High poverty levels in Mpulungu District has caused low enrolment and rampant absenteeism of class sessions at Mpulungu Basic School.
Mpulungu Basic School Head Teacher Happy Ng’ambi disclosed that the high poverty levels at Mpulungu Boma has greatly affected the pass-rate and the performance of the pupils at the institution.
Mr. Ng’ambi says boys has ‘abandoned’ classes and opted to go fishing while the girls are married off at a very tender age.
Mr. Ng’ambi says his school now supports 32 Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) , 18 by Community Development and Social Welfare Department while 15 are sponsored by FAWEZA and 18 assisted by the Society for Women Association of Zambia (SWAZ).
This brings the total number of OVCs to 83 but he expressed fears that the number wil increase owing to the high poverty levels in the district.
This came to light today when a team lead by Ministry of Education (MoE) Director of Teacher Training and Specialized Services Ruth Mubanga, Netherlands Ambassador to Zambia Harry Molenaar, Northern Province Education Officer Selisho Chanda, MoE Deputy Head of Infrastructure Bernard Mwange and MoE Senior officials from both headquarters and the province visited the institution.
The team are in Northern Province on a joint Donor/GRZ Monitoring and Evaluation inspection exercise of infrastructure, teaching and learning aid, staff establishment and pupil enrollment among other mitigation measures.
He explained that pupils cannot afford to pay K125,000 school fees per term and hence the reduction in class attendance at the institution.
He added that grade 12 results for 2006 was 62 percent by it extremely reduced by half in 2007 to 32 percent respectively because of largely fishing activities and early marriages.
But Director of Teacher Training and Specialized Services Ruth Mubanga urged the school authorities to conduct a vigorous sensitization in communities so that the pupils return to school.
Mrs. Mubanga said teachers are not only there to ‘receive’ salaries but help explain government programmes to the community and also be ready to work with people in the communities to avoid high rate of illiterate population/people.
She said government working with corporating partners is working very hard to make the education system more conducive for school going children.
The Director said government is providing teaching aid (books) recruited teachers and constructing classrooms aimed at absorbing more children to the education main-stream.
ZANIS/KC/ENDS/MM
balisheni abayiche please imwe ba boma…ala
Prepare for hard times ahead.
The hard times are already here, they can only either get harder or better. It all depends on the circumstances on the ground.
You have seen nothing yet.Wait and see.
Its not good that pupils cant afford to learn, how then do we break the poverty vicious cycle? Seems Mpulungu will even have more poor people when these boys and girls become parents. As individuals let them reduce on the number of children they have and use the little revenue they get from the fish to educated the VERY few children they will have and the future might be better for them
these are the serious issues RB should be dealing with not HOT TEMPER
Poverty needs to be attacked/tackled aggressively at govt level. It is a very sad situation to see brainy kids stranded out of school just because of non availaibility of school requirements and funds by the parents affected. I feel sorry and sad when I hear such developments.
Govt please establish a small and minimal unemployment allowance to all. Its never too late.
It is not a correct sensitisation to single out Mpulungu District as the only one hit by high poverty levels in Zambia.
All districts in Zambia are largely and sadly affected.