83,126 Special Needy Children Drop Out Of School This Year

Zambian Open Community Schools (ZOCS) Executive Director Harriet Sianjibu has questioned where school drop outs go after they stop learning as statistics are blank on the issue.
In a speech read on her behalf by Program and Adovocacy Manager Cleopatra Muma at the Zambia National Education Coalition(ZANEC) Media Workshop, Mrs Muma Sianjimbu wondered how life is for children after they drop out of school.
She explained that Cultural , economic and financial constraints are among many reason why children drop out of school.

Mrs Sianjimbu said 2016 recorded 103,218 primary school physically challenged children, of which only 20, 092 are this year accessing secondary school education.

Mrs Sianjimbu said this entails that 83, 126 physically challenged school going children are out of school.

She urged government to increase resource allocation to community schools in the coming budget of 2018 for the benefit of children in schools.

Mrs Sianjimbu said if education is to be made a priority many things such as procurement of teaching and learning materials, public private partnerships and capacity building for the teachers are supposed to be put to consideration.

“It is now time that grant headed community, government schools infrastructure became receptive to the physically challenged children so that education rights are not violated in both rural and urban areas of Zambia,” Mrs Sianjimbu said.