Minister of Education, Science and Technology Dr William Susuwele-Banda says the Form One second selection was strictly based on merit principal in all categories of secondary schools.
The Form One second selection has raised curiosity among Malawians including a grouping called Quota Must Fall Movement which advocates for the abolition of quota system of selecting students to public universities.
Susuwele told members of the press on Friday that 125 students were selected to National Secondary Schools, 3,105 students were selected to other Conventional Secondary Schools and 14,381 students were selected into Community Day Secondary Schools.
He said economic and proximity principles were not considered in the selection.
“All the students that qualified into the National Secondary Schools were allocated to the schools based on vacancies declared in the national secondary schools regardless of where they come,” the minister said.
Susuwele added that students were not confined to their education division but spread to other divisions for the purpose of building national unity.
He highlighted that for District Boarding Secondary Schools, students in the District filled the spaces within the District where as Conventional Day and Community Day Secondary Schools, students from feeder schools within the community were considered as the case has been.
Susuwele said out of a total of 54 vacancies that were available for girls in National Secondary Schools in six education divisions, five of the divisions except Shire Highlands Education Division contributed to the national girls’ selection.
He said out of 71 vacancies for boys in the National Secondary Schools, three out of the six education divisions contributed to the selection of boys into National Secondary Schools.
“The three divisions which did not contribute to the National Secondary Schools selection are South East Education Division (SEED), Central East Education Division (CEED) and Northern Education Division (NED),” Susuwele added.
