PHIRI
By CHILA NAMAIKO, ALICK MVULA, ANDREW PHIRI, YVONNE CHATE and
NAKUBIANA SHABONGO-
TEACHERS have urged the Government to increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector if Zambia is to achieve the Vision 2030 development agenda.
Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) deputy general secretary David Banda said the education sector had continued to face numerous challenges in its efforts to deliver quality education.
Mr Banda said inadequate finances towards the Ministry of Education had continued to be a major challenge which had led to poor infrastructure in most schools.
He was speaking during the commemoration of the World Teachers Day at the Cricket Club in Kitwe.
Speaking during similar celebrations in Ndola, ZNUT vice-president Maggie Kaulu urged the Government to pay all outstanding allowances owed to teachers to motivate them in their duties.
Ms Kauku said there were a number of allowances that were outstanding and the Government should clear them to motivate teachers.
“Teachers work without resources or proper training and where they engage in training, Government has not recognised their efforts by placing them in correct salary scales.
The Government should, therefore, increase funding to the sector,” she said.
Officiating at the Lusaka commemorations, Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Minister John Phiri said the Government would enhance budgetary provisions for the procurement of teaching and learning materials to promote e-learning, open and distance learning.
Dr Phiri said the Government would also meet the deficit of Science and Mathematics teachers through the construction of the Robert Makasa University of Science and Mathematics.
He said his ministry would upgrade teachers’ qualifications through a fast track programme to ensure that in the long run, the minimum qualification for a teacher would be a diploma and in the long term a degree.
“My ministry has established the Teaching Council as a result of a Teaching Profession Bill that was passed in Parliament a few months ago.
The Teaching Council will, among other things, regulate the teaching profession and ensure that professional ethics among the teachers are upheld,” said Dr Phiri.
Education Deputy Minister David Mubamba said in a speech read for him by Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge in Ndola that teachers should be role models to school-going children in order to reduce early pregnancies.
Mr Mubamba said the ministry last year recorded 12,500 pregnancies at the primary level with 4,492 readmissions while 2,428 pregnancies with 1,337 readmissions were reported in secondary schools.
In Livingstone, Tourism and Arts Deputy Minister Lawrence Evans said the Government was now focused on improving the delivery of quality education at all levels to attain sustainable economic development.
In Mansa, Health Deputy Minister Chitalu Chilufya said more than 85 per cent of the Constituency Development Funds in Mansa Central for 2013 and 2014 had gone to the Ministry of Education, as K300,000 had been set aside to support educational bursaries for the vulnerable children, especially girls.
