INCREASE GRANTS TO MAINTAIN SCHOOLS – NAQUEZ

GOVERNMENT should increase the school grants to maintain all the public schools in order to curtail shortcomings in the near future, National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQUEZ) Executive Director Aaron Chansa has said.

Dr Chansa said quality education could only be attained if public schools had adequate funding to address challenges that they faced.

He told The Scoop in an interview that there were various areas that deserved attention such as sanitation to schools to avoid any shortcomings in an event when there was an outbreak such as cholera.

Dr Chansa also said there was a need to continue sensitizing learners on dangers of cholera and ensure all the school surroundings were clean.

He has however welcomed the move by the Ministry of Education and its team for conducting an Dr Chansa said the Government should allocate more funding for grants; schools would be able to prepare adequately before and after an outbreak of cholera.

“We need more funding to the education sector so that schools are able to prepare adequately for the shortcomings and in the event that something happens, without disturbing the school calendar, they will be able to tackle the challenges,” he said.inspection to schools and ensured they were ready for opening on Monday February, 12.

Meanwhile, Dr Chansa said a week period of closing in the first term was not enough for both teachers and learners to rest.

He said the negative effect of late opening should spread to all the three terms so that the lost time was recovered to give ample time for teachers and learners to prepare for the following terms.

He said the Government should be more proactive and not just being reactive, to ensure all the adjustments put in place were implemented if the country was to have quality education.

On Wednesday Minister of Education Douglas Siakalima announced that schools would be opened on Monday February 12, 2024 and that the inspection process to schools would continue in a wake of cholera that had prolonged the reopening of schools.

Mr Siakalima said the decision to maintain the opening date followed a National Disaster Management and Mitigation Council of Ministers meeting held on Wednesday, February 7 and was satisfied that the interventions put in place were yielding fruits and would continue to do so in the fight against Cholera.