Education Deputy Minister, Patrick Ngoma, has described the forcing of pupils to drink urine in Western Province as inhuman, irresponsible and unacceptable.
Mr Ngoma said the government will not condone that kind of archaic and barbaric behaviour among by teachers.
He said the teachers, as mentors of the children, must be of exemplary conduct and warned that the government will not tolerate any lawlessness among this cadre of professionals.
He was speaking at Nchelenge Secondary School in Luapula Province when he officiated at the 2014 Luapula Province Sports Association Inter Districts Athletics Competitions on Sunday.
Mr Ngoma urged the teachers in the country to have the right attitude towards the pupils and help them to blossom into future leaders.
He said teachers are charged with the responsibility of mentoring the children and to force the pupils to drink urine is a serious violation of the children’s rights.
The deputy minister reminded the teachers to treat the children that they teach as their own and to respect the children’s rights.
However, Mr Ngoma has expressed his delight with teachers in Luapula Province for their sacrifice to serve in remote and hard to reach districts.
“I am happy that you are sacrificing and accepted to serve in the rural and hard to reach areas of the province to nurture children into leadership and productive citizens,” Mr Ngoma said.
He observed that many teachers, especially women, could have opted to work in towns but have demonstrated their desire to help the children in rural areas by accepting to serve in the province.
“Those of you that are contemplating to get transfers must postpone that intent and continue helping the pupils to become better citizens who will take up the reigns of leadership for this country,” he added.
Mr Ngoma said government was aware of the accommodation challenges that the teachers in rural areas are facing but was quick to say that his ministry was doing everything possible to address this problem.
He also said the government is improving the school standards through such interventions as upgrading of schools and the introduction of the new curriculum that provides for two pathways for the learners.
He further said that while the government was investing huge sums of money into education, the teachers must work to produce commensurate results at every grade.
ZANIS
News must be given in full, not dyonko! Give us more on the “urine drinking bit”.
Yes more basics ba LT. You don’t break a story with a reference to
another incident which you don’t explain. As readers we still need
the 5 W’s And H of western province teachers forcing pupils to drink
urine. The rule in journalism is that you don’t break a story if you
don’t have enough detail so you shouldn’t have told us about the
urine story if you don’t have all the facts. you should leave it to
those with facts to tell that story
Remember under Lenshina Chikamoneka , the faithful were made to drink urine. This was in northern province. now to turn history around and accuse Western Province of replacing tea with urine in secondary schools there is shocking.
lenshina chikamoneka? in Zed?
We havenever heard of such.Give us details ,otherwise such teachers must be given the boot immediately
Don’t just talk! What are you going to do about it? You know the teachers right?
Can we have the details of this story. Which teacher or teachers did that and at which school? More data ba minister
How does a senior GRZ official go to Luapula and speak trash about teachers in Western? Careless talk like that is how you stir up regional tension, tribalism, and prejudice. Shame on the PF Deputy Minister!
If there is really a problem with drinking urine, surely the “useful” thing for Mr. Sata’s Deputy Minister to do would be to deal with it and not to spread hate and suspicion around the country!
Ba LT, for stories as delicate as this involving children, do you think you should give a bit more detail? If the intention is simply to shock the reader, then please please do not use children.
“…Don’t you think you should give more detail…”
A similar act was perpetrated at a South African university and one of the attributed causes was racism… I am just wondering how a 50-year old nation that has gone to lengths to facilitate the fight against injustice can allow such base cruelty in its midst. I suspect there will be stories of superstition and nonsense like that (again your reporting is, as usual, scanty) but no; nothing gives any sane person any excuse to humiliate another in any way – more so a protege whom we are supposed to love and protect as guardians and custodians!
By the way, a similar act of forcing fishermen to eat up their raw catch was perpetrated. So perhaps we are simply substituting the substance of intake here, and the environment. It could speak to our nature of how we regard humaneness…
Yes more basics ba LT. You don’t break a story with a reference to another incident which you don’t explain. As readers we still need the 5 W’s And H of western province teachers forcing pupils to drink urine. The rule in journalism is that you don’t break a story if you don’t have enough detail so you shouldn’t have told us about the urine story if you don’t have all the facts. you should leave it to those with facts to tell that story
A bad Minister.Thats not hands on?What has he done to redress the culprits and to withdraw their teaching licences!Ba Ngoma you can do better than that.Why not visit western province?Are you afraid of drinking urine wine too?lol.GOD BLESS ZAMBIA.
But urine is healthy, people dont just realise what importance those enzymes play, well done minister!
Of course with due respect, if you have nothing to comment about it’s good to keep quite please.
@ Zulu,
Ofcourse this is a free world, but then again I shouldnt forget you are Zambian and we all know freedon of speach doesnt come in handy, by the way, if you have limited knowlegde about what I stated, just google the topic since you have access to internet, nowadays you dont have to go to school to learn about something….. Ignorance a Zulu naimwe nichani kansi?
@Cindy, healthy as it may be touted, if it is morally offensive the health benefits disappear. Remember that the mind is King. There are a lot of so-called healthy foods whose sight make me sick to the stomach.
@ Kalok,
Some time healthy is not always attractive when it comes to taste and sight I can agree with you. Yes the intetion was wrong I guess thats why she is under probe, my word this woman is mean remains me of that principle in the childs movie called Matilda!
But then again this can help some people can learn that drinking pee can cure some diseases even serve lives if we happen to be stranded in an allien world without water or food!
As long as the report does not take facts and intervention by the Government on those precious souls of mother Zambia, it is reliable to destroy a noble professional. Am a teacher and i know how we value children. Such a thing was suppose to have facts and stiff intervention by the Minister. Spreading that rumour has destroyed him, the ministry and myself as a Teacher. We do not have confidence now as that rumour is spreading faster as bush fires. Please ba LT quench it for us by being factual.