Malambo Constituency Member of Parliament, Peter Phiri has issued a stern warning against teachers who have been meting out corporal punishment against pupils who report late for school due to flooded crossing points.
Mr Phiri, who is also Eastern Province Minister, expressed disapproval when he learnt that some teachers at Ncheka and Matula primary schools in Mambwe District of Eastern province have been punishing pupils for reporting late for schools.
The Malambo Lawmaker said pupils encounter obstacles as they go to school such as walking long distances and crossing flooded crossing points.
“Even corporal punishment is no more in government schools, everywhere we do not allow corporal to our school going children,” he said.
He said the President and Government have made it clear that children should go to school through free education that has been introduced through the New Dawn Government.
Mr Phiri said Government will not allow teachers to drop the morale of pupils who are defying odds, crossing dangerous flooded areas, just to get to school.
“That must come to an end. You have seen the way the floods have come and these children are struggling to go to school. They are very keen to get some education and you want now to drop their morale, we are going to condone that as a government,” he said.
Lillian Chilepa, a Grade 8 pupil at Mwatula Primary School, told ZANIS that she walks 2hours for 12 kilometres to school every day.
However, she said sometimes during this rainy season some crossing points get over flooded and only cross when the water recede which makes her to report late for school.
“I walk to school for 12 kilometres and walk through these floods. Sometimes we wait for the floods to reduce and when we get to school late we are punished,” Lillian said.
A Grade 9 Pupil at Ncheka Primary school Mary Mwale said she starts off from home at around 05.00 hours, but she gets delayed to reach school when the flood water level becomes high.
Meanwhile, Mr Phiri said a long lasting permanent solution will be provided to take care of the challenge of bad roads and flooded crossing points in the district.
“We allocated some money to start working on this road, but because of the rains we couldn’t continue. We have K750,000 from Constituency Development Fund and thank you to the government for the enhanced CDF from which will allocate more money to work on this road,” the Minister said.
We need discipline in our schools.