The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR)Voice and Accountability (C&A) Project Staff , the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) staff, in the company of Ministry of Education Senanga District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Planner conducted a field visit to Lui-Wanyau Primary School one of the Projects sights to familiarize themselves on the project. The School is across the Lui River in Senanga District.
The Project Team comprising the Economic Governance Coordinator Micomyiza Dieudonne, the PTF Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor Frank McNerney, Communication Expert Madube Pasi Siyauya, Western Provincial Coordinator Muyangwa Nawa and DEBS Planner Mr. Simakumba Simakumba visited Lui-Wanyau Primary school in Wanyau Ward of Senanga. The team met with the School Deputy Head Teacher Mr. Brian Mwiya who is also the Acting Headteacher, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Chairperson Mr. .Moya Ilukena and the CSPR V&A Committee Chairperson Mr. Mayumbelo Mayumbelo the Ward Development Committee (WDC) Chairperson Mr. Soft-Sikute Siyuhisi and Committee Members.
Mr. Mwiya expressed appreciation for the project which he said has enhanced collaboration between the school and the community as his administration has been working well with the committee. He did indicate that after the implementation of the project and capacity building of the community members, the V&A Committee made a demand to the school to put up a Notice Board to enable communities access information pertaining to the operation of the school. The notice board is now in place and the School is able to publish the school budget and plans for community members to be informed. The V&A committee has also been able to inspect the Cash Books whenever they requested the school management to and this has enhanced accountability and transparency which has contributed to improved relationship between the community and the school management. Furthermore, Mr. Mwiya noted that the V&A project has addressed the issue of teacher absenteeism as community members are monitoring the availability of teachers at random, this has led to teachers staying in school as stipulated by their conditions of service as well as contributed to increased school attendance for the children as community monitors have been reviewing class attendance registers to assess which children are missing school and engaging their parents on the need for children to be in school. In the same vain, he said the project has not only benefited the community, the School Management has also benefitted because the community lobbies government on behalf of the School Management through interface meetings by way of taking to task duty bearers during interface meetings and demand for quality services.
Mr. Simakumba said the interface meeting equally benefitted the duty bears as wel as the meetings provide feedback to government on how they are doing in terms of service delivery in areas that are difficult for them to reach due to logistical challenges. Mr. Simakumba shared that through the interface meeting Liangati Combined school under the V&A Project was able to lobby for desks, Lui-Wanyau Primary School was also able to get teachers. The interface meetings bring together a variety of service providers . Many schools have been able to resolve their water and electricity problems through the interface meetings. He said the interface meetings have also accelerated the rate at which complaints are addressed. He said the delays in service delivery are sometimes due to the fact that service providers are not aware of the challenges the schools may be facing. Mr. Simakumba has appealed to CSPR to increase the frequency of the interface meeting from the current two to at least three meetings per year to increase the rate of interaction between service providers and the community.
The CSPR V&A Chairperson Mr. Mayumbelo told the team that his committee has been able to monitor the school budgets, pupil attendance, learning materials and teacher attendance. The PTA Chairperson Mr.Ilukena said his team has been able to also monitor the renovation of a teachers house at the school. They also witnessed and monitored the quality of the building materials that were delivered by the contractor to the school. Another Committee Member Mrs.Brenda Kaluwe shared that using the social accountability skills she learnt through the V&A Project, she was able to take Members Of Staff at the Local Clinics to task after observing long queues on Mondays were patients waited for hours to be attended to. She shared that the Clinic Management informed her that the long queues were due to the fact that Staff at the Clinic attended to administrative issues before attending to patients on Mondays. She said she has made several follow-up visits to the Clinic and the situation has since improved.
CSPR with partnership from PTF is implementing the V&A Community Empowerment for Improved Local Service Delivery in Zambia project with financial support from the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF) and administered by the World Bank. The project seeks to strengthen community awareness and participation with school management and local authorities for accountable primary and secondary education services.
