• Luapula province PS says the province will ensure it gets more teachers during this year’s recruitment.
• Government will also construct more schools in order to reduce illiteracy levels in the province.
• Provincial Administration has engaged schools to help them improve learners’ national exams performance.
Luapula Province Permanent secretary says the province will ensure it gets a fair share of teachers during this year’s teacher recruitment in order to reduce the high pupil-teacher ratio in the province.
In an interview with Money FM News, Charles Mushota said the high pupil- teacher ratio has over the years contributed to the poor performance of learners in national examinations.
‘‘We have faced challenges of pupil- teacher ratio which has made teachers fail to adequately attend to the needs of the pupils,’’ he said.
‘‘If we do not improve on the pupil-teacher ratio, then we would not have done justice to the educational sector in Luapula.’’
Mr. Mushota said government will this year also construct more primary schools and upgrade some primary schools to secondary schools in order to improve the low literacy levels in the province.
The Permanent Secretary further added that he has already engaged some schools that once produced top performers to find out how the provincial administration can help them improve their performance.
‘‘Last week we went with the provincial minister to Nchelenge Secondary School to find out how we can help them get back to a position where they can produce University graduates like before,’’ Mr. Mushota said.
‘‘We will continue to engage other schools through the office of the District Education Board secretary (DEBS) to find out how we can help schools improve their performance.’’
Luapula province’s Grade 12 results performance rating for 2020 stood at 58.79 percent, which made the province come out second last in the country for a second consecutive year.