The Parliamentary Committee on Local Governance, Housing and Chiefs Affairs has cautioned higher Institutions of learning against compromising their standards as they train Constituency Development Fund (CDF) sponsored students.
When touring Northern Technical College (NORTEC) in Ndola, the committee was told that there are councils paying students less meal allowances contrarily to the prescribed K4, 500 per term.
Committee Chairperson Newton Samakayi said he is aware that Kitwe City Council and other councils are paying students meal allowance of 1,500 per term, a trend he branded as not good.
Meanwhile, Mr. Samakayi said the Parliamentary Committee on Local Governance was pleased with the overall training of the over 3000 CDF sponsored students at NORTEC.
The Committee is currently holding stakeholders’ consultative meetings on the implementation of CDF by councils.
“We are told there are councils that are now just paying students K1,500 as a meal allowance for three months because they want to bring more students. I think that is not good,” said the Mwinilunga Member of Parliament.
“We have asked the school management to ensure that they keep standards. If their standard is K1,500 per month, it should be K1,500 per month,” Mr. Samakayi said.
NORTEC acting Principal Martin Kasonso announced that the institution has started establishing satellite campuses in a bid to train more students under CDF.
Mr. Kasonso further proposed the increase in the number of skills courses CDF sponsored students can access.
It’s sad that NORTEC has now joined the long list of diploma mills. Students exit the institution with diplomas but nothing to show for it in terms of skill and competence. Job insecurity has caused lecturers and curriculum developers to exclude industrial players. For whom are students being trained if not the industry? We want to see a positive impact on society from the money that government is spending on the youth. This can only be achieved if these institutions don’t run closed shops. Don’t join the civil service to work for a pension but to contribute to national development
Field Ruwe came and save us!
Our standards are already compromised that’s why nobody outside the country accepts our qualifications.
The painful part about Zambia is that it is those in authority who are thieves, bakabolala bamambala not the poor citizens.it is very sad inddeed leaders who are crooks that is why myself i have no respect for them