Friday, March 29, 2024

First Quantum MInerals invests US$ 50 million to set up a School

Share

Trident Group of Schools head master Robin Silk emphasising a point during his presentations to various stakeholders at Protea Hotel in the tourist capital y
Trident Group of Schools head master Robin Silk emphasising a point
during his presentations to various stakeholders at Protea Hotel in
the tourist capital y

FIRST Quantum Minerals (FQM), which runs Kansanshi Mine in Solwezi in North-Western Province, has invested US$ 50 million to set up a world-class College to promote international educational standards in the country.

Trident College opened in January 2014 and it has 120 pupils from Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola as well as from other countries such as Tanzania and Kenya.

It was set up as part of FQM’s Corporate Social Responsibility in Zambia where it is investing in the mining sector.

Trident Group of Schools head master Robin Silk said College wanted to raise Zambian educational standards to international level.

Mr Silk was speaking in an interview yesterday at Protea Hotel in Livingstone shortly before he made a presentation on the College to various stakeholders in Zambia’s tourist capital.

Livingstone Deputy Mayor Fred Sikazwe, former Southern Province Permanent Secretary Gladys Kristafor and her husband Stan were among several Livingstone residents who attended the meeting.

Mr Silk said the College would be the biggest and most important learning institution in Zambia and surrounding countries through the provision of an outstanding and holistic international boarding school experience.

The College, which is a boarding School in Solwezi, operates on a Cambridge Curriculum for Secondary and Primary Schools as well as A Levels.

Subjects being taught include Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Design and Technology, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Religious Education, History, Chemistry, Music, Arts and Modern Foreign Language.

“The School want to expand and have more than 400 pupils coming from across the country and beyond the country’s borders.

We will build significant infrastructure at the College in the next three years in stages. So far, we already have science laboratories, classrooms, boarding houses, kitchens, dining halls and several sporting facilities,” Mr Silk said.

He hoped to develop a partnership with the young people of Livingstone and the rest of Zambia come to enroll at the College.

“A lot of people from Livingstone come down to Zimbabwe and South Africa in search of education and we want these people to stay in Zambia because they will get the best international education locally,” Mr Silk said.

He said the school, which was sitting on 110 hectares of land in Solwezi, also wanted to improve the learning environment in the country.

“We have to encourage pupils to become independent learners as well as become thinkers and creative.

Pupils should think outside the box. We have very good teachers in Zambia but the problem is the tendency of teachers who teach in very didactic manner,” he said.

Mr Silk said learning was more important than teaching and hence there was need to ensure that pupils did more learning.

He said his College wanted to expand its education provision across Zambia in future.

 Some Livingstone residents following a presentation by Solwezi’s Trident College at Protea Hotel in the tourist capital
Some Livingstone residents following a presentation by Solwezi’s
Trident College at Protea Hotel in the tourist capital
 Some Livingstone residents following a presentation by Solwezi’s Trident College at Protea Hotel in the tourist capital
Some Livingstone residents following a presentation by Solwezi’s
Trident College at Protea Hotel in the tourist capital

17 COMMENTS

  1. Good to hear they have built a college. We appreciate it.
    But if they want to be producing students with huge innovative potential, I don’t think the Cambridge Curriculum or British system of education is the right. British education system (on which the Zambia education system is modeled) is kind of rote learn, that that only encourages students to memorize and reproduce stuff. And that is why we have engineers and scientists in Zambia who cant invent or who have never invented anything and yet they have Ph.Ds., and have been teaching at universities for 20 or 30 years. American and Scandinavian approaches are the best.
    I am a product of British universities but built my smarts in America.

    • Very good news and a breath of fresh air. You can mine our minerals as long as you give back to the communities through corporate taxes and philanthropy programmes like this one. There is no point sitting on gold or oil if we have no means of extracting these minerals. Britain has sold most of her manufacturing industries to foreign investors and yet some are coming back to setup and implement these industries back in Britain because of the conducive political space the country provides. It was announced just a day or 2 ago that the recession is officially over in England and we are now back in the days of plenty! This can be seen in the citizenry’s’ lifestyles and the cars they drive. The housing market is booming once more and more and more foreigners want 2 flock these shores.

    • I beg to differ with @The Visionary. You may have studied in the UK but as a PhD holder from a leading UK University I suggest we begin by distinguishing between a Researcher from an Entreprenuerer. Though one can be both, being a researcher doesn’t not imply one is an entreprenuerer and visa-versa. The American make up encourages entreprenuership. However, it needs an enabling environment for those Zambian PhD holders with an entreprenueral streak to translate their dreams and ideas into tangible products. Ask how easy it is to get equipment or funding to carry out research or just fund startups in Zambia.

  2. These are the kind of investors that Zambia needs. Well done FTQ. Zambia should have been having world class schools, hospitals and roads but alas, the country has gone backwards. It needs a white man again. Even Botswana whose people we trained is ten times better than Zambia. Shame on our Zambian leaders.

  3. The story sounds too good to be true. $50m for a mere college. This is too much money being invested in one single institution. How come we have not been shown pictures of the same. Is it not another Donchi Kubeba story.

  4. Congratulations to FQM for going this direction. This is wonderful. Many schools can not have anything to showcase. As a teacher myself I unerstand very clearly what you are talking about. This is no mean achievement for a country. Kudos to you guys, keep up with the good work.

  5. Thats how multnationals hide profits is Robert Mushindo costing $50m bullshit,zambian students beat the shit out of uk students at uk universities,even here our zcas students are second to none!

  6. FQM, now work on northwestern university to produce engineers/technicians to supplement the high demand for professionals needed at the new mines. Well done so far but you can do better.

  7. Hope they never give a Zambian to build the college because umu Zambian eve apo ninshi nitidyelepo bakamba. US$ 50 million uhm sivintu! mahule na ma castle ninshi yavutika elo pa last manji he builds ka college ka 10 million kwacha

  8. This is nonsene, how is this CSR? they built a school for the kids of expats and they are looking for wealthy Zambian families to send their kids there. how is this CSR when it’s not even serving the community? are the teachers local? i don’t imagine they’re hiring Zambian teachers to teach the Cambridge curriculum. i didn’t even hear anything about scholarships for local gifted children from Solwezi or else where in the north west. this is nonsense, give me a bottom line, how will locals benefit from it except the ones who will work as general workers?
    what’s the price tag that comes with enrolling at this fancy school?
    whoever wants to get more perspective on this amazing gift from FQM, please visit their website : http://www.trident-college.com/about_the_schools.html
    nonsense…

  9. Visionary, you compare British Education and Zambian Education? There are a few Zambians who work in education in the UK with QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). I have also Worked in High School, Colleges and I have attended my Post Graduate education in the UK. I am qualified as a teacher in Zambia as well, just to show you that, many teachers in the UK and in Zambia would not agree with your analysis. On the other staying in a University in the UK for a year or 3 for undergraduate does not give you the total impression of neither British Life nor a sector of it. I have been living in the UK for 15 years and still learning a lot, would be the same for people living or studying Zambia for a short period of time. Lack of resources, and home or indigenous tailored programmes are some of the…

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