Science, Technology and Vocational Training Minister Brian Chituwo has said the MMD Government deserves to be commended for living up to its promises, as has been demonstrated time and again, from the time it ascended to power.
Dr. Chituwo said this in Kasama yesterday, when he handed over ten (10) flat-screened computers to Lukashya Trades Training Institute. The computers were purchased by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training at a total cost of K49 million.
Dr. Chituwo further gave the institution a grant worth K42 million to help in the smooth running of the institution.
The donations were made after Dr.Chituwo undertook a conducted familiarization tour of the 68 year old training institution led by its Principal, Anderson Mtonga.
Dr. Chituwo further promised that his Ministry would release another K12 million to help the carpentry students at the training institution produce up to 50 classroom desks.
Speaking during the Minister’s tour, a carpentry student Gabriel Maluba appealed to government to assist students like him set up business for others to learn from.
ZANIS
Why thank the people who get paid very well for the job that is not very well done? And can you imagine a minister talking about 10 personal Computers to a college? Dr Chituwo!! Trips are sponsored, where the Bwana Dr Bwezani Kumbuyo Banda is donations follow. Why technocrats can sink so low has always been a crucial research question.
Dr. Chituwo, you are better than this.Please do not let R.B use you and tarnish your good reputation!
Lukashya trades had no computers whatsoever, and now they have ten. Which one is better, zero or ten?
Where are the priorities for these people? Are you telling me that zed colleges are not yet computerized?
I wonder how much was spent to go and deliver this speech. Hopefully, it was within the 10% threshold. And what promises are these which are being fulfilled? All I remember as the MMD’s promise was ‘building on the legacy’, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean!
Ba Chituwo, please, probably you have forgotten that you have closed colleges for census purposes. I have checked the all history on census in Zambia and I have failed to find a single day we missed classes because of census. There are a lot of empty offices in Zambia and every province has the government offices that could have been used for that purpose. Sacrificing education seem to been very retrogressive. A month without learning, a month without working but paying all those instructors at these colleges is a misuse of resources. I am not the ground to assess the scene, but surely there are other alternatives that could have been used. Ba Doctor, how does your ministry make a donation to your ministry’s institution? Is Lukashya a private college now?
Pathetic. While 10 computers may be better than zero, both are below par by a margin so large it is unfathomable. That one has the guts to spin this into campaign material illustrates how low these “leaders” have set for us. It would be one thing if these people were in the trenches with us while making these statements but they continue to educate their kids abroad where on average it costs 20 to 40 thousand dollars a year to educate one foreign student. If we do the math that is easily 100 computers, two qualified instructors, plenty of desks and food for 100 students over 4 years at an institution such as this one. 10 is better than 1 my behind!!!!!
#3 Busakile man: if institutions were serious they would receive free computers from higher institutions of developed nations. The department i work for buys new computers every year; and I approached my former secondary school with an idea of shipping them very good used pcs, pre-installed with valuable software. The response? They thought I wanted to start politics. Well, Lukasha with 10 computers; progress you may argue, I guess.
#6 Kalos2121. Your comments are worth taking into consideration. Excellent observation. The donation remark does not make sense. True enough Lukashya Trades School is not private.
#6&11 This is outside the budgetary allocation for the Institution and therefore it is a donation. Of course the allocation is meagre but that is another issue.
while the work done by the gov is commendable, more needs to he done if we are to achieve any of the mdgs. I also don’t see how the purchase of 10th pcs should be political news.
No 10.Pal I appreciate your contribution as it has put one piece in the puzzle to those of us who thought it was odd to donate to your own ministry.But why should something as useful as PCs for a high institution of learning with no PCs not be factored in the budget,this day and era?Only with wrong priorities.Should a guardian leave out school fees(or relish) in the family budget only to come and introduce them as a donation?It goes back to the brown envelop and slush fund mentality which made one kafupi appear benevolent by giving to us what his minister of finance forgot to give us -of course he took the money and gave us change! This is a campaign gimmick and honestly,its mockery coming from one of Zambia’s finest surgeons