GOVERNMENT will ensure that more hostels are constructed at the University of Zambia and the deteriorated roofing system is renovated with utmost urgency.
Education Minister Dora Siliya said this in Lusaka yesterday during the tour of the University of Zambia Great East Road campus.
She said the new hostels and the stalled ones in the eastern side of the institution would only accommodate about 1,000 students in total and yet the shortfall was over 6,000.
Ms Siliya said Government had spent K13 billion on the construction of the new hostels that would be commissioned before the end of the year.
She was shocked that about 50 students were accommodated in one room in Africa big student flats.
The students left their property especially clothes and bags littered everywhere and movement from one point to another required to step on beds.
“For the female students this is not normal. Let me just say this situation is bad for all students because firstly it is very hot and unhealthy,” Ms Siliya said.
There was urgent need to restore sanity at the institution but this would be done at a manageable pace.
Ms Siliya said Government was facing shared challenges to address problems faced by institutions of higher education.
The minister was worried that the roofing system was leaking water to the rooms down stairs due to defective taps and water pipes.
She said she would seek specific steps from other Cabinet ministers especially Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane to ensure the students hostels were renovated.
The deep roof-leaks were noted in the library, the student hostel and the administration block.
She said Government would ensure that the huge debt UNZA owes retired staff was dismantled to allow for the expansion projects at the institution.
UNZA acting vice-chancellor Wilson Mwenya said the student-lecturer ratio had increased to one lecture per 27 students, which required expansion to the limited infrastructure.
[Times of Zambia]
DORA IS NOW A FRIEND OF HER FORMER SCHOOL UNZA. SHE WAS GREETED WITH JUBILIATION AS SHE TOURED THE HOSTELS. THE STUDENTS HAVE COME TO REALISE THAT THIS YOUNGLADY MEANS WELL. I BELIEVE DORA WILL UPLIFT THE LIVING CONDITIONS AT UNZA SHE IS ACTION ORIENTED MINISTER. BAKAPONYA SPARE YOUR INSULTS FOR KAPONYA FEMALE MPS IN PF
“She was shocked that about 50 students were accommodated in one room in Africa big student flats.”
Shocked?!…..C’mon now Ms. Piggy, you should know better.
Wait a minute, when did the cost of those hostels escalate from K6bn to K13bn?
Blind leading the blind!
# 3 Splaka dont u realise that these so called projects are one way of siphoning money for MMD campaigns next year.It will never stop.Only stupid pipo can be fooled not real Zambians.
When the PACT forms govt next year all these things shall be revealed and pipo will be prosecuted genuinely (that is after an overhaul of our justice sytem is undertaken from magistrates to judges;fresh blood).that is when you hear that such and such a school which was purportedly built for K30bn would have been built for a third of the price.
What is funnier is that all this is happening while EIZ and NCC (National Council for Construction) just stand by and watch.
Spot on MMD! Govt of the people, for the people and by the people. The clock is working.
“Everything is double double, everything is triple triple” -Chiefs Stan and Ephy
#1 LADY GAGA . Please dont be biased due to personal gains. How long has your friend Dora been in Cabinet to realise today that UNZA has gone to dogs? Have ever been to their ablution blocks? Even a ‘Kaponya’ from Kulima tower will realise that this lady is just trying to gain some mileage politically. Unza has some bulding projects which havent been completed for a long time. How is that being managed? Sorry to say this but your thinking is flawed. UNZA is supposed to be the best highest learning institution in Zambia with proper facilities and general environment. Ask your self why MMD Chief Bootlicker decided to sent his kids to SA universities. Lady GAGA……………I pity your man/boyfriend if you are not gay.
The situation at UNZA has been well known for a long time now. Dora should not pretend.
this is nonsense..don’t pretend as if you didnt know..the earlier you sorted out the mess..the better..or else..!mmd gone..
So Miss Piggy now has the courage to go to UNZU. Awsome!
hey, i have my own reservation-the mmd is tryin by all means to touch here and there-to show they re working.?Remember you cannot fatten a dead cow!
HOT AIR! That’s all i’m going to say.
#8motsepe a child walks with the first step you should appreciate that Dora has accepted UNZA has a problem which she has promised to address. you cannot solve all the problems but I can assure you dora will do the best she can to sort out issues. she isnt like you who run away from zambia and go to jburg of all places hilbrow to seek refuge all in vain.
We should not condemn the Minister of Education. On the contrary, we ought to thank her, for she has opened our understanding of our leaders. That the Minister of Education is shocked is well. For it instructively reveals our lesaders’s high incidence of ignorance of the challenges that scar the face of our homeland and define the lives of many of our people. As for UNZA, the name of the old hostels(captured in the picture above) says it all! The Ruins! Government is indeed to blame but it is equally a shame for all of us, a festering blight on us as all, a free people!
that
Have you?! or did you?!