Dr. Susuwele Banda said this in reaction to calls from some Civil Society Organizations to government to re-open schools for examinations administered by Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB).

“As government we value lives of citizens than examinations, “said Susuwele Banda.

He said his ministry is following a presidential directive of restricting gatherings to less than 100 people issued on 13th March, 2020 and he said closure of both public and private schools is one of preventive measures to the spread of corona virus.

Dr. Susuwele Banda said this at Luchenza and Mulanje Secondary Schools on Thursday when opening a   day long managerial training for secondary school head teachers from Shire Highlands Education Division.

About the training, the minister said as managers, head teachers need to have skills of managing misunderstandings between teachers and learners that of late have been igniting riots in some schools.

“We have witnessed violence in secondary schools like Thyolo, Lunzu, Blantyre Secondary just to mention a few and what we established is that managing misunderstandings between teachers and learners has been a challenge and we are sure that through this training, head teachers will now have skills of resolving such misunderstandings,” said Susuwele Banda

Shire Highlands Education Division Manager Evelyn Njima said the training will help instill discipline among learners and teachers in the division.

“SHED has been doing well in performance of both teachers and learners as evidenced by performance of learners at MSCE but what we want is to have head teachers with managerial skills,” said Njima.

A total of 108 head teachers attended the training.