Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) says it has not decided whether or not to accept pupils to grade 8 and 10 at grant aided schools that will obtain full school certificates,following the move by Ministry of Education (MoE) to abolish the cut off point.
ZEC General Secretary Paul Samasumo said the Catholic Church believes in quality of output from the pupils at their learning institutions.
In an speaking with ZANIS Fr. Samasumo stressed that the decision by government is going to affect a lot of pupils as there will be no competition among them.
Recently, the Minister of Education Geoffrey Lungwangwa announced in Parliament that government has decided to abolish the cut off point when selecting pupils to grade 10.
Professor Lungwangwa announced that government will now be admitting pupils that have only obtained full school certificates for Grades 8 and 10 instead of the ‘traditional way’ of the cut off point.
Father Samasumo implored government to build more classrooms so as to accommodate the huge number of pupils that are going to be accepted to grade 10 .
He further challenged government to put in place measures that will deter teachers in schools from going on strikes unnecessarily, a trend that will affect the academic performance of the pupils.
The clergy also implored government to provide good incentives to teachers in this year’s salary negotiations saying poor wages compromised the performance of teachers.
ZANIS/WM/MKM/ENDS
This was a mistake! Lungwangwa analuvyanya maningi.
Sleep over it ba ZEC
This policy, good as it may sound, has serious implication on the standard of education. it may promote laziness among pupils
It ok, It does not mean that a student who has failed to meet the cut off point has not passed an exam, it just meant that only high achievers could make it for progression at school, This will force govt to accommondate all passing students by erecting infustruture for schools, the same should apply to colleges and universities every student that has a full G 12 certificate should have access to either College or University education, those who dont may atttend polytechnic schools. This is very common in the west. Polytechnics and trades schools are for those who have only managed to reach as far as G 9 or 10.
But does this govt have the capacity, when they are failing to rehabilitate the current infrastructure?
Ba Moze, for now no capacity because some one will tell people that, “i dont know”
I agree with you HSM. We need to look at the principle of economies of scale. We will at least allow more youths to discover their meaningful potential, the longer they remain in school.I had a friend who was not performing well during primary school but after attempting G7 three times, he dicovered his potential and managed to enter university, though much later than expected. Although this this is not a statistic to base my argument on, I feel we could also reduce levels of mischief if more youths are kept busy within a good curriculum. In addition to infrastracture & other resources (teachers, teaching aids) the curriculum should be tailored to equip youths with skills at an early stage.
Good points there. We are in the era of knowledge management as a resource and so GRZ is in the right track. Let all be allowed to attain their school full potential.
It is a bold decision by Hon. Prof. Lungwangwa to abolition the cut off point; many young people will benefit from this move. However, I wish to agree with the Rev. Fr. Samasumo on the issues he has raised. It is one thing to declare and quite another to materialise the dream. Although it is a good decision, we are also very much aware of how lazy and reluctant our govt can be when it comes to improving the quality of education and the working conditions of our teachers. There are still many primary schools without the basic school wing, so when are they going to build more infrastructure to accommodate a flood of the would-be new pupils? Let the govt wake up to face this challenge.
Nice, but we always need to start from somewhere. The previous GRZ of Mr Chiluba FTJ (Hon. Doc., Malawi) was the waste in terms of promoting education. This is a more reason why we do not need to bring back elements or remnants of that Chiluba Administration who failed all Zambians by failing to promote education for all Zambians regardless of age.
Only God knows where we are going.
Leave your God out of this!
“ZEC General Secretary Paul Samasumo said the Catholic Church believes in quality of output from the pupils at their learning institutions.
In an speaking with ZANIS Fr. Samasumo stressed that the decision by government is going to affect a lot of pupils as there will be no competition among them.”
These two points are seriously unnecessary. Competition has not helped us in the past and the quality of pupils can always be improved as they find themselves in life. I know of students who went to UNZA with very high points at grade 12, but failed to maintain their initial work output there inturn being overtaken by those who had less points at G12 level.
So, just let all attend…
I think Maestro Hhehhehhehhe’s problem is to address issues from a particular example leading him to make a general conclusion about the will be thestate of education in zambia. Quite different from ZEC’s approach: is more general and expected and more factual and present/real there are no enough schools (this is a fact); conditions of teachers poor (this is a fact). The students will only achieve a general certificate (this is a fact)! Result: poor quality of education! No free education? So don’t just argue because you are free to do so. These are facts faced the church and the nation. Stop being in emotional and unrealistic…go down the situation and face it with courage and…
This move is retrogressive.