THE Ministry of Education in Eastern Province owes retired teachers over KR 50 million (K50 billion) in the province.
Provincial Education Officer Thomas Mwanza said the Government was putting everything in place to make sure that retired teachers were paid their benefits.
He said that this has resulted in some other retired teachers to continue occupying Government houses thereby creating shortage of accommodation to the serving teachers including the new ones.
Mr Mwanza was speaking at the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) round table discussion held in Chipata on Wednesday.
The roundtable meeting brought together different Government heads of department who were looking at the challenges being faced in different sectors and how they could be solved.
“The ministry of education owes retired teachers KR 50 million (K50 billion) and the Government has promised to pay the dues to the retired teachers,”he said.
Mr Mwanza also disclosed that the province has a deficit of 17, 000 desks in schools.
He said that the province received only 23, 000 desks over the past three years.
He said that the ministry of education in the province has made a number of strides in meeting some of the challenges being faced in the sector.
Mr Mwanza also said a number of schools were being built across the province in order to reduce the problem of shortage of secondary schools.
Speaking at the same meeting CSPR provincial coordinator Maxon Nkhoma said the findings of the organization noted that some retired teachers were still occupying Government houses as they were waitying for their retirement and repatriation packages.
Mr Nkhoma said some schools still face a number of challenges such as shortage of desks, teachers’ accommodation, lack of day secondary schools in some districts and many others.
In another development Makungwa Health Post in Kasenengwa constituency that was built sometime back would soon be opened.
Provincial medical officer Dr Kennedy Malama said that the opening of the health centre was delayed due to some modalities which were not in place such as housing units and health personnel.
He observed that many health centres in the province have been built but still lacks health personnel as the ministry still faces shortages of health workers.
Dr Malama said it was for this reason that the ministry of health has doubled the enrolment of nursing schools in the province.
He said that this would greatly assist in curbing the shortage in health sectors.
CSPR in Eastern Province is really working to improve the welfare of citizens they must be commended for the work.