Steve Sharra

I would like to preface the thoughts by offering my deepest condolences to the families of the Malawians, many of them reported to be children, who were killed

When he officially opened Malawi’s newest teacher training college, Chiradzulu TTC, on 16 September, Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika said something that, if he does not follow up on it with action, might shadow his legacy in Malawian education.

The drama of the ICC’s determination to arrest Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir manifested itself exactly three weeks after the commemoration of this year’s Africa Day. That fact epitomises the thorny, rocky road Africa’s renewal will have to go through.

There are good reasons why many Malawians are happy with the new policy for English to be the language of instruction in Malawian public schools. We Malawians use proficiency in spoken and written English as a product of a good education.

Remarks made recently by 2014 presidential aspirant Hon. Atupele Muluzi on the United Democratic Front’s plans to explore the possibility of providing free secondary school education when elected stirred a hornet’s nest. The remarks were reported in The Daily Times of Wednesday 6 March.

In its editorial of Thursday 29 November, The Nation newspaper expressed alarm at the revelation that Malawi’s education sector was performing worse than our neighbours.

The story of 12 year-old John Sampson was so compelling I decided I would share it with a group of young Malawians I was meeting on 17 November. In case you haven’t heard his story, which made headlines around the world last week, let me briefly tell you who this young man is.

Recent media reports indicate that just before the University of Malawi released its selection list for the 2012/2013 academic year in October, the Malawi government had contemplated ending the quota system of selection into public universities.

I learned with great shock, on Friday night, 14 September, that Hastings Maloya is no more. Malawi has lost a young, unique, dynamic citizen who combined a passion for the environment, a zeal for communication and a love for conservation.

Questions about dead presidents’ legacies are best left to historians writing a generation removed. But for the late Malawian President Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika, we can be sure of a few things that will be part of his national and international memory.