MPs take Lungwangwa to task

MPs take Lungwangwa to task
By David Silwamba
Friday February 16, 2007 [02:00]

OPPOSITION members of parliament on Wednesday took education minister professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa to task for saying the grade nine pupils who failed the examinations can go for long distance or adult education. And the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) observed that the high number of pupils that did not write the examinations due to lack of money contradicted the free education policy.

Responding to a question from Roan member of parliament, Chishimba Kambwili, after he presented a ministerial statement on the 2006 grade nine examinations, prof Lungwangwa said the dropouts had opportunities to advance their education through skills training, Academic Production Unit (APU), adult education and long distance education. "For the information of the honourable member, our education system has other opportunities other than the formal education. There is adult education, long distance education, skills training and APU," said prof Lungwangwa who repeatedly underplayed the small number of pupils that passed. "I wouldn't say the results are very bad but we are making improvement in the progression rate." He argued that the results were a true reflection of the performance of the pupils following the stringent measures his ministry had put in place to curb malpractices.

Kabwata member of parliament Given Lubinda expressed surprise with prof Lungwangwa for saying the children could go for distance education. Lubinda said there were less than 20,000 school places for skills training and distance education and wondered what would happen to the 'little' children. But prof Lungwangwa maintained that there were alternative ways of advancing education. "It's true the places cannot accommodate all children but the plan of the ministry is to expand these alternatives to accommodate more children," he said.

Munali member of parliament Josephine Mumbi, who said grade nine pupils were aged between 12 and 14 years, wondered why prof Lungwangwa wanted to encourage these children to go for adult education. However, prof Lungwangwa said pupils in grade nine were above 14 years. "I don't know where the honourable member is getting that statistic," said prof Lungwangwa, as Kambwili shouted, "ulakana abana."

Presenting a ministerial statement, prof Lungwangwa said 66,877 pupils were selected to grade 10 out of 176,263 candidates, giving a progression rate of 37.94 per cent compared to 36.32 per cent in 2005. He said 85,180 obtained certificates, 73,294 obtained statements, 17,789 pupils failed while 18,980 pupils were absent from the examinations countrywide. And ZNUT secretary general Roy Mwaba said the results were not good. He observed that the performance of pupils was bad because teachers were not motivated. "We want more teachers to be employed and deployed to schools," Mwaba said.

He said the planned employment of 4,000 teachers this year was a drop in the ocean. Mwaba observed that some pupils could not write the examinations because they were barred by the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) as they did not have examination fees. "In this country there is free education for all, but pupils are barred from writing exams because they don't have examination fees. This is a contradiction," said Mwaba. "Free education should be there in practice."