CHIEF Government spokesperson Chishimba Kambwili says no child should be deprived of education because of high school fees.
Speaking when he visited Mpatamatu Secondary School in Luanshya yesterday, Mr Kambwili, who is Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, said it is Government’s duty to provide education to citizens because all children have a right to education.
The minister visited the school to verify reports that management had not adhered to Government’s directive to reduce school fees.
Mr Kambwili said it is important for schools to adhere to the circular issued by the Ministry of General Education to all schools to reduce school fees.
“My office has been receiving complaints from parents that the fees are too high. Even when I was on radio in Kasama, parents were calling to complain about high school fees.
“I think the problem is with the circular from the Ministry of General Education. I think there is need to harmonise the circular with what is obtaining on the ground. Cabinet needs to re-look it,” Mr Kambwili said.
The minister said he will discuss the issue with his ministry of General Education counterpart John Phiri before it is tabled before Cabinet.
The Ministry of General Education has directed secondary schools to charge school fees between K250 and K500 per term but some parents are complaining that the fees are exorbitant.
Mr Kambwili, who is also Roan member of Parliament (MP), said many people in his constituency cannot afford high school fees because they are not in employment.
And Mpatamato Secondary School head teacher Pamela Sakala said the school is facing challenges in paying support staff and settling utility bills for water and electricity.
She said the school has not increased user fees in the last three years.
Luanshya district education board secretary Terry Changwe said schools in the district complied with the circular to reduce school fees.
He should take over PF he is smart is Chishimba
He is not hated because he is Bemba.
Please vote orange alliance in August. Mr Sampa will make a great president.
Thanks
BB2014
@Mushota- you are like a spoilt brat! Your gorilla look alike is talking about school fees and you are fanaticising about him being president of your patty! Wake up smell the coffee ? Ni ya yonko?
@mushota marry him the you can ce first lady of your party instead of living in the past with your cilly titles that have expired!
If people still want to know what buffoonery is, there is your kambwili acting it out.
In 2013, the same id10t issued a statement that students must pay fees own their own after a female UNZA killed herself when bursaries refused to fund her Education and yet all top official’s children are being sponsored to study in the UK and US by the same bursaries committee. How selfish is that?
It’s shocking that the same id0its have cut funding for schools and have asked schools to fund extra money as part of Lungu ‘s austerity measures. Lungu et al are targeting the poor to pay for PF’s recklessness while sharing the loot with his accomplices.
The whole bunch of these PF morons should go back to their caves where they came from and let UPND restore Zambia.
VIVA UPND and HH team
Bandit Kambwili at it again!
This is the same visionless Kambwili who said last time around that ” it is not govt responsibility to educate citizens” ! Wow! Then today yaps’ the opposite.
PF is feeling heart & pressure, already visionless Empty Loser (EL) admitted that PF is being kicked off.
3 months left to kick out PF bandits.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Kambwili ,tell HH to came and apologies to us ,copper belt people ,to you ,to ZNBC and to Edger Lungu. Let Membe be careful with that desperation business man. I advise hh to form LEMON Alliance with Winter Kabimba.
bati HH is great, the kaponya supporters even dream about him when in the toilet. The dirty tribalists worst nightmare is coming true, HH arriving at plot one……
bati HH is great, the kaponya supporters even dream about him when in the toilet. The dirty tribalists worst nightmare is coming true, HH arriving at plot one……prepare
Is Govt going to increase the grant it gives to schools? Or how is this shortfall cushioned? Because reducing fees actually means less income for school administration.
Education is expensive, no two ways about it.
the idea to reduce skull fees is very welcome….the only misunderstanding and wea Hon Kambwili is calling for harmonization is that day skull per tem it shud be in the range of between 250-300 and for boarding schoold not more than 1000….which in this case it comes to those in day 900/1000 per term and 2800/300 per term…. i think its affordable mweee or mayb we are saying they need to reduce further……..????
If you knew the importance of these fees to these institutions and why they are priced that way …you would at least have started by spelling the word “school” right and you are selfsame Zambian the leaders of tomorrow who don’t know when where to use text message language. This why G12 certificates should be a requirement for Councillors as well or else go to night school.
You want to implement socialist policies with capitalists agendas….you have reduced the budgets to Agriculture and Education but always singing about diversifying the economy.
Says the BUFFOON whose govt has misappropriated millions meant for children’s textbooks…they are good at making incoherent utterances but have no policy direction…to these empty tins building roads at a whooping $1million/kilometer is more important.
Govt has to put in place a policy to fund schools (Primary to University) for them to provide quality education to our children. Politicking on schools fees without measures to ensure quality of education is mantianed will not take us anywhere. In most cases schools use the money raised from school fees to buy stationery/ chalks/ fix broken desks/ buy textbooks/ build additional classrooms/ paint schools etc. With reduced revenue and without Govt support, how are schools going to manage the day-to-day running?
For a boarding school the costs are even higher than before due to price of maize, too much load shedding means more fuel needed for transporting firewood, more money manually grinding sample maize breakfast.
They have now taken their madness and incompetence to the education sector.You are failing to fund schools now you have started interfering in their intiatives to raise funds.
$6 million meant for textbooks was lost, disappeared, at the ministry of education and no one in PF can account for that….do not listen to these thieves..
More the ZKW 73 million went missing in 2014 according to the auditer generals report. If you include other monies like free talk time and other allawances these fat ministers and their deputies get, free education is attainable for all poor students.
Mr whatever u call yoself! Let educational experts formulate educational policies! 4 u Kambwili u know nothing hence u can’t direct these schools to lower the fees. Do u even understand how these institutions operate? Yo bogus government has long 4gotten funding schools. Consider first the prevailing economic conditions b4 u open yo mouth…essential commodities have gone up bcoz of yo Poverty Funding and how will schools not increase fees? Go back to Copperstone and enrol 4 education management….
And what do you do about it NOTHING just talk.
Ba UPND learn to suport your friends when they do good becoz they will also suport you when you do good. Ask teachers where larger % of school fees go. Allowances
And whos fault is that??
PF appear seriously in a campaign mood.
They are unrelenting and uncompromising. They realize Zambians have listening ears.
Is this when PF is realising? 5 months away from elections
I truly don’t know what planet Hon Kambwili is on. This is a country where everything has doubled or more in price but he is directing schools not to increase fees. How else will electricity and other costs be paid? Does the government pay the other costs apart from salaries? Let us be realistic!
EMPTY UTTERANCES MEANT ONLY TO HOODWINK! THE REALITY ON THE GROUND IS DIFFERENT. PF HAS NO CLUE ON HOW TO MANAGE A COUNTRY. THERE ARE NO SYSTEMS IN ZAMBIA FOR POLITICIANS’ UTTERANCES TO BE PUT INTO PRACTICE. NO GOVERNMENT BLUE-PRINTS WHICH SHOULD BE ENFORCED BY HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS AND OTHER STAKE HOLDERS.