By BRIAN HATYOKA
THE Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia (BETUZ) has called for increased educational financing especially towards the primary sector to enhance equity for effective teaching and learning.

. Kaingu

BETUZ General Secretary Jeff Simuntala has also asked newly appointed Education Minister Michael Kaingu to address outstanding issues in the education sector such as discrepancies in the salary scale and the backlog of arrears among others.
Mr Simuntala said the primary sector was the foundation of the education system and hence it was important that educational financing was increased towards the sector.
He was speaking in an interview in Livingstone yesterday on the sidelines of the 10th BETUZ Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Fairmount Hotel.
The conference is being held under the theme ‘advocating for increased education financing to enhance equity for effective teaching and learning for the primary sector’.
“When talking about primary sector, it is important to note that this is the foundation to our education and this is a critical sector which requires increased funding. We need school requisites such as buying school books and chalks and hence all these things require increased financing,” he said.
BETUZ wanted the Government to adhere to international protocols such as the Dakar Framework where it was agreed on how much funding should go towards the education sector.
Mr Simuntala also said there was need for the Government to ensure that the primary degrees should were placed in the correct salary scale.
On the recent move by the Government to combine some subjects, Mr Simuntala said the action was appropriate although there was need to provide adequate teaching and learning materials to support such initiatives.
“It won’t be okay to introduce such things and yet we have no learning materials. Teachers are always told to use their initiative which is not correct. Before such programmes are introduced, we need to have readily available materials,” Mr Simuntala said.
Mr Simuntala said there was need for Dr Kaingu to address various outstanding issues in the education sector.