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Do-it-vourself Plan to Beat School Vandals

by Anyal Dalo
Renewed efforts are being made in Zambia to rehabilitate dilapidated government schools and end waste and damage to them. The aim is to cut the enormous expense caused by neglect, theft and vandalism.
For about a decade now many education fadHttes and amenities have been steadily ruined and even disappeared. This has had a disastrous effect on the morale, discipline and performance of teachers and students.
One report said: "No school has sufficient chnfrs and desks. Itts quite usual to find some classrooms without any furniture. All schools have lost practically all carpentry and most metalwork hand tools. No school has sufficient facilities to carry out a teaching programme."
At least two schools had to close because they had been vandalised, although neglect and vandalism have been noticeably less tn girls' schools.
An autonomous body under the Ministry of Education. known as the Zambia Education Project Implementation Unit (ZEPIU), has the task of giving 80 schools a facelift, under the charge of expatriate Norwegian civil engineer Arne Ohlsen. Funding for the project comes from the Norwegian Agency
for Development Cooperation (NORAD).
Ohlsen says one of the most crucial things he ts fighting is a shortage of water. It is not much use renovating schools tf they are forced soon afterwards to close because they have no water.
There are two Immediate problems: borehole pump motors and other parts are often stolen and the amount of water In the boreholes or the distribution system 1s continually Insufficient.
ZEPIU director James Banda says new boreholes will be sunk and powered by electricity or diesel.
Sometimes schools are vandalised as soon as repairs have been completed, so project officials have now turned to working on long-term solutions. They arc giving priority to a concept they call preventive maintenance — a do-it-yourself approach that involves teachers, school workers, parents, students and members of local communities.
Attempts are being made to convince people connected with the schools that they are responsible for looking after them. They must prevent damage or theft and
do wear-and-tear repairs themselves. ZEPIU ts educating people through seminars, courses, lectures, briefings, posters and radio pro-
People are also being trained tn make the rcoairs
and those concerned with a particular school arc being persuaded to see that surroundings are kept clean and the toilets remain In order. Each person looks after part of the school compound and docs whatever ts Rood for the
school's welfare.
All this can help cut costs and stop specialised firms being called in to do minor repairs.
Rehabilitation programmes have been going on for some years and tn the
first period. 1986-89. the whole exercise seemed a waste. Schools were repeatedly plundered as soon as they were rehabilitated.
In 1989 NORAD insisted that If they were to continue to help preventive maintenance must be seriously promoted. Banda admits It was a difficult concept to get across, but he believes students and parents now understand It
One suggestion ts that it should be incorporated into the school curriculum. Ctrl students seem much more willing to take up the do-it-yourself concept than the boys do.
In the past, government pronouncements have often been seen by aid officials as merely symbolic, with little■ done afterwards to rectify wrongs. Since the Kaunda government was topple at the polls last October, though, changes are expected from Arthur Wina, the Education Minister In the government of President Frederick Chiluba. Wtna is working out a new policy aimed at revamping the whole education system. ' (
— OertUnl News
Any al Dalo Is a freelance Zambian Journalist.