MINISTER of Education Dora Siliya has said that Government will this year embark on increasing basic classroom space by 16,000 as her ministry sprints towards meeting Millennium Development Goals for basic education by 2015.
Speaking during a recording of a television programme ‘Culture Remodelling’ at the Ministry of Finance in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Siliya said the K3.3 trillion budgetary allocation will enable her ministry to provide more classroom space and enhance quality education interventions.
She said Zambia is on course to meeting the MDG goal of universal primary education and that there is parity on the recruitment ratio at lower level, though more needs to be done to keep the girl-children in school.
Ms Siliya said the ministry is also working on improving the quality of education through provision of adequate learning materials and upgrading teacher qualifications.
She said the ministry would like to emphasise quality education by reducing the gaps in the teacher-pupil ratio from about 1 to 65 to about 1 to 40.
She said this will be done by the recruitment of about 5,000 teachers every year and continuous upgrading of teacher qualifications.
Ms Siliya challenged parents to make a commitment to take their children to school as Government plays its role of increasing school places.
“Let’s imbibe in education not in tujilijili (alcoholic beverage). It’s through education that a daughter of a maid will become a doctor. Through education a child of a miner in Lumwana will become the head of a mine,” Ms Siliya said.
She was glad that all the girls and boys who sat for Grade Seven examinations in Western and North-Western provinces qualified to Grade Eight.
“I am surprised when people say Government is not doing anything because all these things are not happening on their own. It seems some people always seem to be in an election-political mood,” Ms Siliya said.
She said the ministry will review the Education Policy by the end of this year to incorporate new technological advances and align it to the Vision 2030, MDGs on Education and the Sixth National Development Plan which is in the making.
Ms Siliya said the Government will continue clearing the backlog of unemployed graduate teachers and that 5,000 of them will be employed this year.
She said the target is to clear all the graduates that are waiting for postings so that Government can concentrate on employing teachers upon graduation.
The minister said Government has lifted the transfer freeze imposed on teachers last year.
She said the transfer freeze was not meant to punish anyone but to clear the backlog of transfers that had been pending.
On teachers faking marriages in order to be transferred from remote areas, Ms Siliya said it was not the intention of Government to intervene in marriages, saying theirs was to provide an opportunity for employment.
She said a teacher was eligible for transfer after serving for two years in their place of posting, but Government will, however, ensure that it fills up the gaps of inadequate teaching staff in rural areas.
Ms Siliya said over 4,000 teachers were deployed to remote areas last year and that Government would like to re-define the remote and the rural hardship allowances to determine who is eligible for these perks.
The minister urged the private sector to invest further in tertiary education to help absorb thousands of people in need of education.
She said that there are about 60,000 Zambians graduating from high schools every year but the three public universities have a capacity of only 36,000.
As schools open tomorrow, Ms Siliya counselled school children to concentrate on their studies and not on drinking beer.
She said her ministry will embark on a campaign to make education fashionable because it guarantees children a bright future.
Ms Siliya expressed disappointment over incidents of school children spending time in bars instead of studying.
“We will do a major campaign to make being in school fashionable. Like I said let’s imbibe education not tujilijili,” she said.
{ Zambia Daily Mail]
For as long as our teachers are demotivated because of the low pay they get, quality education will remain questionable. Good plans from the minister though.
its crunch time, the elections are here, we know you make false promises and you dont keep them. you promised so much the pipo of solwezi up to now nothing has happened.
Thank you Hon. Minister for the good and well articulated plans. It’s true that Tujilijili would NOT take any school going children far in terms of individual’s social progress, and i really feel great pitty for those children spending much of their time in bars (beer dringing places) instead of doing school work. What you have said Hon. Minister is very very true, that education is the only means through which a son of a peasant farmer or miner in Lumwana will get Him/ Her to being the head of the mines. I help those with hears will hear and try to practice what u just said so much so that, in future, they will have themselves to blame. God Bless
well atleast she’s a sensible woman who brings progress wherever she is put to serve we need more leaders like her!