11/03/2022
Parents appeal for infrastructure
The Parents Teachers Association (PTA) at Chinzete Primary School in Rufunsa District of Lusaka Province has appealed to Government to help them build permanent structures as pupils are learning in grass thatched structures.
Parents Teachers Committee (PTC) Chairperson, Christopher Mwila and Senior Headman Chinzete who together with other parents, found quenching a fire that had gutted one the makeshift structures yesterday, said that parents have been struggling to have permanent structures at their school but to no avail.
Mr Mwila who thanked Government for introducing free education from pre to secondary school but appealed for construction of classroom blocks to help pupils learn in a conducive environment.
Mr. Mwila said people especially in rural areas are happy with the introduction of free education from pre school to grade twelve as this has enabled those that could not afford to pay school fees to send their children back to school.
He however said just as much as they appreciate the free education, they are appealing to Government to consider putting up permanent structures so that children learn in conducive environment.
And Roleni Njovu, a mother with three children at the school lamented that the parents moulded bricks and applied for Constituency Development Funds (CDF) but their application was not considered.
Ms. Njovu said the bricks have now gone to waste as they are the ones pupils use for sitting as they do not have desks or furniture.
And Senior Headman Chinzete added that the school was upgraded from a community school to a primary in 2017 and one Government teacher was deployed to the school.
“But we do not have infrastructure so the teacher commutes from another school where there is accommodation, he has to cover a distance of 15 Kilomters,” he said.
Headman Chinzete said the school which runs from pre school to grade seven has only one teacher on pay roll while the other is a volunteer but trained.
He appealed to the Government to consider putting up classroom blocks and staff houses in schools that were upgraded from community schools to primary and also send teachers to help the learners.
Headman Chinzete also thanked Government for its free education policy as this has helped a lot of families take their children back to school.
He said families were failing to raise school requirements and school fees and most of the children had stopped going to school with others going into early marriages.
Headman Chinzete added that most children who had stopped school have now gone back into school.