The Malawi Union of the Blind (MUB) has asked government to exercise fairness when distributing learning materials for the recently introduced curriculum for secondary schools.

MUB Executive Director, Ezekiel Kumwenda, said although the Ministry of Education has started distributing new books to institutions but materials for the visually impaired students, such as braille, remains a challenge, a development which will negatively affect the students during the examinations.

Kumwenda said: “We have been engaging the Ministry of Education to consider people with visual impairment especially on braille materials but we still have challenges as the materials are inadequate.”

He further observed that other students are given more priorities than the visual impaired and pleaded with the ministry to “share the cake equally” to all learners regardless of physical status.

He however expressed fear that more visually impaired students might perform badly in their examination because the examiners will not consider the availability of resources to particular institutions when forming the examinations.

Recently, Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) and Members of Parliament who are currently deliberating in Lilongwe, took the government to task over the delay to supply books for the new school secondary school curriculum in schools across the country.

About one term and seven weeks have passed after the government introduced the new curriculum for secondary schools but most institutions are yet to receive new books for the new initiative.

Government with a K 7 billion funding from African Development Bank awarded a tender to ICTC Malawi and Mallory-Maneno to supply textbooks for the new curriculum.