Government says there is need to carry out thorough consultations on calls by some Members of Parliament (MPs) to have the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) examination fees scrapped off.

Currently, for students pay exam fees in order to sit for the national examinations.

But commenting on the proposal, Minister responsible for Education Agnes NyaLonje said there is need to conduct a thorough research before the decision is considered.

She said: “Our stance is that it is a key question that needs consultation and you may be aware that MANEB actually has a system whereby they have a standard set of stakeholders.

The process of managing examinations depends on the money that the government gives towards this but also the contribution from candidates themselves.”

NyaLonje added that there are fears that if there won’t be enough consultation, the decision can have a negative impact on quality of the examinations.

“That will affect the projections that have already been made and that will affect the whole process and quality of examinations and the giving of those examinations will be affected,” NyaLonje said.

“So my Ministry would like to take a very procedural way of doing it through consultations so that we hear each other because at the end of the day is recognising that examinations have a cost.”

Meanwhile, candidates from primary to secondary throughout some colleges pay examination fees to be administered the national examinations.