E-learning will reach rural areas - Hamukale

GOVERNMENT will ensure that rural areas are electrified to facilitate e-learning by pupils in outlying areas, Southern Province Minister Edify Hamukale has said.

The minister said the call by District Education Board Secretaries (DEBS) in the province for electrification of rural areas was justified.

Dr Hamukale said this would ensure that the e-learning being spearheaded by the Ministry of General Education yielded positive results. He noted that pupils in most schools that had no electricity missed out on lessons being aired on radio and television adding that Government would ensure that the challenged were addressed.

Dr Hamukale was speaking in Monze during his tour of all the districts of Southern Province to assess the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

During a presentation, Monze DEBS, Webster Mwiinga, informed the minister that schools in the district had not been spared from negative effects of Covid-19. Mr Mwiinga said his office had partnered with World Vision Zambia and Radio Chikuni to provide lessons to the rural learners through some radio programmes.

He added that although there was an urgent need to embrace new ways of education provision electronically, lack of electricity in most rural schools was a hindrance.

Mr Mwiinga said that all schools were adhering to health guidelines and were stocked with adequate face masks, hand sanitizers and hand washing facilities.

Meanwhile, Dr Hamukale said some senior officers had the tendency of maligning their junior officers to be promoted. He explained that the civil service needed senior officers who could speak for their juniors as opposed to suppressing them and scheming evil against them.