OVER 500 pupils at Kalulushi’s Chati South Boarding Secondary School are having their meals while standing.
The situation has not pleased Copperbelt Permanent Secretary, Bright Nundwe who visited the school.
Mr Nundwe who in the company of Copperbelt Regional Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit(DMMU) Coordinator, George Akalemwa, said it was unacceptable to subject learners to such an environment while having meals.
A check revealed dining hall was empty with one table only and pupils were standing while holding plates.
Mr Nundwe was briefed by school head teacher, Godfrey Siachisumo, that the school only has 300 desks against the population of 420 borders and 80 day scholars.
While at school, Mr Nundwe also learnt that the learning institution was receiving electricity bills beyond its capacity where not less than K40,000 is charged per month by ZESCO.
Mr Nundwe has since pledged government’s quick response to the challenges which the school was currently going through.
He emphasised that pupils should not get demotivated because of the issues whose solutions can easily be found and applied.
Mr Nundwe also pledged to engage relevant offices to ensure that the deteriorated floors in the dinning and school halls were worked immediately.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nundwe commended the DMMU regional Coordinator for ensuring that the school feeding programme was supplemented through the distribution of mealie meal and other food stuffs.
And Mr. Akalemwa said all the 24 boarding schools in the province had benefited from the distribution of mealie meal which was part of the COVID 19 relief aid to the learning institutions.
Mr Akalemwa said the DMMU would continue supplementing the schools’ feeding programmes.
And Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Copperbelt Assistant Director, Jubilee Hamwala, said his organisation was pleased that the mealie which was impounded from smugglers was being put to good use.
Ms Hamwala said ZRA would continue offloading the commodity impounded from smugglers to the DMMU so that the vulnerable in society could benefit.
