2)—Plan International wins govt kudos

Plan International wins govt kudos

Chisamba, September 24, 2014, ZANIS……Chisamba District Commissioner Ferdinand Chipindi has commended PLAN International for the various works it was undertaking in the area to improve the living standards and literacy levels in the communities.

Mr Chipindi said there was need for other non- governmental organizations to emulate what PLAN International was doing by partnering with government.

ZANIS reports that the DC was speaking when he toured a PLAN International display stand during the “Let’s read Zambia  mobilization campaign and  district strategic plan” at Kampekete school.

Mr Chipindi commended PLAN for taking a lead in health, education, Child protection and empowerment.

He said the strategic plan which PLAN  International had helped  launch would guide the district in the implementation of activities.

He said six areas in the Strategic Plan had adequately being elaborated and highlighted and include leadership and management, teacher preparedness, Learner support, Community Empowerment, local policy development and implementation and literacy /learners achievement projections.

Mr Chipindi also said that teachers in the district had embarked on writing stories which would improve reading levels among the pupils aimed at achieving the reading projections of one million readers.

He however appealed to Plan to simplify and summarize the materials  to a level where a level four villager could read and understand.

The District Commissioner observed that the materials displayed by Plan were good but too advanced for the local people and expressed disappointment at the fact that none of the materials was published in Lenje or any other local language.

“You are doing a good job, but look at the community first don’t give advanced material that cannot be used and if we are  saying children from grade one to four should be familiar with a local language, then local language material should have being here” , said Mr Chipindi.

Mr Chipindi urged the international NGO to help with sensitization in order to reduce on the number of gender based violence (GBV) cases in the district.

And Central Province Education Officer Jennipher Banda in a speech read on her behalf, said teaching pupils in a foreign language made it difficult for them to grasp concepts due to a communication gap created by an alien language.

She said research had revealed that  when English was used as a medium of instruction, pupil’s ability to read and write was below the expected minimum standard.

“In fact, a number of studies have confirmed that children’s learning is impaired if the language of instruction is unfamiliar, this is why the revised curriculum requires learners from grade one to grade four to learn in a  familiar language  with English introduced as a subject at grade two”, she said.

She said children would be inadequate in life if they did not acquire reading skills and that learners who read do well at school.

She added that children who read have a positive self – image and are likely to excel in college with much more knowledge about the world better than those who are not proficient readers.