Minister of Education, Douglas Syakalima has said that government will continue supporting the education sector because it has potential to spur economic development.
Mr. Syakalima said because of the important role education plays in any given country, the government has initiated a number of interventions in the sector of which the recruitment of 30 thousand teachers is one of them.
Mr. Syakalima was speaking during the Pre-Summit being attended by over 140 Ministers of Education at the Headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris, France.
He said the interventions in the education sector are aimed at lowering the pupil-teacher ratio and thus improve the quality of learning in all schools in the country.
Mr Syakalima added that the Zambian government also significantly increased the school grants and thus all school-related fees such as exam, tuition, and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) were abolished.
The Minister, however, noted that there is need to enhance teacher competencies, recruitment and deployment to develop education industry linkages and foster innovation and entrepreneurship to systematically integrate the use of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning, among others.
Mr. Syakalima noted that developing countries are ready to transform their education system but are hampered by their small economies and are channelling resources towards debt servicing.
He appealed to Global Partnership of Education (GPE) and other cooperating partners to cancel or restructure the debt.
The Minister was accompanied by, Zambia’s Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Christine Kaseba-Sata and other senior officials.
The overall objective of the Pre?Summit is to harness the evolving discussions on transforming education, elaborate initial content and suggested actions and generate greater momentum in the lead up to the main Summit to be held at Head of State level on September 11, 2022 in New York.
This is according to a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today, by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Public Relations Officer Chansa Kabela.
Another two faced liar Stop acting we know you are one of the ministers who want to resign. Hh is fixing you like school pupils
What is Christine Kaseba still doing in France? She is still a widow as far as we concerned, she is needed here to settle family issues and attend to her children her & Sata. Aikona she cant be hiding there and enjoying while we have problems back at home. And also ba UPND why not recall her? We cant afford to have our former presidents or first ladies ducking and living in foreign land-This is a also a security concern.She can easily sell out. She must be brought back now.