Meal allowance removal bridges inequality – Luo
Higher Education Minister Nkandu Luo says vulnerable students are not only at University of Zambia (UNZA) and the Copperbelt University (CBU).
Government announced that all 2019 first year students under the Students Loans and Higher Education Scholarships scheme will no longer get meal allowance, adding that the scheme will now only cover accommodation and tuition fees to be paid directly to the learning institutions while students will only be paid book and project allowances.
“Institutions such as Mulungushi, Kwame Nkrumah and others, equally have vulnerable students who should be treated equally,” Prof. Luo added.
The Cabinet Minister said she had come under heavy criticism over student meal allowances but, that it was a passing phase because all students in other universities were equally special.
“The coming on board of more universities should see equality in the running of the institutions of higher learning,” she said.
Prof. Luo said leaders should always find a way of doing things in a correct manner even in the wake of criticism.
She was speaking in New Delhi, India, when Zambia’s High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga hosted the Minister for dinner at her residence.
Meanwhile, Prof. Luo said she was amazed at how India had developed in science and technology.
“I will move with speed in acting on all pending reports from the Zambian Mission in India to ensure that workable proposals are executed expeditiously,” she said.
And Zambia’s High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga said there was growing interest among Indians who wanted to work with Zambia in the area of science and technology.
“The Mission has gone flat out encouraging institutions of higher learning in India to look to Zambia for partnership,” Kapijimpanga said.
Prof. Luo was in India to speak at an Educational Research and Development Summit in Hyderabad.
This was contained in a statement made available to Zambian Eye by First Secretary Press and Tourism at the Zambian Mission in New Delhi, India, Bangwe Naviley.