Corruption in schools

By Daily Revelation Editor

Lusaka District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Ian Miyoba says Lusaka’s Matero Boys Secondary School head-teacher Samuel Chipo, together with five other teachers have been suspended for seven days to pave way for investigations into the alleged theft of over K700,000 registration fees for this year’s General Certificate Examinations (GCE) fees.

Last week, police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga disclosed that a teacher at the school, Elifas Banda, who is also a guidance counsellor and a reverend at the Reformed Church of Zambia was on the run with the K700,000.

Hamoonga stated that the theft happened on March 7, 2025 and that Banda also went off with a mobile phone belonging to the school valued at K4,000.

An audio has also gone viral on social media where Rev Banda and head-teacher Chipo were heard discussing their alleged crimes.

The duo had been heard discussing their involvement in selling school places and raising over K55,000.

It is good that investigations have been instituted into the matter, and we hope the public will see progress in the manner and a conclusive ending.

Besides that, we urge the investigative wings to widen the probe into most schools as this culture of selling school places disadvantages mostly the poor and marginalised as they do not have the money to bribe the relevant officials for school placings for their children.

Of course, this is not to pre-judge head teacher and his teachers who have been suspended at Matero as being corrupt. Investigations have to be conducted of course against the very strong allegations against them. However, we know that this corruption of school placings has been ongoing for a long time, and needs to be seriously tackled in order to protect the innocent members of the public.

We can cite so many examples of parents that have complained in person to us for having their children denied school places because they did not have enough money to bribe some school officials as demanded from them. We know for instance of some very good government schools just in Lusaka alone, where several Grade 8s and 10s who obtained very terrible results were given school places at the expense of the more deserving students who got very good results but were denied the opportunity because their parents did not have money to bribe some corrupt school officials.

It is simply unimaginable how much this corruption in schools has eroded the quality of our education. But generally, this speaks to the culture we have embraced for ourselves as a country where even the simplest of favours will demand a ‘payment’ in kind. We can only become content that we are fighting corruption in the country when our corruption once the general public begins to abhor corruption and treat it as something that is abnormal.

While it is encouraged to fight the corruption of the former leaders in order to make them accountable for their wrong deeds during their time in office, every effort must be expended in widening the net also target the current serving leaders. That will itself send a strong signal to the general populace that corruption is no longer tolerable. In no time, that signal will filter through to the citizenry, including ending the corruption we are talking about in schools.

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