Over-enrolment has affected quality of education – Bubala

Over-enrolment has affected quality of education – Bubala
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday, October 05, 2009 8:44:54 PM

ZAMBIA National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) general secretary Newman Bubala has said over-enrolment in schools has greatly affected the quality of education in the country.

Commenting on World Teachers Day, which falls today under the theme Build the future of the nation, invest in the teacher, Bubala said the problem of over-enrolment, if not addressed, would have a serious impact on the future of the education sector in the country.

“The number of pupils enrolled does not match the infrastructure and the number of teachers. You find in a community that has one school that is supposed to enrol 40 pupils enrols 150 pupils. How does a teacher work like that? How does the teacher mark all the books? And this is affecting the standards of education, especially the performance because the pupils will not get the individual care that is required, the number of pupils is increasing but the infrastructure remains the same,” Bubala said.

He said teachers expected the change of the budget cycle to impact positively on the education sector and see more resources allocated to it.

Bubala said the importance of education needed to be emphasised and more resources allocated to the sector.

“What kind of children will we leave behind? We need to invest in education as much as we invest in other sectors so that teachers have better conditions of service, more schools are built and more pupils are enrolled. All people need teachers to become somebody in one point in their lives,” he said.

He said more investment in the education sector could help bring about free education to enable more pupils attain some form of education.

“Most people cannot afford education and this will only result in more street children. So free education up, even up to grade twelve would be welcome and we would like that as soon as it can be done,” he said.

Bubala said the issue of housing allowance had been outstanding for a long time as the current amount of money given to teachers was not enough.

He said the housing allowance depended on the salary scale of the teachers with the highest getting about K320,000 and the lowest between K250,000 and K220,000.

Bubala said this amount was not enough to motivate teachers or enable them find decent accommodation.

Bubala said there was also the issue of pending allowances such as fixed band and rural hardship, which had not been paid completely.