The scholarships are part of an $18million scholarship programme launched in Chingola yesterday by Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Villie Lombanya who hailed the initiative as the surest way of securing Zambia’s future and helping the nation attain middle-income status by 2030.
Apart from the 18, 11 Grade 8 and 10 Grade 10 pupils from Nchanga and Konkola Trust Schools were awarded scholarships. The India-bound pupils will study Medicine, Instrumentation engineering, Commerce, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgy and mechanical engineering.
One of the recipients, Bwalya Chitundu, daughter of a retired miner, is going to study instrumentation engineering and said she was delighted and grateful to KCM for the sponsorship that would ease the burden on her family.
Crycencia Musonda, has been sponsored for a BA Commerce and promised to work extra hard to repay the favour from KCM.
The programme comes just weeks after the company introduced a scholastic excellence award for government schools in Chingola, Chililabombwe, Kitwe and Nampundwe, the four districts where the company has assets.
Mr Lombanya said KCM’s commitment to the development of education, which includes a $17.5 million involvement in the development of Mulungushi University, was evidence of its long-term vision for Zambia and proof that it was in the country for the long haul.
He challenged the scholarship recipients to take advantage of the opportunity they had been given to fulfil their dream careers, saying they held the future of the nation in their hands and the whole country would be watching them to ensure they did not waste the opportunity.
KCM Chief Executive Officer, Kishore Kumar said KCM had more than its wealth in copper, referring to Zambia’s rich human resource potential as gold, diamonds and rubies. He challenged to pupils to learn from everyday experiences by keeping their eyes open and being curious and interrogative.
He said he would like to see more young people making use of the abundance of the sports and recreational facilities in Chingola and Chililabombwe instead of them spending too much time in front of the television set.
“Each one of you can go as far as you want in life if you are willing to work hard but you must also balance your life with play, good food and a lot of rest,” he said, adding; “that is why KCM sponsors sport and recreational activities and has all these on the curriculum of its schools.”
KCM Vice-President for Human Resource Sophie Mutemba said the occasion marked a turning point in the life history by KCM in relation to education.
“The Company policy is to offer quality education to its employees’ children and the community. KCM has heavily invested in education since its inception in 2000 and progressively expanded the school from a mere Primary school into a full range Secondary school. Now we have this programme that will benefit the nation,” she said.
KCM Trust Schools had their first Grade 9 in 2004 with Nchanga scoring 100% pass mark in the first ‘O’ level exam attempt while Konkola recorded 97%.
Mr Lombanya said KCM’s commitment to the development of education, which includes a $17.5 million involvement in the development of Mulungushi University, was evidence of its long-term vision for Zambia and proof that it was in the country for the long haul.
He challenged the scholarship recipients to take advantage of the opportunity they had been given to fulfil their dream careers, saying they held the future of the nation in their hands and the whole country would be watching them to ensure they did not waste the opportunity.
KCM Chief Executive Officer, Kishore Kumar said KCM had more than its wealth in copper, referring to Zambia’s rich human resource potential as gold, diamonds and rubies. He challenged to pupils to learn from everyday experiences by keeping their eyes and being curious.
He said he would like to see more young people making use of the abundance of the sports and recreational facilities in Chingola and Chililabombwe instead of them spending too much time in front of the television set.
I wish other companies in zambia can start doing so. Keep it up KCM. hOPE TEBANA BA BA SHIFT BOSS alone.
This is highly commendably of KCM. Reminds me of the 80s and 90s when ZCCM had a similar initiatives going at Mpelembe secondary school which was then a school of excellence in Zambia and had an A’ level program with participants going on to take scholarships at top universities in the UK and US. Not surprisingly the focus was on engineering and mining as while performing a service to the country, ZCCM was also creating a skills base for qualified personnel to work in its mines. I can see KCM has a similar intention. If only the likes of Mopani Copper mines could do the same.
I just hope that most of these scholarship recipients will return to Zambia and in particular KCM to make a meaningful contribution and payback in kind, unlike was with the case with so many beneficiaries under the ZCCM program who opted to remain in the diaspora. Some of you are active bloggers here now. You know yourselves!!
Ni gimiki, there is something fishy. Only children of the bosses go to trust schools. Workman malaisha’s children go ku goverment skulz.We are not benefiting.
It is true mr Mukanaka, these people are just playing with us
KCM tries to forget the questions in parliament about the ridiculous dividends received by ZCCM-IH last 3 years
with 20% in the mines, ZCCM-IH received only $ 12 million while in the same time the mines were more than 2 billion dollar profit
$ 18 million for school is a good thing, but with $ 400 million dividends ZCCM-IH could probably do better !
VEDANTA, GLENCORE, and FIRST Quantum Minerals are not the friends of zambia, but GRZ continu to help these foreign groups and be silent about this scandalous situation
Good idea, @ mwenya when are you going back to plough back ? 😕
That tells you how much these companies are raking in due to poor tax policies.
Congrats to KCM.This is really proper social responsibility.They have shown that they really have a heart for their labour force.The only scaring thing is they are not sponsoring non KCM employees attending their Trust schools, inspite of the children getting superb results.This discrimination must stop .We cannot all be KCM EMPLOYEES.
Mukanaka dont lie. These scholarships were given to children who did very well at grade 12. Regardless of their parents status. It was open to all. whether miners children or not
Good move! But what “class” of parents send their children to Trust Schools? The scholarship net could have been cast also into the deep waters of Govt schools. I hope next time it will be so. As for the lucky boys and girls, go to india and work hard, te kunwa fye ubwalwa and smoking because muli pa Asia.
This is beautiful
I thought today did better in this new item, tell us not only scholarships to india but government schools in the four area KCM is operating and the Mulungushi unversity contribution. please lets learn to appreciate becuase it been long since a heard of foreign owned companies doing that in zambia
I thought today LT did better in this news item, telling us not only scholarships to india but government schools in the four area KCM is operating and the Mulungushi unversity contribution. please lets learn to appreciate becuase it been long since I heard of foreign owned companies doing that in zambia
These are kind of investors the country needs. We appreciate your move KCM=d>=d>=d>
We need to move away from the culture of depending on hand outs and rather, move towards pushing government to come up with a full-proof plan to not only educate but also retain citizens. $18 million is great but it is not what will get Zambia to the goal the reporter quotes for 2018. I would love to see funds secured from mining go into making UNZA/ CBU a university that can compete well in producing ideas, research and retainable graduates that can aid in diversifying our economies.
Meanwhile, congratulations to the 18 students for earning recognition and pursuing a higher education. You do me really proud. Go out there and earn your respect and come back even better citizens. ‘Umwana ashenda, atasha ba nina ukwipika’. Keep an open mind and a humble persona.
Ba Lungu, I am not speaking from out of the blues.There is my niece who got seven points and has not been given a scholarship because the father is not an employee of KCM.The child was even denied to do the interviews prior to the scholarships based on that.The father had been a former employee of KCM who had served the company for 23 years.Is seven (7) points a bad result?
Indeed this is a good move. KCM should now extend its hand to rural children, not just students that have completed grade 12.
Good move KCM, educating the nation is a very important step to development. Unfortunately they are other pending issues of profits we can discuss in another topic
India? Even the Indians themselves shun those highly compromised universities. ZCCM was sending them to the UK and US. Anyway, maybe Indian is better than Unza.
Good news but i think there is a catch to it. Dont trust an Indian.
Well done KCM, I hope Mopani & Luanshya Mines can do the same & just about every business that’s making profits in Zambia like Barclays, Standard Chartered, Zambia Breweries, ZESCO etc.
India is good. There, they will compete with the best brains and concetrate on their education not on turning burgers in McDonald’s and making beds in hotels all night to make money for booze next day, skip lectures and squander their time in loose living like many ex-ZCCM did. After failing to get a qualification marry in haste and get on the dole for the rest of their lives.
well said @22 and 21! For an Indian (nothing personal my Aisian brothers) to fork out a penny let alone $18 mil worth of schoolarships is amazing if not down right imposible to believe. A big thumbs up to Vendatta and i hope the other so called big wig foreign investors are cowering with shame for their lack of corporate responsibility:p
Good news. Indians are generally bright so they will be competting with brainy people.
#3 Mwenya. Not too sure about that. Some of us got educate by Zccm. I can assure ZCCM had a robust system of getting back their sudents. Most of those who didnt go back were in teh intake when Zccm was being privatised. they were told jobs were not guaranteed by new employers, so they remained in UK or USA. Some went back to Zambia. In Zccm days, it was difficult not to go back to Zambia. It was easier to leave the mines whilst in Zambia. Alarmingly mine salaries were much lower than student wages.
Also, a lot of Ex Zccm graduates / professionals went abroad after privatization – lost jobs or conditions deteriorated.
This is a good thing but students should not be restricted to Universities in India only.
Well, at least someting positive is now coming out of some ‘investors’. Now they should also try and get the image of Chigola back to the way it was years ago. The town now looks expired!
I BET NONE OF THESE KIDS WILL GO BA TO ZED AFTER COMPLETING THEIR EDUCATION.
You mean like yourself. Jay Leno?:-?
its a milestone throw and it will go a long way for our children, work hard guys and make our parents and kcm proud of you, God Bless u all.
Where are the pupils who got 9 points and 6 points from Nchanga trust as one of them was a head boy who had 6 points but he is not among the sponsored pupils. is it because the father is non miner? ba kcm mwilatushingia butter guys.