• Vice-President Inonge Wina (centre) and Higher Education deputy minister Sydney Mushanga (left) listen to Kwame Nkrumah University acting vice-chancellor Rachael Kabeta when they inspected construction projects at the institution yesterday. Picture by Kelvin Tembo/ZANIS

By PASSY HAACHIZO
THE Government is determined to ensure that universities, colleges and boarding schools are equipped with adequate student hostels and staff accommodation to enhance the quality of education, Vice-President Inonge Wina has said.
Speaking yesterday when she paid a courtesy call on Kwame Nkrumah University acting vice-chancellor, Rachael Kabeta, Ms Wina said the Patriotic Front (PF) under President Edgar Lungu would ensure accommodation was improved in all the learning institutions.
She said better student hostels and staff accommodation was a treasured weapon towards motivation of both learners and lecturers.
She noted that upgrading a college into a university as was done to Kwame Nkrumah in 2011 required huge capital of which she said her Government had faced.
“And this Government has done it. This shows how committed the Government under the leadership of President Lungu is,” she said.
Ms Wina recalled the challenges of accommodation that had infested the country before the PF Government was ushered into office in 2011.
She said the trend had for a long time forced students to squat outside learning institutions while lecturers found it hard to get into school due to lack of accommodation, something that affected their concentration during lessons.
Ms Wina said the Government had embarked on massive projects to counter the accommodation challenges in both higher and lower learning institutions.
“So may I inform you that at Evelyn Hone College, we are expanding accommodation and at Mulungushi University there is also a programme to expand hostels.
“This programme will continue and we will even cater for secondary schools so that we can prepare our young people to enter colleges and universities,” she said.
Dr Kabeta commended the Government for the construction of a lecture theatre and a library, each with a capacity of 500 occupants.
She said the project consumed K57 million in the first phase and K36 million in the second.
Dr Kabeta said following the idea to turn the institution into a university, the Government had embarked on massive projects at the institution, with some nearing completion.
She said that a two-by-four hostel with a capacity of 600 bed spaces was almost completed, while staff houses and a science laboratory were under construction.
“May I also inform you that from the time the institution started offering degree programmes in 2011, the capacity of students has increased from the initial 600 to 6,000. We also have 75 lecturers of which 66 have master’s degrees while six have PhDs.” She said.
Dr Kabeta said it was satisfying that the Government had moved on the right track as the institution was now contributing to society.
She said the university had produced dependable teachers that were now offering services in both Government and private institutions.
She was hopeful that once the infrastructural projects were completed,the institution would increase enrollment.