Traditional leaders in Chinsali District of Muchinga Province, have warned their subjects of stern action if they continue withdrawing school- going children and take them into caterpillar collection, fishing and rice cultivation.
The warning has been sounded by Chiefs Nkweto and Mubanga of the Bemba speaking people of Chinsali in separate interviews with the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Chinsali yesterday.
The two traditional leaders said it has been a trend by subjects in their respective chiefdoms to withdraw children from schools without permission from school managers saying this behavior should not be allowed to continue.
Chief Mubanga explained that parents are not guaranteed to make their own rules over the education especially those that do not mean well for the children’s future.
The Chief said children are government trophies whose welfare is a responsibility of government when it comes to their human and educational rights.
“It is wrong for any parent to think that they can decide on their children because government is a key stakeholder in the welfare of every child,” Chief Mubanga said.
He observed that most parents in Chinsali do not respect the rights of children hence violating them at will.
And Chief Nkweto also echoed similar concerns on the tendency of school -going children continuous absenteeism in class due to annual activities such as farming, fishing and caterpillar collection.
He said in times like this when the country is just being resuscitated from COVID -19 lockdown which saw schools closing for three months, parents need to encourage their children to attend school regularly.
Chief Nkweto explained that the future of this country lies in educated children who are supposed to be in classes and learning rather than in fishing camps.
“Children are supposed to be in class learning and not to be withdrawn and taken to do other activities outside school programmes such as fishing, collection of caterpillars, among others, ” said Chief Nkweto.
The two Chiefs have however, outlined stiffer punishments to parents who have the habit of taking children to annual activities like caterpillar collection.
Among areas that are mostly affected by fishing and rice cultivation in Chinsali are villages along the Chambeshi river banks while caterpillar collection highly affects Chief Mubanga, Nkweto, Senior Chief Nkula and Chimbuka areas.
Can they be dealt with firmly. We cannot allow such child labour to going on.
Already 1 headman was killed over stopping people from free caterpillars. Even during locust, we told you to close everything to go catch free food. God gives caterpillars, set the people FREE, its just 2 weeks, let them go collect free caterpillars. It is good for economy, the kids will pay school fees, have nutritious food, etc.
The PF may have killed even over mana.
That is sad
The hunter-gatherer instinct is still with us. It has been a hallmark of every society and is in fact more compatible with our long-term survival as a species on this planet. But a hunter-gatherers’ existence in a money economy just complicates things because the villagers take out of the wild more than they need for their own use. It’s what leads to ‘tragedy of the commons’ whereby a resource available for everyone to take out as much as they can eventually gets depleted and everyone loses out. The solution in economics is to privatise so that everyone manages wht’s on their private land for their own benefit. Society is only entitled to a tax on the land and income from such private property.
Maybe the school calendar should be revisited to accommodate this not only traditional but also economic-liveihood activities which also benefit the children. These activities strictly speaking should not be classified as child labour as such is based on a euro-centric social-economic context with much regard for the reality in which we leave and have survived for millinea. Education is indeed importat and is a great equalizer but we should be realistic is evaluating just how many of these children will be able to leverage this basic formal education they will receive to escape there day-to-day reality vs majority who are better off being assimilated into the local social-economic fabric.
‘Parents who send children to catch caterpillars warned’ Each year that passes by, we hear of such warning left perhaps by our colonial masters, when are you going to act and set a precedence? Your warnings have become a traditional song!