LILLIAN CHIKANDI writes
RESIDENTS of Siachibuba community in Chirundu district have expressed concern over the performance of teachers at the local Siachibuba primary school in Kanyanga ward.
Mr Francise Hadima a parent alleged that it is worrying with what was happening at the only school in the community.
“It is regrettable because as parents we are not involved in school management to know how the school is being run but we are impressed with the manner teachers at this carry ut their duties,” he said
Mr. Hadima said therefore that it was very important that parents should be involved in the affairs of the school for them to monitor progress.
Another parent Sylvester Mulopa said it was very disturbing that teachers absented themselves from work without proper explanation, leaving pupils on their own. “The head teacher is ever out of office while teachers are always absent,” he said
Mr. Mulopa said there was need to increase the number of teachers at the school and balance up the pupil and teacher ratio to improve the academic performance of pupils.
He has charged that pupils just went to school for formalities otherwise their performance was very poor.
Meanwhile, Chirundu district education board secretary Ms Veronica Mubanga has promised to summon Siachibuba primary school head teacher and find out why the community was complaining and find ways to correct the situation.
Ms Mubanga said that the district had a shortage of teachers and has since requested for more teachers from the ministry of general education.
In another development another parent Ms. Mercy Mutinta has appealed to the district education board secretary and Chirundu district council offices to inspect private schools and close down those that were not meeting the required standards. Ms. Mutinta said it was heart-breaking that some private schools were charging high fees and yet had very poor sanitation.
She appealed to the district commissioner’s office to intervene and call for fair school fees in private schools.
Ms. Mutinta charged that most of private schools in the area were exorbitantly charging for tuition fees but did not pay well their teachers to motivate them.
She said private school teachers were the mostly under paid far below the minimum wage and that could negatively affect pupils’ performance.
