SICHONE

By JULIUS PHIRI
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EASTERN Province Minister Malozo Sichone says education of girl-children has the potential to accelerate growth and progress in every sector in Zambia.
Mr Sichone said at the commemoration of African Child Day at Feni in Chipata yesterday that education played a critical role in the future of any nation.
He said in a speech read for him by Chipata District Commissioner Kalunga Zulu that there was need to invest in the education of both boys and girls as this would assist in breaking the generational cycle of poverty.

He said it was also discouraging that most of the girls married off at a tender age even before completing their education.
Mr Sichone said the early marriages and teenage pregnancies had a devastating impact on the advancement of girl’s education in the country.
He said current statistics indicated that two out of five girls were married before their 18th birthday.
‘‘Education, especially of girls, has the potential to accelerate growth and progress in every sector. It is a well-known fact that when a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education she marries four years later. An extra year of primary school boosts a girl’s eventual wages by 10 to 20 per cent,’’ he said.
He said studies had shown that when women and girls earned income, they were re-investing 90 per cent of it into families as compared to the 30 per cent to 40 per cent that men and boys re-invested into their families.
Mr Sichone said the Government was fully committed towards the protection and promotion of children’s rights in the country.
He said Government was doing everything possible to facilitate the attainment of a child friendly, quality, free and compulsory education for all children in the country.