By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO –

GOVERNMENT has received K220 million from cooperating partners towards priority programmes being implemented in the education sector for the year 2015.
Irish Ambassador to Zambia Finbar O’brien said coorperating partners were pleased with the way the State was utilising resources it received from different stakeholders.
Mr O’brien said the financial support being rendered to Zambia would improve access to education particularly for the girl child and infrastructure development in the sector among other things.
Zambia was making positive strides to improve education by reaching out to a number of children around the country.
He was pleased that Government had shown positive commitment through the massive infrastructure in the sector despite scarce resources.
The financial support provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Department for International Development (DFID), Irish Aid and Japan among others has a strong focus on the marginalised and would help meet the gap of access to education in the rural and urban communities.
Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education minister Michael Kaingu said Government had put in place modalities to step up education standards.
Dr Kaingu said there was an imbalance in the access to education between the rural and urban communities which was a challenge for his ministry.
He said the Ministry would work within its budget to achieve its goals and called on stakeholders to get on board to help meet its aims.
Dr Kaingu said there was need for resources that would help the ministry open up more schools.