Zambia: Government calls for partnerships with stakeholders to improve access to education

África/Zambia/Septiembre de 2016/Fuente: Lusakatimes

RESUMEN: Gobierno ha pedido colaboración continua con las partes interesadas especialmente en las comunidades para mejorar el acceso a la educación para los niños. El Ministerio de Educación,  Allan Lingambe dijo que el gobierno por sí solo no puede llegar a proporcionar educación a las expectativas de todos. Mientras tanto, hubo un fuerte debate entre los padres, el Ejecutivo del PTA y la administración de la escuela cuando se propone aumentar tarifas a los usuarios en un 100 por ciento. Algunos padres  sentían que un incremento de 100 por ciento era demasiado alto, especialmente ya que  la mayoría de ellos aún no habían pagado por sus hijos este año. La escuela justificó la propuesta argumentando que se necesita para construir un vestíbulo, una sala de profesores y una cancha de baloncesto que no estaban disponibles en la institución de aprendizaje. Observó que el gobierno ha dado prioridad a la ampliación de la prestación de la educación con el fin de cumplir con los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS).

Government has called for continued partnership with stakeholders especially communities to improve access to education for children.

Ministry of General Education Regional Education Officer Allan Lingambe said government alone cannot manage to provide education to the expectations of everyone.

Dr. Lingambe was speaking in a speech read for him by Guidance and Administration Senior Education Officer, Pimpa Mtolo, during the Anoya Zulu Parents, Teachers’ Association (PTA) annual general meeting held in Chipata yesterday.
He observed that government has prioritised scaling up provision of education in order to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

He emphasized that there was need to help educate, mould and mentor children in a way that would benefit them.

‘’ It is therefore by educating the child that poverty, sickness and other social problems can be eradicated. This way, we light up the future of our children, communities and the nation at large,’’ Dr. Lingambe said.

The Provincial Education Officer said cost sharing in education can help improve and provide extra infrastructure and human materials and financial resources needed to enhance provision of education.

He added that it was the duty of parents to meet other costs by paying user fees to enable the school run various programmes like sports, educational clubs, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure, among others.

Meanwhile, there was a heated debate between the parents, the PTA Executive and the school administration when the school proposed to increase user fees by 100 per cent.

Some parents felt a 100 percent increment was too high especially that most of them had not yet paid for their children this year.

The school justified the proposal arguing that it needs to construct a hall, a staff room and a basketball court which were not available at the learning institution.

The meeting later agreed to add a K 100 to the user fees which were previously pegged at K 250-00 per term.

The School’s financial report also revealed that K 346, 490.00 had not been collected for the financial year 2015 from the school’s 1, 476 pupils.

Fuente: https://www.lusakatimes.com/2016/09/25/government-calls-partnerships-stakeholders-improve-access-education/

Imagen: https://www.yahoo.com/news/zambia-schoolgirls-negotiating-value-education-215954999.html?ref=gs