Govt to build over 1,000 teachers houses

Teachers across the country may temporarily
forget about the K700 million salary arrears government owes them
following news that government plans to build houses for them from the
US$50 million (about K7 billion) World Bank loan that was signed
Tuesday.
After signing the agreement, Finance Minister Goodall
Gondwe said: “We expect to build about 1,000 houses but the number
could be more if the communities have the initiative and we build the
houses with the assistance from Masaf”.
The US$50 million is from
the International Development Association (IDA) to support the second
phase of Masaf 3 which is expected to run from end 2008 to 2013.
Gondwe
said if communities have plans and need support in terms of cement or
other building materials, “then we will be able to help and more houses
will be built if we did this”.
The Teachers Union of Malawi (Tum)
yesterday commended government for the move as it will help attract
more teachers to work in rural areas.
“This is a very, very good
news because teachers in rural areas are suffering so much in terms of
housing ....This is one of the reasons apart from other working
conditions that discourage many teachers from staying in rural
communities,” said Tum secretary-general Dennis Kalekeni.
World Bank country manager Timothy Gilbo said the implementation of the project will differ from previous Masaf programmes.
“Whereas
the previous Masaf programmes were implemented partly by local
authorities and partly by the Masaf secretariat, this time Local
Assemblies will take full control over the execution of the Masaf 3
funded activities,” said Gilbo.
A statement from the World Bank said
Masaf 3 will use experiences from the first phase of Masaf 3 which
ended on June 30, 2008. The second phase will aim to reach the poor
with public works earnings, infrastructure improvements, savings
mobilisation, public and social accountability tools, in the context of
increased local governance and public sector management.