Govt to address teachers housing deficit

By Ann Zulu

GOVERNMENT is committed to addressing the current housing deficit for teachers in the country, General Education Minister Dennis Wachinga has said.

Dr. Wachinga said Government was aware of the accommodation challenges that teachers have continued to face.

He said it was for this reason that his ministry intends to work closely with the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development to ensure that teachers were provided with decent accommodation.

The minister was responding to a question raised by Chitambo Member of Parliament Chanda Mutale in Parliament on Friday, who wanted to know whether Government had any plans to construct additional teachers’ houses.

“Government recognises the importance of providing decent houses to our teachers. We are putting up a program with the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development to ensure that the houses deficit is addressed as soon as possible,” Dr. Wachinga said.

He assured the house that once the plans were finalised, the issue of shortage of teachers’ houses would be a thing of the past.

And Dr. Wachinga also stated that Government is doing everything possible to ensure that all schools in the country had access to clean water.

This was after Kabwe Central Member of Parliament Tutwa Ngulube posed a question on what Government was doing in addressing the issue of water in some schools especially in rural areas.

The minister said Government had embarked on a programme of drilling boreholes in schools to enable pupils have access to clean water.

“Our desire is to see schools in Zambia have access to water and we are working tirelessly to ensure that desire is fulfilled. We are putting up boreholes in schools which are in rural areas. All this is to ensure that our pupils access water,” he said.