Mansa school in dire need of teachers

Villagers of Chipete in Mansa district have appealed to government to deploy more trained teachers to Chipete basic school to improve education standards for their children.

Chipete Basic School is the only school in the area and is over 120 Km from Mansa but has only two trained teachers.

In an interview with ZANIS, School Head Teacher Charles Chibuye said he and the other trained teacher were finding it hard to handle classes for over 430 pupils from grade one to grade nine.

Mr. Chibuye said the school has developed a combined class system to ensure that all pupils are taught.

“Because of the acute shortage of teachers we have drawn up a combined grades learning system so that we at least teach all the children who report for classes but this is not effective to offer quality education,” Mr. Chibuye said.

He said all the teachers deployed to the school last year had not reported and that there has been no replacement. He said the deployed teachers shunned to report because of the remoteness of the area and lack of staff accommodation.

Mr. Chibuye stated that because of the acute shortage of teachers at the school many children, especially girls, had resorted to getting married at a tender age.

The School Head said early marriages were predominant in the area because children were shunning classes due to lack of teachers at the school.

Meanwhile, Sub-chief Kapwepwe has appealed to government to work on Chipete road connecting his chiefdom to Mansa.

Sub Chief Kapwepwe said the bad road network and lack of phone network in his area were hindering development in his chiefdom.

In an interview with ZANIS, the traditional leader said many government workers in the Education, Agriculture and Health sectors were shunning working in the area because of the bad road network and lack of phone communication.

ZANIS