Probe ZIALE- Prof Mwansa

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 11:41:49 +0000

By CHARLES MUSONDA

GOVERNMENT must engage independent investigators to probe the continued low pass rate at the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE), veteran education Professor Kalombo Mwansa has demanded.

In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Prof. Mwansa said it was unacceptable that ZIALE, a critical institution in the provision of legal services to the nation, could continue producing a handful of lawyers.

He said it was sad that after

spending years and resources at the university, majority law students were failing ZIALE exams at an alarming rate. He said while lecturers at ZIALE were highly qualified and reputable lawyers, there was need to thoroughly check their teaching methodologies and the way they were examining students because Zambia was in dire need of more lawyers.

ZIALE has repeatedly recorded low pass rates with some people alleging that some examiners were allegedly and deliberately failing students to avoid saturating the law profession. Recently, a stunning revelation hit deadlines when it was learnt that out of 300 students, who sat for ZIALE mid-year examinations, only seven passed.

Meanwhile, Prof. Mwansa, the former UNZA Dean of School of Education and former Zambia Open University Vice Chancellor, has attributed the recent discovery of about 500 teachers with forged grade 12 certificates to limited employment opportunities in Zambia.

“The main cause is limited employment opportunities and many people see themselves that they can become teachers because this is a profession where there will always be people to learn. When they fake certificates it is just to get an employment opportunity but they have something else in mind. This is why our educations standards are falling

“But this is not only limited to teachers, we have a number of people forging all types of certificates. There must be an independent body away from the Ministry of General Education to scrutinize the grade 12 certificates because the State issues certificates and it cannot be its own police.”