• FIRST Lady Esther Lungu (left) and the President (second from left) present a certificate to Kunda Chomba (right) from Mupepetwe Secondary School in Central Province after she participated in the First Lady Mentorship Programme at State House yesterday. Picture by SALIM HENRY/STATE HOUSE

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said poverty should not be a limiting factor to attaining education as the Government strives to ensure children explore and achieve their dreams.
Meanwhile, First Lady Esther Lungu has urged children in the country to work hard and be focused in achieving their goals in life.
The President and the First Lady were speaking at State House in Lusaka yesterday when they hosted 60 pupils from remote areas of the 10 provinces of the country for the Junior Achievement Zambia (JAZ)
mentorship programme championed by Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited.
President Lungu said that amidst poverty, pupils should remain focused and not limit their advancement but emulate their teachers as well as other people that had achieved despite enduring hardships while in school.
“Do not be fooled by being told that because you come from rural Zambia you can’t make it. Don’t be fooled by the fact that you don’t have shoes; you can’t go to a secondary school. I know a lot of us, including some of my teachers and friends who went to school without a pair of shoes,” President Lungu said.
The President said his Government would do its best to ensure that children succeeded in their dreams, while urging them to refrain from engaging in vices that would hinder their progression in life.
Mr Lungu told the children that their goal should be to develop themselves and their country.
He said that the talent and potential they had was limitless and, as such, they should aim to even achieve better than what they had achieved so far.
Mr Lungu said while it was possible for everything to be taken away from a person, the talent, which was their brain, was the only thing that they would forever possess.
On the other hand, the First Lady said she was delighted to play a role in mentoring rural girls and boys through the programme.
Ms Lungu said one of the most difficult choices one had to make through their school life was that of choosing a good career path.
“I am particularly happy to see 60 young people who have come from across the country to interact with us and among themselves. This is one sure benefit of our 50 years of independence that people from different schools, provinces, districts and tribes can interact so freely as one united nation without difficulty,” Ms Lungu said.
Education Minister Michael Kaingu said his ministry was carrying out a deliberate policy of deploying female teachers to rural schools so that they could act as role models.
Dr Kaingu said in a speech read for him by Education deputy Permanent Secretary Christine Mayondi that the Government had put in place a number of measures aimed at uplifting the plight of children in schools.
Stanbic Board chairperson Mary Ncube said the financial institution had in the past four years invested K475,000 in financial support.
She also presented a cheque of K136,000 to the First Lady towards this year’s Junior Achievement Careers programme.