Acting Project Manager of Girls Get Equal at Plan International Malawi Jasson Chandhla speaking on Saturday in Mulanje during a bursary meeting said despite the K5 million constituency bursary fund, many needy students are one the verge of dropping out of school due to lack of school fees.

“We have also noted that the process of identification of needy students has a lot of discrepancies and there is need to include school structures such as mother groups, School Management Committees and Parents and Teachers Associations in the process,” said Chandhla.   

Parliamentarian for Mulanje West Constituency Yusuf Nthenda said the 5% which is K5 million for bursary from their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) needs to be revised upwards as school fees have increased and the number of needy students is increasing every year.

“While the NGOs are doing a great job in withdrawing children from early marriages and encouraging them to go back to school, they should also set aside some funds for school fees for these children,” said Nthenda.

Group Village headman Misomali from Phalombe district said the constituency bursary fund should be open for businesspersons and individuals of good will to put their resources and support more needy students.

“We have more children in need of school fees and to assist them, we need to expand the resource envelope through different resource mobilization initiatives,” said GVH Misomali. 

Five legislators, chiefs and children from Mulanje and Phalombe districts attended the meeting.