By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –

LACK of accommodation at Mambili Basic School in Chingola rural is compelling teachers to commute to the school 35 kilometres away from the town centre and spend K30 everyday on transport.
The teachers have since called on Government to consider building more houses for them to be closer to the school and save money from transport costs, as it was unsustainable for them.
Head teacher at the school Christine Kapyeleta said the school had 15 teachers against four staff houses with two being occupied by married teachers, while the other two were being shared by single teachers.
“The remaining two houses are shared by single teachers with one house having three teachers, the other eight teachers are forced to commute from Chingola town which is about 35 kilometres and we spend K30 everyday to and from school,” Ms Kapyeleta said.
The one by three classroom block school at the school accommodates 500 pupils, with the three classrooms subdivided to make six rooms to accommodate about 45 pupils each.
The school is still operating as a basic school due to lack of a secondary school in the area and enrols pupils that come as far as 15 kilometres away.
Ms Kapeyeleta commended Government through the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) for electrifying the school.
She said the electrifying of the school would help teachers implement the new syllabus, which requires them to conduct computer lessons.
“Once we acquire computers it will be easy for us to teach computer lessons with the electrification of the school,” she said.
The headteacher said school management would introduce evening classes to enable those who dropped out of school as a result of early marriages and lack of funds, continue with their education.
Mambili Basic School is one of the schools that were electrified through the Kang’wena grid extension programme being executed under the REA programme.
Other places that were electrified through the project include Boso Market and Milulu Basic School.