Qalified Sinda pupils face bleak future
By NATION REORTER LUANSHYA Municipal Council has kicked off the commemoration of this year’s Local Government Week with a call on residents to take up the leading role in the transformation of the mining town as a way of promoting sustainable social economic development.
As part of the commemoration activities, the council and some devolved government departments are holding a twoday exhibition of the services they offer to the public at Roan Shopping Mall before moving to some selected townships.
Council public relations manager Gideon Thole said in a statement that the on-going exhibitions were part of an ambitious community sensitisation campaign aimed at improving the council’s service delivery mandate and promoting sustainable community participation in local development.
Mr Thole said the local authority had created an enabling environment for business opportunities in various sectors of the economy. He said residents, local and foreign investors should maximise the opportunities as a way of expediting the development process.
He said the council was also using the Local Government Week to gather feedback on its service delivery as part of the periodic review process aimed at ensuring that all residents accessed services in an equitable way as laid down in the Local Government Act Cap 281 of the Laws of Zambia.
"Members of the public are being encouraged to attend the exhibitions and sensitisation meetings where they are being informed about the local authority's guiding principles such as openness, transparency and accountability which are required for efficient and effective service delivery," Mr Thole said.
This year’s Local Government Week is being commemorated under the theme ‘Fighting corruption at local level, a sustainable way to transform Africa from within its territories’. By NATION REPORTER
MANY qualified pupils in Sinda are unable to go further with their education because of limited secondary schools, district Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Festone Mtonga has disclosed.
Mr Mtonga however said the World Bank would construct a secondary school in the area at a cost of K264, 357.75 to be fed by numerous surrounding primary schools.
He said the World Bank hoped to complete the project by December so that in January 2019 the school could be opened.
Addressing a PTA meeting at Mng’omba primary school Mr Mtonga said that parents at times failed to provide necessary needs for their children when they passed to go to grades 8 and 10.
“Sinda has a lot of children who drop out of school because they fail to access places in secondary schools,
“However the government will provide a comprehensive education system so that children access education from lower grades up to secondary school level without anyone being disadvantaged,” Mr Mtonga said.
He called on Sinda Member of Parliament Masauso Tembo and council chairperson Michael Phiri to continue supporting the communities and see to it that the government’s agenda was achieved.
And Mr Phiri warned the community to desist from stealing building materials for the school project and urged them to work diligently to ensure that the project was a success.
Meanwhile Mr Tembo expressed happiness that government with the help of the World Bank were going to construct a secondary school which will help reduce early marriages in the area.
And Chieftainess Kawaza’s Induna Katepela Banda said the construction of the school would help the pupils to stop moving long distances to access secondary schools elsewhere.