Kasama Arch Diocese Bishop, James Spaita, has charged that Zambia is lagging behind in education because of the few number of universities in the country.
Archibishop Spaita observed that Zambia has the least higher learning institutions in the Sub-Sahara region compared to the countries in other regions.
The Archbishop said it is against this backyard that his Catholic Diocese has offered to turn the St Mary’s High school in Mbala into a University.
He said this when Education Permanent Secretary, Lillian Kaspulu, paid a courtesy call on him at the Kasama Archdiocese office.
He said as a church, Kasama archdiocese stands ready to assist government in the area of education sector.
In response, Education Permanent Secretary, Lillian Kapulu, commended the church for demonstrating true partnership to improving the education standards in the country.
Mrs. Kapulu said she will appoint a technical team to ascertain the possibility of St. Mary’s High School and that a preliminary report over the school will be presented to the President before the university can open doors to the public next year.
The Permanent Secretary, who earlier toured and inspected the institution, said government is indebted to see the church on board as government alone cannot manage.
St Mary’s High School runs from Grades 10 to 12, but this year’s grade 12 will be the last ones before it becoms a university next January.
Education is the key to sucess,we hope for more of this when Sata gets into state house on the 1st.
Laughing out loud. Not another university college. This time it’s really university-high school
ulo lwaisa olo. that will b gud.
Good idea. Can we have elections every year please? Just like Christmas. At the rate we are going we will soon catch up with the UK. All these promises!
Hope you Zambians see the irony in my post. especially ututonga. I do not mind Lupiya and his sugar.
This is a very good idea, thank you so much Bishop Spaita. I hope the standrads and quality of education will be impressive.
Seems this is the age of universities in Zambia. Just working up from a long slumber. But quality should be emphasised above quantity. But should it take the church again to take first steps? Where is the GRZ?
Bishop, Dont allow the government to be invoved in this project,they have failed to finish mulungushi university to a certain standered up to now.there is no diference between this university and a secondary school.
the GRZ died many moons ago #6 comrade Mugabe… it is actually an outbreak of madness pa Zed. yappists have invaded our beloved land. What a country!!!
Ba katolika (Catholics) will do it. they have proved to be serious with education everywhere. their standard will be good too. Well done bishop
Where is the exact location of St.Mary’s High School University in Mbala? Please help.(Parent}
With Lumwana and other mining companies booming in Zambia we also need a lot trades training not just universities, Zambia has minimal skilled tradesmens, that’s why the boers and Chinese easily take up the mining and construction jobs!!!
HOW MANY PROMISES HAS MMD MADE…ITS ALL POLITICAL ONCE THEY ELECTED EVERYTHING GO TO ZERO UNTIO NEXT ELECTIONS..PLEASE PEOPLE DO NOT BUY INTO THIS FAKE MMD PROPAGANDA.
this now are real jokes if they all the time from zed till now the can not manage one unza what more if now will be 4 unzas how many times they closed 4 years cores at unza is 10 years shame on you
Is it really necessary to have so many universities when we can’t look after them properly? Look at UNZA, the last the institution outer walls were painted was way back during KK’s error. Conditions of service at UNZA and CBU are pathetic. What else canw e say…???
We know it will happen.ThanKs bishop may the lord bless this project.
Iam with # 10. Anonymous
Where is the exact location of St.Mary’s High School University in Mbala? Please help.
Tell us where this school is?
the last person out of zed, please remember to switch off the lights as you leave.
ARMS UP CATHOLIC CHURCH. SATA DONT FORGET TO GIVE ministry of health & community development to the CATHOLIC WHEN YOU GO TO STATE HOUSE ON 1/11/08.
Kaunda wanted to build a University in Ndola ‘UNZANDO’.The plan is still lying and gathering dust in the pending shelves .How can you even think of building a University when you cannot manage the existing ones.The current standards at UNZA and CBU are an eye sore let alone the standards at COSETCO and Nkuruma.
It makes much sense building one from the scratch in Southern Province and Northern Province.Kitwe does have CBU and Nkuruma is near Lusaka’s UNZA.At least that way, it will help put these neglected areas on the map.Mind you some cities in the developed world have strung up as a result of having a University.
Universities dont come like that, next time we will kantemba into a university. I know that the Catholic has will to help and has seen the desperate situation in Zambia hence for this suggestion. It is said, “a drowning man will scratch on a straw.”
1st let me welcome myself back in this place. Just realized that you all need my wisdom at this time, but I’ll wont talk about your useless elections.
It seems anything that has chalk and a few desks will be a University soon? So what do you do about colleges and High Schools adn Kindergatens that will be upgraded. If you can ran new Universities then you must be able to build first.
jst build new ones. don’t turn high schools now. u r now reducing high skuz for universities. how do u strike a balance like that? the best is to build new ones,tho expensive, and to increase capacity in the old ones.
imwe ba Bishop Spaita,do you just like the sound of the word ‘university’ or what?i hope you know what goes with upgrading an institution.Let St.Mary’s be turned into a college,atleast.University?mama eeh
Try offering A levels in secondary schools and Knock a year off University life.It sounds more sensible
St. Mary’s is about 10Km from Mbala town centre, in a place called St. Pauls, and the famous Moto-Moto measeum, founded by Fr. Corbeil is situated right there; and so is St. Pauls catholic basic school. It was the first catholic settlement for Mbala township before the present St. Francis parish, and former cathedral. St. Marys is formally Chila Adult, which hosted a secretarial trade school and adult education up to form five. And before that, it used to be St.Mary’s Minor Seminary( form 1 to 3) in the 60s. In the last years its like plans have been to start a teacher’s college there. Archbishop Spaita being an Educationist himself things can work.
St Mary’s is near the Mbala Motomoto museum.
#17 Watch yuh head inna white man land becah yu might turn out to be de first Zedian fe run outta Canada! Judgement soon come, de West a go perish and man fe run to de East. A prophecy dat!
Education without job creation is equal to zero.
LOL @ # 17.
Why not just Build proper universities?
# 13 & 14! That won’t be a govt university, but a Catholic one. Of course, there is no way you can open such an institution without a go ahead from the govt, hence, the need for partnership with the govt. As a nation, Zambia is very behind in the area of higher education. How can the population of 11.5 million depend on two public universities? More universities and university colleges will need to be opened in order to raise the general level of education in the country. Viva Catholics!
I dont believe in quantity but in quality. How many Universities do we have now? it looks like we are looking at educating a lot of people and yet not providing jobs for them. there are so many graduates languishing in the streets without jobs. cant they think of building up factories and bringing to life other industries that are down!! May God help us!
Thats the MMD way, convert old buildings and name them university. Civilized neighbors simply build universities with proper designs. Abash MMd
Are R.E Teachers going to conduct lectures intheology, or Civics teachers going to teach international relations, Stop dreaming, You dont just creat universities when we have no sufficient lectures at our only two formal universities
Promises on zambian development are like a young kid who’s waiting to see santa bring him his christmas wish. By the time I go back to zambia they’ll have highways,trains,more high school-universities or college-universitis,Oil refineries, Diamond and gold companies,the biggest mall in Southern africa,software companies, mobile phone manufactureres,i think over trillions of tax free money will also be invested by then. Santa this is our government’s wish list please deliver.
Nonsense!
MMD has nothing to offer.this is their new compaign strategies promising to turn high schools into univeristies, soon we will hear them turning clinics into general hospitals.MMD is not for Zambia,but Zambia for Zambian.if zambians doesnt want MMD let them change the government and bring in the one that can attend to issues that zambian a facing
#17 ha ha I need such words, Please!!!!!!!! Leaving this country too as it has gone to the imbwa! Now Rupiah wants to bark too. Last person out of this country kindly ensure water is running, we may need oxgen where we are heading!
MMD do not cheat us where are you going to take those graduates when you open universities like basic schools, you can provide employment to zambians.
more thoughts need to be taken
university high school.what a joke.pliz GRZ do something about are universities.UNZA has worsened from being one of the best in Africa to number 58 in Africa…..God help us
Someone should be asking what sort of courses all these new universities are going to be offering because some fields like law are saturated! Concentrate on sciences if you are serious about development. Anyway lets sort out UNZA and CBU 1st then move on to building some more poorly funded Universities.
On the point of putting Unis in the bundus how do you expect to attract prominent internationally recognised academics? Picture this – job offer goes to a Prof to work in Mbala or Cape Town – need I say more? Universities abroad make most of their money from foreign students. How many foreign students will pay competitive fees to study in Mbala? Zed Unis need to attract foreign students.
Are we so desperate? Even with liberalisation, you cannot turn a Secondary School into a university. Has this Bishop been to any university campus?
If not, let him visit UNZA that I built.
Am still laughing that Sata declared that he can win elections if they are not riged. Where is his stronghold? 1 or 2 provinces?
Here is a registered voters list by provinces, and tell me Sata’chances. I think ZERO.
lsk: 592 511, CB: 625 505, Central: 381 939, East: 498 649, North: 464 910, Luap: 312 593, North West: 244 599, West: 316 102, South: 503 221.
Do your maths, bearing in mind that HH is only 1 province, and MMD has a NATIONAL character (with fertilizer distribution, sugar etc).
Sorry I meant to say…
“Anyway lets sort out UNZA and CBU 1st then move on to building some more Universities and ensure they are not poorly funded.”
I agree with you Archbishop spaita that Zambia is lagging behind in terms of tertiary education and appreciate the efforts of your church but i doubt if turning secondary schools and colleges into Universities is a solution. Where will pupils who where supposed to go to that high school go if it is turned into a University? What will be the quality of learning facilities at the school? Lets not use short cuts in solving some of these important issues. We dont want Universities in name only.
Tchuss
Still better than turning it into a brothel.
Was it earmarked for a brothel?
#38 Now that is funny. Very funny! I am going to cast my vote on the boat. I will make sure I shut the door. lol!
Why repace a good girls school, with a poor rate ‘university’. how about improving the std of st Marys and building another university in Mbala?
education stds have fallen terribly in zambia. Lets improve them from down up.
Ama promises yafulisha! Na oilo umo mwine!
fantastic idea. God bless Spaita.
#11, I understand your point. The irony, however, is that Zambia even “imports” people who mix concrete from China. As such, it is useless to open any more trades schools, LOL.
It’s not only the number of universities that count but the quality of the universities themselves. If zambia is failing to run two universities, what of a fleet of universities? Even in the UK, there are alot of universities but employers always ask which university one went to and if it’s these “office” type of universties, they won’t take you seriuosly. Lungwangwa must be watched – he may end up diluting our university education. For now CBU is enough for Zambia.
wats wrong with us…….wat happens to the pupils in the sch? i thought the all idea was to increase school, not church high school into universities. we seem to be turning every we can turn into universities, even homes are being registered as universities! are we that desparate to show the world the number of universities we have? while in most countries they trying to reduce on institution called universities we are seem to be going the other way. soon will be turning toyotas in limo’s!
#17 remember is home not matter what.Bloggers let us learn to thank God,let us not blog like we fail from heaven into the foreign lands that we are living in.
St Mary’s does not have adequate facilities for a university. I workrd on some drawinds for new facilities as a college, and not as a university. a lot of work will be required. So far, Norway has been sponsoring most of the new buildings. By the way, Mpika College of Agriculture is already offering Diploma courses. To me it is better placed to undergo a quick transformation. Even the FNDP had targetted Mpika College of Agriculture as a possible University.
THATS GREAT
Should Sata accidentally get to state house, he wiil close that University. Sata is on record saying that he would turn UNZA into a college specialising in training teachers alone. I see a situation where Zambia may end up with only teachers being trained at a local University if by accident Sata was elected President. I would rather RB gets to plot 1 than see Sata. Meanwhile VIVA HH!!!
LOL
If they now turn all the high schools and colleges into universities, where will the young children go to school to? Straight to university?
Please, leave these schools alone! Build NEW universities God Damn It!
I nearly laughed out loud until I saw that its the Catholic church behind the suggestion. We hope that that can be implemented, but my fear is that Mbala as it stands may fail on a number of points. The ‘rural’ setting might be one negating factor- a good university must have infrastructure that is not only adequate but is designed for university use; a more than average economic environment would be a plus otherwise we might just see vices skyrocket in Mbala as students ‘search’ for some life- I would like to see govt attract businesses to the area that either directly offer services to the university or are themselves are attracting other university-friendly developments around them
contd….then we need as a nation to seriously look into the unending saga of university funding or is it underfunding otherwise this might just be another ‘idea’ that nearly was, unless they tell me the Catholic will fund a good percentage of research and teaching – the govt as it stands would obviously fail to handle extra financial ‘burdens’ (CBU and UNZA in mind)
Lol
Soon they will be talking about turning some pre-schools into universities, ha ha ha this is funny isnt it?
There is enough room at CBU for expansion. Lungwangwa must start thinking of expanding CBU instead of up grading institutions like Evelyn Hone, Nkrumah or Coseco.
Shikofu akolwa indifai atampa ukusabaila. Amona na UNZA mu mbala.
Pity thats when we are realising that. look at DR Congo and count their univesities. No Education No future. Europeans developed becoz of education and respect for their educational personel; with 100 euro per month, do you think teachers can stay in their job? pity that students too contribute to the downfall of education; They do not read. look at how many read a novel on the bus, if there is one, probably was out of the country for some time.
Good idea. BUT, please people let’s be serious. Let build universities not secondary schools.
MMD at work coz they are looking for votes
graduates from the village
ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaa
not my children!!!!!!!!!!!
“The Archbishop said it is against this backyard that his Catholic Diocese has offered to turn the St Mary’s High school in Mbala into a University…The Permanent Secretary, who earlier toured and inspected the institution, said government is indebted to see the church on board as government alone cannot manage.”
Great stuff Catholic church. On this one, I give you a pat on the back.
Sad the Permanent Secretary clearly says the MMD-GRZ can not manage to have new university or convert colleges to university but Prof. Lungwangwa was heard and recorded saying MMD-GRZ will convert 2 colleges into universities just yesterday. Who us telling the TRUTH between Lungwangwa and the PS?
YA THAT WILL BE CALLED KASAMA MONKEYS VILLAGE UNIVERSITY. CHIPATA GUYS CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG!!!
that’s it am packing my bags going back home.bala onaula ichalo bamambala.how can you jump from high school to university without even trying out a TVTC or a college?
can someone please help these people to learn to listen to their VOICES.
# 71 Unless I miss the irony but be corrected!! Kasama is not in Mbala – and by the way if you meant Bemba….I wonder if you really know Zambia? Or do you think Northern Province has only Bemba as a tribe or has one town called Kasama? Do you know which people are predominant in Mbala? Think before you throw-up sir. The mice eating Bemba cousins from the east must be laughing at you instead
what a joke!!!!!
Good idea ba Bishop, Zambia can only develop if only we invest much in education sector. May God continue blessings
I am happy of this fact that more Universities are in the offing back home in mother Zambia. One wonders where GRZ has been doing all this time.You won’t believe this but Uganda where I am resident has more than 10 Universities and anyone with good grades ends up at university unlike that sick nation where our fairly intelligent children with 24 points at G12 cannot even go to a teacher’s college. Around Makerere University, monied people have built nice affordable hostels where students rent unlike our UNZA where students sleep on roofs of halls of residence. In the meantime UNZA has huge chunks of land sitting idle! zambia needs a serious shake up. It is like our ministers never travel.
Iwe 6 Mugabe, please don’t be so negative about what is happening in mother Zambia. Iwe just keep on mining the diamonds there in Botswana. You need to come overseas and see some of the Tafes that have been turned into universities. If you come here you are promised of a degree as long as you have a lot of money. Sometimes you don’t even have to go to uni as long as you have a recording machine and a friend can record your lectures for you while you are busy working to raise up more money for fees. Compare this to the hard we do in Zambia.
Good move. Diasporans lecturing away from Motherland, rise to the challenge and join hands with our colleagues back home and educate our own. You already have contacts to the present institutions you are working with, so here is an opportunity to link and move ourselves forward. Clive Chirwa and the lot, let us support this noble cause. I salute you great thinkers.
Hope there will be long distance degrees and diplomas especially for teachers so that they can raise the standards of education at O’level already. ndzabwela to teach there.It feels good to be Zedian…
Zambian noone will develop Zambia for us if there is something for development why do we put discourage in frist can’t we try to hold hand together and work for better zambia
it would be woulderfull to see my former high school turn unto a university (from lake chila adult to conti…. then high school and now university…..waoooo
That should definately put mbala on the map….and i hope it be of high standards.