‘Control children’s access to internet’

NAKUBIANA SHABONGO –
GOVERNMENT has urged parents and teachers to closely monitor their children and pupils with regard to access to the Internet because it is a major contributor to poor performance and moral decay.
Information and Broadcasting Services deputy Minister Forrie Tembo said high abuse of the Internet by pupils was further degrading their morals and affecting their performance in studies.
Mr Tembo called for a collective responsibility to reverse the trend by ensuring that children read the right materials which enhanced their intellectual ability.
“I urge parents, in particular, to cultivate and inculcate a culture of reading in their children in order to deepen and broaden their intellectual capacity for them to excel in their educational and academic undertakings and contribute meaningfully to national development,” he said.
Mr Tembo urged parents and teachers to monitor internet use by the pupils so as to fight moral decay in society.
The Deputy Minister said this in Lusaka yesterday during the launch of the newspaper in education project initiated by the Zambia Daily Mail at Lusaka’s Kasamba Primary school in Matero Township.
He said that the media had the responsibility to promote and increase children’s literacy levels by using the newspapers as a learning tool.
“The advent of the Internet, as good as it may be, seems to be distancing our children even further away from reading. Although books, magazines and newspapers are now closer to us through the Internet, many of our children use this medium for other purposes, some of which tend to corrupt their morals,” he said.
Zambia Daily Mail Board Chairperson Tamala Kambikambi said the newspaper would start as a pilot project in five different public schools and would later be rolled out.
Ms Kambikambi said the newspaper would be used as a platform to interact in the education sector.
Zambia Daily Mail managing director, Bryson Mumba said the programme would benefit school going children by improving the reading culture of pupils.
Kasamba Primary School pupil, Fortune Chongwe urged other pupils to focus on their education in an effort to help shape the country in future as opposed to paying attention to social media.-Times of Zambia