Mpezeni calls for investment in education
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Sun 23 May 2010, 04:00 CAT
PARAMOUNT chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people in Eastern Province has urged Zambians to invest in education. During the government’s handover of a 1 x 3 classroom block at Mpezeni Park Basic School on Friday, Mpezeni said nothing could be achieved in life without education.
“The most important thing is education. Without it there is nothing that can be achieved. Doctors are able to heal people because they went to school to learn. Education is the most important thing. These others are just secondary. Even our President he first went to school, so education is the most important thing on earth,” Mpezeni said.
“Do you think somebody can become a president without going to school? Can someone become a doctor without a teacher? Let’s respect a teacher, a teacher is like a parent. I for one have a lot of respect for a teacher,” Mpezeni commended school head teacher Ruth Jere and the Parents Teachers Association for working hard in developing the school.
“Women are also good leaders. Look at Mrs Jere, she has achieved a lot here but let’s work hand in hand with her. Even me I can’t manage my work if I don’t work with people,” said Mpezeni.
And Eastern Province education officer Pilila Jere said the government had embarked on a high school construction project in Kasenengwa Constituency at a cost of K25 billion.
She said the government was constructing other high schools in Chama South and Kacholola in Nyimba that would be opened next January. Jere said the schools were ultra modern and had cost the government K24 billion each.
District education board secretary Kezias Lungu commended chief Mpezeni for providing a good environment for civil servants working in his area.
Labels: CHIEF MPEZENI, EDUCATION, PILILA JERE
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Govt owes Eastern Province teachers K15bn – PEO
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thu 11 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT
EASTERN Province education officer Pilila Jere has said the ministry owes teachers in the province about K15 billion in unpaid outstanding allowances.
Featuring on a Breeze FM Budget Tracking programme on Tuesday, Jere commended teachers for being committed to work despite the outstanding allowances owed to them by the Ministry of Education.
“The strike that we had last year was not as a result of maladministration in the province, they were as a result of national issues. When you talk about rural hardship you are talking about issues that affect all teachers in the country, so Eastern Province was not spared,” Jere said.
“In terms of outstanding bills, the province has about K15 billion in form of outstanding bills and these are in different categories. We have leave terminal, leave travel benefits, long service salary arrears, excess leave and other allowances. Under leave, we have a total amount of K3.7 billion that is outstanding, leave travel we have K1.7 billion, long service bonus we have about K868.9 million, under salary arrears we have K4.4 billion, under excess leave K630 million and acting allowance we have K1.6 billion. So you can see that the bill is huge and most of our retired senior citizens are also badly affected.”
She said her office had received some money in the line of salary-related allowances that include leave travel, leave terminal, long service bonus and salary arrears.
Jere said her office had been allocated with K31 billion that would go towards outstanding bills.
Jere revealed that most retired teachers were affected by the outstanding debt, which resulted from insufficient funding to the ministry due to the global financial crisis experienced last year.
And senior planning officer at the provincial education office, Steven Zimba said the province had a lot of needs in infrastructure development like dilapidated structures, lack of staff accommodation and lack of furniture in schools.
Zimba said the ministry would need billions of kwacha to ensure that all the challenges affecting the ministry were addressed.
He revealed that the Ministry of Education in Chipata had been forced to cut down on the identified projects from 30 to about five due to inadequate funding.
However, Zimba said the Ministry of Education was thankful to the government for providing resources to the education sector.
Labels: DOMESTIC DEBT, EASTERN PROVINCE, PILILA JERE, TEACHERS
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