By BENEDICT TEMBO
THE Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) has prodded stakeholders in Solwezi to consider utilising part of the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) on early childhood education (ECE) at community level.
During a one-day consultative meeting which attracted members from the provincial education office, local government councillors, civil society organisations and cheifs’ representatives, ZANEC also recommended that the Ministry of Finance and National Planning should exempt the education sector from the wage freeze as it needs more teachers, including pre-school teachers, next year and beyond.
ZANEC also said there is need for Government to put more resources in early childhood education programmes at community level and deploy more teachers because ECE is the foundation for children.
In a statement in Lusaka on Monday, ZANEC board chairperson Elly Mwale said the meeting observed that while early childhood education should be appreciated as the foundation for child development, most children come from homes where they cannot afford books and other learning materials, hence the need for the provision of free ECE services.
“The consultative meeting learnt that the Ministry of Education at provincial level would like to work with different stakeholders to ensure that all children have access to ECE by committing funds towards the training of more ECE teachers in government-run colleges,” Ms Mwale said.
She said the consultative meeting also identified lack of infrastructure, furniture and learning materials, long distances to the centres, poor curriculum, illegal mushrooming of ECE structures and expensive private pre-schools with low standards and unqualified teachers as the major challenges facing the provision of ECE in the province.
The participants felt that there is need for ECE centres to be monitored by the council to ensure they provide quality education.
ZANEC is a coalition of 65 non-governmental organisations, including teachers’ unions.
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