Luangwa District Commissioner, Luke Chikani, has called on the local authority to expedite the procurement and delivery of the desks to schools in the district.
Mr. Chikani said most of the schools in the district have a shortage of desks, hence the need to speed up the process of procuring and delivering the desks.
The District Commissioner said this when he handed over 76 desks to Mwabi secondary and Luangwa primary schools procured by Luangwa District Council through the Constituency Development Funds(CDF).
He further called on the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) to take keen interest in the sustainability of various government assets including the desks.
“Accordance with the general principle of school governance, I implore the District Education Board office to take keen interest and put mechanisms to safeguard government assets”, he said.
Luangwa District council Secretary Stephen Malenga said the local authority is at equal risk to respond to the Presidential pronouncements of having no pupil sitting on the floor in the district.
Mr. Malenga said the local authority has procured 640 desks worth K896,000.00 for all the needy schools in the district.
He noted that the remaining schools will benefit from the following consignments of desks to be delivered .
“This is the first consignment, other schools including those under construction will benefit from the following consignments”, he said.
And the DEBS, Father Benjamin Chisulo urged the teachers in the district to utilize the component of the grants meant for rehabilitation of desks, adding that rehabilitation of desks by individual schools can be cheaper than procurement of new ones.
” On your own rehabilitate one or two desks, the number will be different,” he advised
Father Chisulo also called on the teachers to instill the skill of maintenance in the pupils, saying, this will enable them to prolong the life span of the desks.
Meanwhile, the Constituency Development Fund chairperson, Derick Kashinamiluda advised the pupils to desist from vandalizing the desks.