LET me take this time to congratulate the President-elect Edgar Lungu and the Patriot Front (PF) for emerging victorious in the August 11 elections.
May the Almighty God be with you and grant you wisdom as you continue transforming this nation into a prosperous country by developing various sectors including the education sector.
This week I am supposed to discuss changes made to mathematics and home management Grade twelve papers by the examination council of Zambia (ECZ).
However, I thought it was imperative that I respond to comments that have been forwarded and highlight some more development the education sector the country has witnessed in past five years.
Let me pass my sincere gratitude to those who have been able to comment on previous articles and shared some more noticeable developments which I did not highlight, I value your opinion.
However, some expressed ignorance in reference to the on-going fast-tract programme for the in-service teachers.
In the Sunday Times of August 7, 2016 I talked about the full Government sponsorship for in-service teachers which are being undertaken by St Eugene University.
I should state the sponsorship has not only catered for a few teachers especially science and mathematics teachers.
At present fast-track programme has a total number of close to three thousand under graduate in-service teachers who are fully sponsored by the Government.
It is among many other projects that the Government tends to sustain up to 2021 as explained by the PF party manifesto for 2016 to 2021.
Though it has been tailored to only assist secondary teachers.
Those familiar with the education will attest to the current status quo where there are few science and mathematics degree holder teachers, ultimately it is a programme worth appreciating.
In fact, the past five years has witnessed the construction of one hundred and eighteen (118) new secondary schools and upgrade of about two hundred basic schools into day secondary schools.
All these schools need qualified science and mathematics teachers as much as they need qualified teachers in other subjects as well.
Additionally, the government has strived to achieve goals that were set by the Education for All (EFA) movement which is a global movement to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults.
With the special focus on goal number two which aimed at ensuring that by 2015 all children particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
The pass five years witnessed unprecedented increase in the enrollment rate of pupils into primary education, as of today the enrollment rate is 94.3 per cent.
This was achieved with the continued construction of primary schools and upgrading of some community schools into primary schools.
Besides, the Government continued implementing free primary education the policy which was started by the MMD government under the leadership of the late Fredrick Chiluba.
The girl child education had its own share. To start with, there has been an improvement in the Gender Parity Index (GPI) which is a socioeconomic index usually designed to measure relative access to education of males and females. In 2011, the Girl child gender parity index was at 0.97 and it has improved to 0.99.
At the secondary education the re-entry policy had been continued though some people still have some negative opinions about.
It is true some learners have abused it while others have benefited from it. During the month of March, I discussed causes of teen pregnancies and how it can be curbed.
Some girls become victim of teen pregnancy due to lack of information on the effects of pre-marital sex and lack of counsellors.
Hence, the continuation of a re-entry policy has been able to give them a second chance to complete school and develop their dreams of becoming what they have always dreamt of becoming despite the setback on the way,
There has been a continued construction of girls’ secondary school.  The government embarked on the project to construct at least one girls secondary in all province.
So far Luapula, Northern and Copperbelt have received their own share. It should be clarified that this project was started by the late president Levy Patrick Mwanawasa with the construction of Ndola Girls National Technical School which has proven to be success.
At least from the Examination Council of Zambia Grade 12 performance rate Ndola Girls has been among, if not the best Government school for the past three years.
The other notable development has been the training, deploying and recruitment of teachers. Though it was during the same time that wage and employment freeze was implemented from 2013 to 2015.
However, the period witnessed a good number of college and universities being trained, recruited and deployed as teachers in different parts of the country.
As previously, stated for the time even teachers with early childhood certificate and diploma holders also were employed who in the past would only access employment in the private sector.
Let me congratulate teachers who have recently deployed by the government.
Look out for next week’s article as I resume discussing changes made to exam papers under the revised curriculum. Comment:rodrickmakupe@yahoo.com.
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