If there is one thing that northern region will stand up for Chakwera and vote for him again is the abolishment of quota system that was being used by the previous regimes to select students into the public universities as the north regarded that as a tool of denying them a right to education as enshrined in Section 25(1) which says that; all persons are entitled to education.
The quota system, which is based on students’ district of origin, rather than merit alone, has been used for nearly a decade and acted as a form of affirmative action for students from the country’s central and southern regions due to their perceived regional underrepresentation at universities.
However, some academics, clergymen and political activists had described this discriminatory against northerners where the minority Tumbuka are based but the then ruling party could not take the advice. The Livingstiania Synod was the crusaders of urging Mtumbuka people and other northern folks to not vote for any party that was for quota system.
The opposition under the leadership of President Dr Lazarus Chakwera campaigned against this perceived discrimination and promised to end the quota system once voted into power and the people of the north overwhelmingly voted for repealing of the policy through their vote on the ballot box. At the end tumbuka people teamed up and purged DPP out of government.
“In secondary education, the president promised the removal of the quota system of selecting students. He said, “I want to assure all Malawians that while the previous administration made sure that its quota system was gone, my administration will make sure that it is dead, said Chakwera in one of his SONA speeches and that has been fulfilled.
“This system was discriminatory. Some students with 10 points were not taken because they came from North and yet someone from Mangochi with 21 points could be taken to study Agriculture Economics at LUANAR. This was total discrimination and tribalism and we thank Chakwera for ending the bad governance and blatant disregard of law of law, said Ceaser Kondowe an expert in social economics.
