CONTROVERSY has reportedly erupted between the farmer whose animals were killed in Choma and veterinary officers after it was discovered that eight carcasses of cattle from the 71 slaughtered animals had gone missing.

Last Saturday, veterinary officers slaughtered 32 cattle, 28 goats, and 11 sheep, valued at K138, 000 belonging to a farmer, Mr Keme Syantumbe. This was after Mr. Syantumbe attempted to move his animals from Pemba to Mumbwa via Man’gunza on foot from the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) affected area.

The Choma Magistrate Court has ordered for the auction of the carcasses following an application by the veterinary office in Choma but before the exercise could commence yesterday, it was discovered that eight carcasses were missing.

The veterinary officers, when confronted by Mr. Syantumbe about the whereabouts of his animals, reportedly told him they had been burnt.

The auction went ahead as planned but Mr Syantumbe later accused the officers of insincerity in an interview.

“They seized and killed all my animals but never gave me results from the samples they took to ascertain if they had the disease. The worst part is that when we went for auction, eight carcasses were missing and when I confronted them, they told me they had burnt them.

The National Action for Quality Education in Zambia is disturbed over the horrible working conditions for teachers in most private schools across Zambia.

Last year on 30th June, the organisation issued a statement detailing the findings of the survey they did with regards to conditions of service of teachers in private schools.

The national survey had revealed that teachers working in most privately-owned schools were exposed to salaries below the statutory minimum wage with some trained teachers shockingly getting paid below K800 as salary.

The Organisation called on the Ministry of Labour to swing into action and arrest the industrial chaos in these schools but the Ministry was unmoved and the ugly picture has remained the same.

Aaron Chansa, the Organisation Executive Director said teachers in most private schools have continued to get slavery salaries.

Mr. Chansa said this is a big insult to the teaching profession and cannot be allowed to continue and has demanded that all teachers in Zambia be respected and rewarded handsomely for shaping futures of all in society.

He said the nation must further be informed that most owners of private schools in Zambia do not want their teachers to be unionized.

Mr. Chansa said this sad reality exposes teachers to a lot of intimidations and job insecurities and has encouraged teachers in private schools to unite and form a trade union which will be able to advance their interests.

The Lusaka City Council says preliminary investigations into the fire that gutted some makeshift stalls at Kulima Tower bus station indicate that it was caused by a brazier.

LCC Public Relations Manager George Sichimba says a brazier was left unattended to in one of the makeshift restaurants.

Mr. Sichimba says the owner or worker could have knocked off leaving a pot of beans boiling in readiness for early customers today.

He says it is suspected that the pot started burning after water completely evaporated or fire could have just spread from the source to other parts of the shop.

Mr. Sichimba however says a few other shops where affected but quick response by LCC Fire Brigade prevented fire from spreading further.

He told ZNBC News in a statement that three fire engines where dispatched immediately the fire was reported.

Mr. Sichimba has since warned traders in markets and other trading places, including those that could be lighting fire to warm themselves to avoid leaving fire unattended to.

He said this season is prone to fire outbreaks because of windy conditions which could easily spread fire from a source to other areas.

Mr. Sichimba has also warned residents not to be leaving candles unattended to at night, especially that the city is experiencing Zesco power load management.

Last night fire broke out at Kulima tower bus station affecting the pre fabricated stalls.
[ZNBC]

The University of Zambia and the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see a more strengthened partnership between the two institutions.

The signing ceremony comes after the initial meeting between ZNBC and UNZA earlier this year, where the two institutions agreed to formalize collaboration in areas of mutual interest.

UNZA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Luke Mumba, said the background to the memorandum was anchored in the shared mandate of both ZNBC and UNZA which was to communicate and educate the public.

He said that UNZA, like ZNBC, belong to the Zambian people which exist to serve the public interest.

“The public out there is in need of information about what we are doing in the area of research outputs to address the many challenges our society faces. The public out there is also looking for expert information and objective scientific and philosophical analysis of economic, scientific, cultural, educational, health and medical matters. We are the thought leaders and we are required, as a matter of national duty, to inform and educate the public in a purely professional manner in all disciplines,” Professor Mumba said.

Speaking at the same event, ZNBC Director General Richard Mwanza, said UNZA is a key institution to Zambia’s socio-economic development as it provides human resource, which is the most important resource needed to develop the country.

Mr. Mwanza added that public institutions like ZNBC and UNZA have a huge responsibility to address concerns and challenges affecting the general public.

He said that the formalized partnership between UNZA and ZNBC will guarantee the university success in the area of information dissemination to the public because ZNBC is well positioned and equipped to produce high quality and tailor-made advertisements and programmes on behalf of institutions such as UNZA.

Mr. Mwanza is pleased that through the MoU, ZNBC will be able to broadcast educational content to the audience in line with its key pillars which are: to inform and educate the public.

Through this MoU, UNZA and ZNBC, are setting out to achieve a collaboration on broadcasting services, training, technical support, and provision of expert analysis available from the pull of experts at UNZA.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 152 million children are victims of child labour worldwide.

ILO has said that half of that number, 73 million children aged between 5 and 17 years, work in hazardous child labour.

The ILO figures further show that the majority of child laborers in the whole world are in Africa, with the continent accounting for 72 million in child labour.

Meanwhile Panos Institute Southern Africa has noted the need for close collaboration among stakeholders to arrest child labour which remains rampant in Southern Africa.

The Organisation says there is need for communities, schools, the private sector, traditional leaders, government agencies, and the media to enhance their efforts to end child labor.

Lillian Kiefer, the Organisation Executive Director said in a statement that her organisation views child labour as one of the major setbacks to the realisation of children’s goals, as it denies them access to opportunities for personal and professional development.

The World Day Against Child Labour is commemorated annually on 12th June and this year’s commemoration is under the theme: Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams!

Mrs. Keifer said Panos views child labour as one of the major setbacks to the realisation of children’s goals, as it denies them access to opportunities for personal and professional development.

She said that in most rural communities, it is almost normal to see children going to work in the field before going to school, and after they return to school or not going to school altogether to work in the fields and this is of great concern.

Mrs. Keifer said that Child labour is a gross violation of children’s rights, as it has gross and far reaching physical and emotional effects on the children.

She has since endorsed the World Day Against Child Labour theme that children should not work in the fields, but they should be supported to work on their dreams.

Mrs. Keifer said Panos is currently working with various stakeholders to advance the protection of children from abusive practices such as child labour.

A Zambian family living in South Africa in Edenvale East Rand Gauteng Province has cheated death after their house was gutted by fire last night.

The fire that was caused by the sitting room Chimney destroyed the house to ashes and households goods.

Mr. Ensulo Chinyamuka and his family fled the house as they were waiting for the Fire attendants to put off the fire.

He has since thanked the Edenvale Community Police for coming to the aid of his family and the Zambian Community for rendering help.

And Acting Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Maynard Misapa is happy that no life was lost in the inferno.

This is according to a statement issued to the media by First Secretary for Press at the Zambian High Commission in South Africa.

Paper recommends scripted lessons where necessary to help teachers cover the subject correctly

Paris, 12 June— Comprehensive sexuality education is an essential part of a good quality education that improves reproductive health and contributes to gender equality, argues Facing the Facts, a new policy paper by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report at UNESCO that seeks to dispel social and political resistance to sexuality education in many countries.

Globally, each year, 15 million girls marry before the age of 18, some 16 million 15-19 year olds and one million girls under 15 give birth. Young people moreover account for a third of new HIV infections among adults and across 37 low and middle-income countries, yet only approximately one third of people aged 15-24 years have comprehensive knowledge of HIV prevention and transmission.

“It’s time to face the facts,” argues Director of the GEM Report, Manos Antoninis, “More than one in ten births are among girls between 15 and 19 years old. This not only spells the end of their education, but is often fatal, with pregnancy and childbirth the leading cause of death among this age group.”

The new policy paper presents the evidence of the benefits of age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education. Even children at the age of five need to understand basic facts about their body, think about family and social relationships and recognize inappropriate behaviour and identify abuse. Otherwise, many will grow up with inaccurate beliefs, like roughly half the girls in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who believe menstruation to be a disease and 82% of girls in Malawi, who know nothing about menstruation before experiencing it themselves.

Children and young people should receive comprehensive sexuality education before they become sexually active. This helps them protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and promotes values of tolerance, mutual respect and non-violence in relationships.

Nevertheless, vocal resistance to comprehensive sexuality education by some groups in a number of countries has been rising. In Uganda, a public backlash led the Ministry of Education to withdraw the national sexuality education curriculum, which was subsequently revised.

Antoninis continued: “Comprehensive sexuality education is part and parcel of a good quality education, the achievement of good health outcomes and progress towards gender equality. Yet in many parts of the world, opposition to comprehensive sexuality education has not only halted progress in sexual and reproductive health and rights, but reversed it.”

Introducing comprehensive sexuality education in the curriculum is insufficient without adequate teacher training to bolster instructors’ motivation and confidence in addressing the full range of topics concerned. In Kenya, a study of 78 public and private secondary schools showed that while 75% of teachers reported teaching all topics of a comprehensive sexuality education programme, only 2% of students reported learning them all. Only 20% learned about types of contraception and even fewer learned how to use and where to get them. In some cases, incomplete and sometimes inaccurate information was taught. Almost 60% of teachers incorrectly taught that condoms alone were not effective in pregnancy prevention. Moreover, 71% of teachers emphasized abstinence as the best or only method for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and most depicted sex as dangerous or immoral for young people. Namibia has tackled this by creating scripted lesson plans for teachers, while Tanzania has created online resources that teachers can turn to when in doubt.

Another problem for teachers may be a lack of lesson plans or teaching materials that are gender and human rights sensitive and reflect contemporary realities. In Ghana, Guatemala and Peru, around three-quarters of teachers reported a lack of lesson plans, learning activities and other teaching materials. Indeed, curriculum content is found to be the weak point of comprehensive sexuality education in many African countries.

Data collection on comprehensive sexuality education is also a challenge. There is now one simple question on the number of schools providing life-skills based HIV and sexuality education being used in 165 countries since 2017. Ten eastern and southern African countries, for example, have integrated such questions into their annual school census questionnaire. However, progress is not consistent across the board: recent analysis from the United Republic of Tanzania suggests that school heads are not being oriented on how to collect the data and report back.

The paper has six key recommendations for countries

1. Invest in teacher education and support,

2. Make curricula relevant and evidence based,

3. Develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and ensure implementation,

4. Work with other sectors to bring about real change, notably with the health sector to link schools with health services and leverage funds,

5. Engage with community and parent organizations to overcome resistance that is not based on facts.