FROM SITEMBILE SIWAWA IN Mwense
LUAPULA Provincial Education Officer Smith Bweupe has observed that caterpillar catching will be the main hurdle for early childhood education policy to be effective in the province.
And Mr Bweupe has since called on district education board secretaries to sensitise the communities to desist from engaging in caterpillar catching at the expense of taking younger children to early learning centres.
He said parents in his area during the October and November period often neglect their role of taking children to school in preference for caterpillar catching.
He was speaking in an interview after a team from Media Network on Child Rights and Development (MNCRD) paid a courtesy call on him during the week.
MNCRD was in the province on a sensitisation programme on the importance of early childhood education.
“I’m appealing to the communities especially those in Chipili and Kawambwa to desist from taking along with them younger children who are supposed to be in pre-school to catch caterpillars as this will negatively impact the early education policy in the province,” he pleaded.
And Mr Bweupe said since the early childhood programme started this year, it has been well received by the communities.
“We have made it in such a way that each school has one class for early education and a teacher for that,” he said.
However, Mr Bweupe said there is still need for Government to send in more teachers for early education policy to be successful.
“Roughly over a 1,000 teachers can be required for this programme to be successful because the demand is too high,” he said.
He further highlighted that Government needs to send in more teachers and build more schools in the newly created district of Lunga.
And MNCRD delegation leader Hamilton Mambo said there was need for Government to send in more teachers and improve infrastructure for effectiveness of the policy.
Mr Mambo said there should be sustainability of the policy both from Government and civil society groups.
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