Friday, March 29, 2024

Nkhulungo Basic School wants desks

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Authorities at Nkhulungo Basic School in Chipata’s Chipangali constituency have appealed to Government to consider giving the learning institution some desks to enable pupils sit comfortably.

School Head Teacher, Kezias Phiri, said from the time the school was upgraded it had not received desks from the office of the District Education Board Secretary ( DEBS).

Mr Phiri said the school which had been upgraded after construction of a 1x 3 Classroom Block with help from Cargill Cotton Company under its corporate social responsibility programme, had been given an examination centre number.
[pullquote] ‘’ After the school was given an examination centre number, we are wondering how the pupils will write their exams this year. We hope that government will consider giving us some desks,’’ Mr. Phiri said.[/pullquote]
He was speaking when District Administrative Officer, Masauso Banda, visited the school yesterday to commission the Ventilated and Improved Pit (VIP) latrines built by Cargill at the learning institution.

‘’ After the school was given an examination centre number, we are wondering how the pupils will write their exams this year. We hope that government will consider giving us some desks,’’ Mr. Phiri said.

He also said the school had no accommodation for teachers following the construction of a 1 x 3 classroom block.

Mr. Phiri observed that his family was accommodated in one of the classrooms, while one teacher was in the Deputy Head’s office and the other one was living in a grass thatched house.

He said four teachers who were posted to the school left because of lack of accommodation, adding that, currently there were four teachers who were manning all classes from grade one to seven.

‘’ Am afraid to request for teachers from the DEBS office because of lack of accommodation,’’ Mr. Phiri said.

And District Administrative Officer, Masauso Banda, said there was need for the school to inform the DEBS office before the national budget was presented to Parliament so that the issue of procurement of desks for the school was considered.

Mr Banda also said cooperating partners who wanted to help communities in areas they operated from, should start planning together with sector Government departments so that everything that was put in place was in conformity with Government’s standards.

He was reacting to the construction of a 1 x 3 classroom block at the school which had no teachers’ houses in its initial planning stage by Cargill Cotton Company.

Mr Banda said some cooperating partners may not know the requirements by Government when putting up any infrastructure, hence the need to involve Government personnel during planning to ensure all requirements were put in place.

And Cargill Field Operations Manager, Saul Zulu, said his company’s plans were to be closer to society by ploughing back to the community which deals with the agro-company.

Mr Zulu said safety of the community Cargill dealt with was priority, adding that, before construction of a 1 x 3 classroom block, the pupils were learning from grass thatched structures which were very dangerous to conduct lessons from, especially during the rainy season.

[ ZANIS ]

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