Publishers demand public hearing over Education Ministry ‘sins’

LOCAL publishers have demanded that government holds public hearings to find out the full extent of problems in the Ministry of General Education, which they say should be reorganised to ensure that real culprits involved in corruption are flushed out. Former Publishers Association of Zambia vice chairperson Alice Mkandawire noted that the problems in that ministry could only be resolved by involving all stakeholders because there were some individuals determined to frustrate government efforts. She said corruption allegations levelled against the ministry were not new. Ms Mkandawire said the Ministry needs to be reorganised and decentralised because this is what gives room for corruption. Had the publishers’ complaints been heard in the first place, the situation would have been different, she said, adding it should not take the Head of State to act on everything when there were people put in positions to ensure service delivery. “Everything is in a mess in that ministry and there will be no solutions that can be found if other stakeholders are not going to be involved. “If at all our concerns were heard, the situation would have been different, but some individuals took advantage of the public offices without realising the mess they were creating and putting the country’s education sector in jeopardy,” she said. She indicated that the ministry needed to be reorganised if quality education was to be realised. Ms Mkandawire said book writers and publishers were among the teachers who were capable of advising, but that selfish individuals had taken advantage of loopholes in the ministry. “When we talked about corruption, we knew what we were talking about because the system that was adopted by the Ministry did not work to the best of the nation and innocent officials were even fired for trying to rectify the problem,” she lamented.