Friday, March 29, 2024

Government to establish Early Childhood Education Centres across the country next year

Share

john phiri 1

GOVERNMENT will next year establish Early Childhood Education Centres, an exercise estimated to cost K4.8million.

Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Minister John Phiri says the learning centres would be strategically placed throughout the country to target less privileged children especially in rural areas.

Dr Phiri said the Government recognized that all Zambian children had the right to quality education regardless of the wealth of their families or their places of residence.

Dr Phiri said the Patriotic Front (PF) pledged to increase access to quality early education for children.

The Minister was speaking in Lusaka yesterday during the handover ceremony of two Toyota Hilux motor vehicles valued at K300, 000 by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

“The PF gave itself three major tasks to accomplish which is one to streamline the operation of the Early Childhood Education sub-sector, two to provide and facilitate Early Childhood Education centres and teachers in all local government wards in Zambia, and three to provide teachers training at diploma and Degree levels in Early Childhood Education to promote professionalism in the sector,” he said.

Dr Phiri said the Government had made positive strides in the Early Childhood Education Sub-sector.

He cited the development of the curriculum guidelines and teaching materials for Early Childhood Education and the rehabilitation of 140 centres for use in early childhood Education affecting the lives of more than 12, 000 children.

He said for the first time since the country’s Independence his Ministry had recruited and deployed 1, 000 Early Childhood teachers across the country.

Speaking at the same function UNICEF Zambia representative Hamid El Bashir bemoaned the low rate of children that go to grade one with preschool experience.

“Access to Early Childhood Education is still very low in Zambia as shown at grade one as only about 18 per cent of children who enroll in grade one have some form of preschool experience and the majority of these children are from well do families and urban areas,” Dr Bashir said.

Dr Bashir said there was need to provide Early Childhood Education service to all children especially those in hard to reach areas and the disadvantaged.

The two vehicles would be given to the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) and Directorate of Distance Education (DoDE) for the implementation and Monitoring of Early Childhood Education activities.

17 COMMENTS

  1. bald headed john phiri, i dont know how he gets along with the bald head wizard boss. he is always shouted at especially that ni mbuya

    • The name was definitely shortened to United Nations Children’s Fund from the original United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund but the acronym actually refers to the old name, so the journalist here is right, the acronym refers to the old name and not the new shortened name

    • Sense 1
      UNICEF

      Meaning:
      An agency of the United Nations responsible for programs to aid education and the health of children and mothers in developing countries

      Synonyms:

      UNICEF; United Nations Children’s Fund; United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
      Hypernyms (“UNICEF” is a kind of…):

      UN agency; United Nations agency (an agency of the United Nations)

  2. Just when will this language of “To” change to “Has?” For once lets hear that government has done this and that,not always that government will….

    • They are still in the proposal stage. Not yet in the excution of projects to yield results discussion and conclusions

  3. 10 provincial universities,a gazillion deputy ministers,news districts,early education centers,endless elections …..oops,i see a trend and the reason we’re headed for HIPC status….again.

    • Dev’t leading to higher economic growth to repay the loan.Dev’t just for its own sake,as you put it, is a bad idea,a big problem.

  4. Can some one advise or give correct information, has government employed one thousand plus early childhood teachers or they are talking about the already employed, the names that came out in the newspapers last month or so. Listening to last night’s ZNBC news, it sounded like government has just again employed more teachers whose names haven’t yet been published. Did the minister of Education mean those whose names appeared in the papers almost two months ago or new names are yet to be released. Can someone shade light on this. If the names are yet to be released then, that will be fine. Was the minister referring to the already employed or these are yet to be release(names) ?

  5. Educated f o o ls! Always looking for negatives.Becoz u think u know it all, u don’t even know that emergecy was removed for Unicef is now a permanant fund. Bravo pf.2016 is yos for u have shown how it is done. Education for 0 not only for rich!

  6. Good move by the government. Let the early childhood educators get jobs. We have millions of teachers in Zambia trained as early childhood educators but not enough centres. This will open doors to those people. Thank you ba PF!

  7. I will immediately snatch your rss as I can’t find
    your e-mail subscription hyperlink or newsletter service.
    Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognize in order that I may subscribe.
    Thanks.

    Here is my blog post myCAA

  8. Comment: Hi, can someone assist me on this one. How many early child teachers has the Zambia government picked this year. Many thanks.

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading