The Copperbelt University (CBU) says it has a deficit of PhD Engineering lecturers and will soon advertise for such positions in Ethiopia.
CBU Vice Chancellor Professor Naison Ngoma said this in Addis Ababa yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on Zambian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Susan Sikaneta.
This is contained in a statement to ZANIS today signed by First Secretary for Press and Tourism at the Zambian High Commission to Ethiopia, Dorcas Chileshe.
Professor Ngoma said in the statement that Addis Ababa University is one of the institutions in Africa with many PhD holder Engineering Lecturers and that CBU feels it can benefit from such skills.
In 2011 the CBU and Addis Ababa University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which, among other things, aims at promoting the exchange of knowledge and skills among students , lecturers and researchers.
Professor Ngoma is in Ethiopia to make presentations on Peace building at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) at the Addis Ababa University.
And Zambian Ambassador to Ethiopia Susan Sikaneta commended the CBU and Addis Ababa University for signing the MOU meant to build capacity between the two countries.
Ms Sikaneta assured the Professor that the Zambian Mission in Addis Ababa will facilitate as much as possible to ensure that CBU benefits from the highly skilled Engineering lecturers from Ethiopia.
She said that her Mission was ready to facilitate the process of advertising for the jobs through the Ethiopian media.
Even if they are educated, Ethiopians don’t speak good English….Already at UNZA, English is problem to most eng students,…so we will be having graduates who cant express themselves properly in English…Zambia here we go.
wow ethiopia!! why Ethiopia? whats wrong with Prof Chirwa, Engineer Sosala and the whole bunch of Zambian Engineers spread across Botswana, south africa, lesotho, swaziland… even those in UK, canada, and USA??.
I also have one candidate in my mind right now,,,, our own Lusaka times regular blogger Australian Engineer, why not try him??
@Mambala, this is the way to go and recruiting an expert in engineering is not recruiting a communication skills and english teacher. CBU like any other university has arrangements to take care of the language and communication and writing skills development. If they are able to teach and communicate well, fine, congrats Mr V.C.. He can go look elsewhere, we need capacity which we do not have at the moment. Students are being taught by non-PhDs, that is an anomaly in a uni. Congrats CBU
Lol Dr. Naison we know you were once a consultant in addis lol my office orderly got his PhD from there he had never taught nor supervised anyone we know about your struggles as student please please rethink your approach to academics
Iwe Mambala cummon, use your head..Whats English got anything to do with the language of Mathematics and Engineering. This is the problem, we equate our MASSA’S or Master’s language with Intellectual prowse or intelligence when its actually the contrary. The Ethiopian language Amharic was the language of the first engineers, way before english, in fact english learnt from languages like Amharic of Ethiopia. English is not a barometer for intelligence
So u seriously believe that these people got Phd’s whilst speaking bad english? Get real try and bring another excuse coz ur reasoning is not making sense.
What about Ghana and Nigeria? Or even South Africa. Prof Chirwa cann ot teach alone!
What about Ghana and Nigeria? Or even South Africa. Prof Chirwa cannot teach alone!
@Mambala
You need to differentiate the period when you where born and our children. Nowdays English is spoken by children in reception unlike in your days when you can only speak Engilsh when you where in grade 7. Its a good idea to have experienced Engieers to come and share their knowledge with our country men/women.
All Ethiopian I meet here, driving shuttles at airport say they are engineers. I believe its true Ethiopians must have a batch of engineers, maybe should exchange with Zambia’s Political scientists.
But please empower women, bring Ethiopian women, abaiche bakalekwatako ama materb
If the government had treated Pro Chirwa well most Zambian Engineers in the diaspora would have come home to work. But the problem with Zambians is that we a shrewd mentality that any thing foreign is good.
For god ‘s sake in this time and age we are recruiting foreigners to come and teach our kids science and Maths related subjects because we do not attach importance to pay people with these rear skills well.
If the government wants to recruit Zambians in the diaspora they should first sort out the political climate and the condition of service for people skilled in Maths and science related subjects. These are the two things that are preventing people who come to Europe to do their PHDs from going back home after finishing their degree.
The government needs to up its game…
For the government to attract maths and science related skilled Zambians in the diaspora they need to increase the pay for these people to at least 2/3 of what the countries like SA and Botswana are paying and sort out the political climate. Then most skilled Zambians will start trooping back to contribute to our economy.
The government can spend a lot of money sponsoring people to come do their PHDs abroad, but as long as these two things are not corrected qualified Zambians will be disappearing every minute.
Wanzelu my brother you are right. Our country at this hour suffers from an ill-condition that goes by the name of misplaced Priorities. All that blocks and hinders the Eagle from rising and soaring staying up there, is this celebration of mediocrity within our new culture. We must learn that Politicians have not built any meaningful civilisation, they merely manage them, its engineers and the creative minds within our Nation that we need to start to aggressively support and encourage. And I believe these fellow Africans, Ethiopians, will help us. But I also agree with you that we must be encouraging our own to come back home or even the ones at home by renumerating them well. The ingredients for our success story are with us, we just need to learn to put them together in the right order
@Stapler your reasoning is so wrong. I speak most Zambian languages but can’t write any. I live with English speaking people in England who can’t write in English. I have lectured at Zambian universities and the students are pathetic; they can speak English but can’t write English at all.
This is very good news. I hope the whole process can be concluded before the beginning of the 2014 academic year.
this is great, good job professor.
Go ahead so long as the university has an equal pay for equivalent job whether Zambian or foreign with equivalent qualifications.
It is good because they will never go on strike and never get fired. Students as long as they get the best of their service and develop our country, it is good. In Solwezi, there is a place, (Junction) MITEC area Kansanshi/ Solwezi – Chingola road where it has proved to be difficult for engineers to work on that part. The place is pathetic. Whosoever is an engineer in Solwezi and it is his/her duty to work on that area and has not done so or failed, and whosoever educated that person must be refunded. If they have what it takes to work on it and they have no means to do so, then them that ve the means must resign on principle. Look at Solwezi – Chingola road pathetic, when are going to enjoy in our own country?
Visionary Leader: proper English should have read:”If they have what it takes to work on it and they have no means to do so, then they (and not them) that ‘ve (and not ve) the means must resign on principle. Look at Solwezi – Chingola road pathetic; (and not ,) when are going to enjoy in our own country?” I suggest you also ask for a refund from your former English teacher!
ukusabaila(careless talk) why not simply say the need to repair Mitec area in Solwezi. As for Ethiopian Engineers lets have them if we can. The guys are good the do everything for themselves. from military engineering to aircraft engineering even shoemaking. I ve to the remotest afar region and saw home grown irrigation systems built by polytechic students it was a mavel to watch. The guys are intelligent and work like jews.
Then why is Ethiopia one of the poorest countries in the world? Much poorer than Zambia infact.
@ Mambala
I don’t get it when people say English is a problem with Engineering students at UNZA. The truth is that very few degree programmes at UNZA offer English Language as a core course, the English from Grade 1 to Grade 12 should be sufficient. I don’t see how student pursuing a Degree in Economics should claim to have better command of English than his counterpart in Engineering. May be those doing Public Administration, Mass Communication, Law or English majors.
@ Yakuna you are right.
congrates prof. but also look at the credentials of your staff. i was in the same class with one of your senior staff who you wrongly recruited. that member of staff is an electrical enginer and not computer scientist. only started their masters of science in computer after you wrongly recruited them.
I thought Computer Science and Electrical Engineering are related?
@Derrick,
OK, I get it now after reading @Mobile’s comment below. I had an impression that the guy in question is employed as Lecturer.
@derrick, i thought i was the only one shocked by the recruitment of some manager at cbu computer centre who posses electrical electronics as manager it. kwena ba pf.
As someone who has lived in zambia all my life I fell to understand a lot of u cowards who ran away from zambia and are now barely surviving.you think we don’t know that u are abroad cleaning old peoples arses and now u are busy condemning the VC policies.You come back here and develop ur country!
I don’t know why you have brought out that issue. If you read comments above the majority are in support of the VC’s stance and personally I see nothing wrong with hiring staff elsewhere. So to say people are condemning VC’s policy is wrong. And how do you know that those criticizing the VC are abroad? Is it the flags against their blog name? Just check you flag sir/madam.
While it is true that some Ethiopians are taxi drivers here in the US, I have met several Ethiopians in the academia teaching especially mathematics and business related courses. In fact, the only person who got a teaching excellence award in the State of Georgia is an Ethiopian mathematician. He is a colleague at our university.
Engineering- Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical or System engineering
Which branch of engineering CBU has in mind when they are talking about importing Engineering Professors for Phd engineering courses?
Each branch of engineering has so much specialisation that CBU does not have resources and will not have capability for research and applications to train good engineers. With due respect to all bloggers, Ethiopia does not have any specialist in the following lines of engineering-Molecular, nuclear, structural, water resources, power, Thermal, agricultural, biological and many others- it will be safer to say- they are not at any level above Zambia.
CBU shall first establish the branch and discipline of engineering that the nation needs at its present stage and state of development…
Continued from previous submission………. CBU shall first establish the branch and discipline of engineering that the nation needs at its present stage and state of development and then create a department and seek experts and students in that line(s) to start with.
Issuing blanket statements is politicking and justifying unnecessary travels by politicians, civil servants and NGOs alike.
useless policies intended to cheat Ethiopians. Zambian leaders don’t appreciate their own. period.
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Well done prof,those of us that where at the institution are happy at the boost in teaching tools where ever they come from.in the Kaunda days teachers from Ghana & Nigeria where brought in to teach Maths and science under the understanding the Zambian govt paid them ordinary salaries while their govts also topped up,,,their contribution was evident in schools ..Please think outside the box bloggers.eg Ndobo and his friend nonsenstradamus…..at which school where you ?
I have been taught by Ethiopian Engineers as well as US Engineers
Ethiopians are very good in Engineering and maths , they have deep understand in physics and science subjects , they speak very good English , if they get the materials they can create amazing engineers. even in US if they get a chance to be hired they are innovative and successful in engineering fields. there are some taxi drivers but they have a lot of engineers who work in most fortune 500 companies like
Google,Microsoft, IBM, Boeing and they have a lot of professors in different USA universities
My suggestion is higher some of them and see how they perform . i am 100% sure that Zambian will be happy by their choice.do you know most ethiopian students who will go for education in europe and us are hired by…
Arega Teshome you right, We Ethiopian well experienced with maths and physics and I am sure that we can make a tangible differences in engineering and construction science, that why I am proud of Addis Ababa university.
The solution is simple. As it was in the beginning and so shall it be in the end. We have to develop our brain power locally through the Staff Development Program and reward the participants wholesomely so that they don’t jump ship and go to other greener pastures. If we are a proud nation with people that have a heart to develop the country, we should do just that. For how long are we going to continue begging for stuff? I know we have done this in the past but it is sad that we shun our own professionals. We got to wake up and do the right thing.
Did you know that the chinese constructing Kitwe – Chingola dual carriage have hired Ethiopian engineers. Compare this to the Chingola – Solwezi where those indians ve hired our zambian counter part. The works speaks volumes.
We do not need Ethiopian PD holder lecturers. Look at the development in Ethiopia save Ethiopian Airlines. We have enough Zambians with equivalent qualifications to teach at CBU university.
@See its called a PhD not PD well maybe you made a typographical error there but then again you really don’t know much about what you are talking about. Ethiopia for your information is Africa’s fastest growing economy, has the largest number of millionaires in an African country. Ethiopian airlines which is Africas oldest airline is rated a top 50 global aircarrier, and they have 2 airbuses making them the only airline in Africa to own an Airbus, their fleet have been serviced by Ethiopian aeronautical engineers since inception. However I don’t think we should be getting Ethiopian engineers to train our own Zambian engineers we need to source our own PhD or engineers how else are we to develop?
Zambia has more than enough qualified man power spread out the globe. All they need is a bit of incentives to lure them back. Further there are numerous young Zambian scholars pursuing phd and research programs across the world who would like to come back and contribute to the country. CBU and UNZA just needs to connect with these people through the missions abroad. If we really have to recruit expatriates then we have to go for the best . We can’t afford western Europeans so we can go for South Asians,Indians in particular from top Indian universities and Eastern Europeans.
Yes Ethiopia has excellent lecturers teaching in developed countries and so does Zambia. Mind you both Ethiopia and Zambia are poor countries and thus we cannot afford to keep qualified manpower. The way forward is for the Zambian government to recall our top scientists and engineers abroad and strengthen our graduate and research programs and start producing our own Master’s and PhD graduates. GRZ does not have any high-tech specialized research laboratories to talk about. In many countries including India and China such government laboratories and research facilities award Master’s and PhD. Education and Research costs money. Zambian government must dedicate itself to improve funding to tertiary institutions and research centers.
Who are lecturing these days at CBU? Aliens? and what are you lecturing that would warrant a demand for lecturers from Ethiopia? CBU management you being useless now and a bit lacking of management, especially with government policies and ‘calls;. unless it shall be established that there are no competent personel in ZAMBIA to lecture laplace transformation, lecturing and tutoring of Zambian students shall be done by Zambians. There a lot Zambians who can lecture there without asking for Ethiopians experts, Ethiopia needs those to their own. There a lot of students getting good results or even bad who can do that job. Some of you forget how you started your jobs and want to pretend as if lecturing is sacred. DO NOT sell yourselves short of development. INVEST in your student lecturers…
Hope the UNI is not like akabwambe. If there is problem of lecturers at CBU, look within, those students are lecturers potential, make them, do not look outside, unless there is a deal, where a agreements are made to pay 3pin on paper, and 1.4pin goes back into other peoples pockets. Stop your corruption, you will be arrested and shall be an embarrassment to yourselves and families over sugar. With love children