TEACHER UNIONS HAPPY WITH CONVICTION PUPILS

Two teacher Unions have expressed happiness with the Lusaka Magistrate court’s decision to convict six pupils of Libala High School for being in possession of examination leakages.
ZNUT Secretary General Newman Bubala has however questioned why the Zambia Police only opted to arrest the pupils and not the people that supplied  them with the examination leakage.
Mr Bubala says it would have been good to also arrest the people that supplied the leaked paper to the pupils.
He says sending the pupils to jail without the people that helped them to commit the offence will not end the problem at hand.
And Basic Education Teachers Union Secretary General Jeffrey Simuntala said the conviction of the pupils will send a serious warning to others.
He told ZNBC that it is good that the Judiciary has made it clear that it will not entertain cheating in examination.
But, Kabwe Central Member of Parliament Tutwa Ngulube said the fine given to the convicts is not enough to deter would be offenders.
Mr. Ngulube said the court should have given a much stiffer sentence, looking at how examination leakages affected the conduct of exams this year .
He said he will soon be sponsoring a private members bill to parliament that will provide for stiff punishment for those who are involved in examination leakages.
On Monday Lusaka Magistrate Humprey Chitalu fined five thousand kwacha to each of the six pupils after they were found to be in possession of a leaked mathematics paper during the just ended examination.
Magistrate Chitalu said failure to pay the money the six pupils will  save a prison sentence of eighteen months.