Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary Joel Kamoko says debt management at the University of Zambia (UNZA) will continue to be an issue if the University management fails to exhibit competence in the way it runs the institution.
Speaking on Prime TV’s Matters Arising programme, Tuesday, Kamoko said that as a product of UNZA, he would like to see the University well managed in order for it to properly handle issues affecting students, lecturers and workers.
We need to agree that if an institution is not well managed and the managers themselves do not exhibit competence, debt management becomes an issue. What we are saying is that, basically, if we do not manage our debt, we should close our universities. Is that what we want?
I am a product of that institution(UNZA). I would want to see it thrive, I would like to see it properly managed.
he said.
Kamoko said UNZA should have employees that appreciate their work as they are getting public resources, unlike them blackmailing each other when they want government to superintend over their challenges.
Right now, we need to have a council in place at the University of Zambia. The Council will then interface with the workforce, but those are issues that the president has issued directives and they shall be done to the latter,
he said.
Some of the people screaming blue murder have recently met the president, met the minister and met the PSs, so we believe that if it is goodwill, let us work together. Zambia is bigger than all of us and the University must be our pride because we are products of that university.
The permanent secretary pleaded with lecturers and students at UNZA not to bring Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima into unnecessary disrepute as the minister means well for the institution.
We promise to serve it (UNZA) well, and we plead with our lecturers and students to believe that, that man who worked with them many years, and is their minister now, means well and should not be brought into unnecessary disrepute,
he said.
Kamoko added that as per guidance from President Hakainde Hichilema, the Ministry of Education will engage the Ministry of Finance in order to attend to the current issues at the University.
Last year, then Minister of Higher Education Dr Brian Mushimba disclosed that UNZA had a K4.4 billion debt, which made the learning institution financially unsustainable.