The National Action for Quality Education in Zambia says it has received information that some primary schools, mostly in rural areas are operating without adequate teachers.
The Organisation Executive Director Aaron Chansa says he finds this extremely odd and must not be allowed to continue.
Mr. Chansa notes that some Zambians in towns find it frightening to contemplate having their children at a school with only one, two or three teachers, this is reality for other rural parents.
” For Nkurumashiba Primary of Mpongwe district on the Copperbelt,a school which ran for more than 2 years with only one teacher, it had to take NAQEZ leaders to alert the new education Permanent Secretary, Dr Jobicks Kalumba,in order for the PS to direct Provincial education authorities to beef up staffing at the institution.We commend the PS for his promptness on this matter”, he said.
He said from the case of Nkurumashiba school and many other schools with less than 3 teachers,it is very clear that Zambia has a big problem at hand.
“Our findings are that the distribution of teachers in the country is not well done and that many District Education Board secretariats have unduly neglected the aspect of balancing staffing in these schools”, he said.
Mr. Chansa has since appealed to leaders in the Ministry of General Education to practically assist Mr. Mabumba the Minister responsible and his Permanent Secretary,in making sure that all those schools critically hit by acute shortages of teachers are immediately supplied with teachers.
He said his Organisation is also of the view that in this country, there is marked inequality in terms of access to qualify education.
“We have a dual system of education, one for the rich and another for the poor.The rich Zambians take their children to lavishly equipped and well staffed schools while the poor Zambians send their children to schools without teachers,books and desks”, he added.
He said these cruel contrasts sit awkwardly and NAQEZ insists that time has come for the Country to genuinely and decisively deal with these artificial imbalances.
Mr. Chansa said his Organisation feels severe lack of teachers in most rural schools requires urgent attention otherwise the disconnection between Primary schools and Secondary Schools will continue to widen.
He has since demanded for more teachers in these schools if Zambia’s education is to be of help rather than a hindrance to development.
Mr. Chansa said to help resolve this situation, the Ministry of General Education must call for an emergency meeting involving teacher unions and the Teaching Service Commission, to solely deal with this matter, quickly craft special and very attractive incentives for rural teachers to push many teachers into rural Zambia.
He said Just like government has been building houses for men and women in uniforms, the same gesture must be extended to teachers, need for a policy which will not allow a school to operate with less than 7 teachers.
Government has no money to employ more teachers so the shortage of staff will always be there unless they divert some funds from fire engines or presidential planes to employ more teachers.
I beg to differ a bit. The main reason is because Zambians don’t want to serve in rural areas. A friend of mine is working frantically to ensure his teacher son doesn’t go to Mufumbwe where he’s been posted. He’s right now trying to secure an appointment with someone in the ministry of education to solicit that the young man goes to Kitwe. I just wonder if the hated white had the same attitude. ..shunning remote areas if we would have towns that we have. Some women have even gone to the extent of sleeping with officers responsible for placement in order to avoid rural postings.
@RAZOR wansekesha with your truth. Greed in Zambia is major source of our major problems
The findings of this fake NGO are wrong, the reasons you’ve stated are not the cause for poor staffing levels in rural schools. The parents of these same pupils are brutal dodaists, they doda young teachers in their sleep. There’s no fowl play so they bruise bad kind. They bruise non stop from 21.00hrs until the 4th cock crawls. Now they have even started bruising nurses and clinical officers. So young women and men who get posted to these areas shun their positions just after a few days. In Siavonga they used to doda even in the day. So, unless these village dodaists change, they should forget about educating their children. One teacher was beaten in his sleep for stopping a pupil from going to catch ifishimu, that’s life in rural Zambia
@Ayatollah
Stop believing in Fairy Tales, Fantasy Stories and Santa. No one can have sex using witchcraft, or any form of magic. Witchcraft is OVERRATED. Witchcraft is a mere backward superstition. If witchcraft really works how: (1) did King Leopold ii of Belgium kill more than 10 million Congolese when Condo was a Belgian colony? The people in those days practiced witchcraft much more than today because they were not yet converted to Christianity. (2) why couldn’t a Witchcraft – practicing Africa use Witchcraft to defend itself from the Whites who brutalised our forefathers, taking us into slavery and colonising us in our own countries. The Ijebu of Nigeria even tried to use witchcraft on the British. iT DID NOT WORK, The British razed the stupid shrines for the Ijebu which locals…
… feared like the plague. Why didn’t Mshala use his Witchcraft on the whites? He supposedly used it on KK after the whites left.
The reason rural schools are poorly staffed is because young teachers run away due to village dodalists, they doda in their sleep, not what you have stated
No, the use that as an excuse. The reason is simply that Rural Areas suck, no running water, bad rat, bat-infested Houses, very poor roads, no TV. 1 or 2 years of College only to end up in the middle of the bush. No one can sleep with anyone using magic, those are fantasy stories. This is the 21st century, others are now using Driverless cars, you still believe in fairy tales! Witchcraft is just a state of mind that results from ignorance. Even Europe and America believed in the same Witchcraft in the middle centuries. They don’t anymore because they are able to interrogate nature through Science. A Heart attack in a village would be pure witchcraft because they don’t perform any autopsies. It’s the lack of answers that breed superstitious beliefs.
A few days ago, the same Aaron Chansa, in welcoming the request for 500 teachers by Madagascar, was quoted as;
“Mr. Chansa said his Organisation supports this exercise because Zambia has more than 40,000 teachers who are trained but unemployed” How ironic that we have 40,000 teachers roaming the streets but a shortage of teachers in rural areas – and welcome the ‘export’ of teachers. Very confusing.
Truth is that we have excessive numbers of trained teachers but problem is they would rather teach in Kawama as long as it’s within Kitwe. Even priests dread to be sent to places like Muchinga.
The headline of this story is outright confusing. LT, please up your game.