sector, with financial support from Malawi Government, World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
