New Lukwesa Secondary School lacks furniture

New Lukwesa Secondary School lacks furniture

Mwense, Februar 25, ZANIS ——- The newly opened Lukwesa Secondary School in Mwense district of Luapula Province with a population of 700 pupils has no furniture for both the dining and the main halls.

Pupils at this school are making do with old disused few desks from the primary school when having their meals and have to take turns in receiving their meals because of lack of furniture.

Acting School Head Timothy Meki disclosed this when Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Mbololwa Muyaba visited the School recently.

Mr Meki said at the time of the Permanent Secretary’s visit, there were 93 pupils in boarding as Grade 10s had not yet reported following the publication of their results recently.

He said though the school had no provision of a cold room, the learning institution has a deep freezer which is being used to preserve food for the boarding pupils.

He further revealed that the school, though operational, it has no apparatus in the laboratory as the equipments have not yet been procured and also lacked qualified cooks to use modern cooking pots, resulting in the school using firewood for preparing meals.

The School Head explained that he did not want his cooks to mess up the pots and advised that he would wait until knowledgeable people in the use of the new pots were found to come and share the techniques of how to use the pots with his cooks.

He also said his school had a number of challenges ranging from mattresses which he said there were only 240 mattresses but needed 150 more to meet the demand of the pupils especially when the Grade 10s report.

Mr Meki added that currently there were 39 members of staff against only 20 houses which has already created a need for the construction of more houses for his members of staff.

Mr Meki said the school is however, sitting on a 25 hectares of land and has enough area for expansion, adding that he was happy with the school infrastructure as Apppollo Construction Company had done a good job.

And Mwense District Commissioner Victor Kasuba echoed the Head Teacher’s words and commended Appollo Construction Company for the quality of works.

The Headmaster also disclosed that his school which currently has 700 pupils will be a home to 800 pupils at full capacity.

And Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Mbololwa Muyaba commended the Teachers at the school for the commitment and devotion to national duty and the service they were providing in equipping children with knowledge.

Mrs Muyaba said behind every successful person, there was a teacher because all useful citizens pass through the hands of a teacher.

The Permanent Secretary however, noted the inadequacy of books in the library which she said the stocks needed to be beefed up.