CHONGWE, April 12, 2025
A bitter row has erupted at Faith Baptist Secondary in Chongwe, Lusaka Province, between general staff and the administration over the management of the institution.
Members of staff have raised concerns about alleged mismanagement, exploitation and intimidation by the school’s top administration.
But management has parried the allegations as false.
One of the the grievances by members of staff is that the school’s administration, including head teacher Doreen Sonkasonka Hara, deputy head teacher Brian Mutale, head of department (HOD) Caleb Nyirenda and the entire guidance office are running a business cartel.
They allegedly use school resources for personal benefit, sell school spaces to parents for k5,000 or more and intimidate staff members who try to question some of their actions.
One of the staff member, who spoke on behalf of the others, said Hara’s management style was characterised by intolerance and victimisation.
“The head teacher [Hara] has an agenda of expelling or transferring anyone who she sees as a threat to her deliberate mismanagement of the school. We’ve been threatened with immediate transfer and disciplinary actions for not siding with her cartel. Even minor infractions by pupils are exaggerated to justify expulsion, creating vacancies that are then sold to other parents at inflatable prices, generating substantial profits for her and her clique,” the member of staff said.
“Let higher authorities verify the enrollment records; many new students are below the cut-off point. How did they get with such low marks? The guidance office and Math department are involved too. She will claim clearance from DEBS [District Education Board Secretary] but she is using teachers who are part of her cartel,” the source said.
Another inside source said senior teachers who were almost confirmed at head department level and were against the questionable actions and decisions of the head teacher and her cartel were being targeted for victimisation.
Hara is also accused of misusing resources donated to the school, including a water pump donated by the Ministry of Energy which allegedly swapped with an old pump from the head teacher’s farm and is now being used for personal gain.
But Hara dismissed the allegations saying her heart does not skip a beat about them because she has done nothing wrong and has been cleared by the DEBS office and higher authorities. She explained that the pump the members of staff had mentioned was installed by the Energy Hub but because of poor rainfall, it sunk into the mud and was damaged.
This she said, led the administration to return the pump to the Energy Hub, where it remains to this day, and that it’s serial number matches the documentation.
“My heart doesn’t skip a beat over these allegations because I’ve been cleared by the DEBS office and higher authorities who conducted investigations after receiving a letter about the same allegations. The allegations were found to be false. Regarding the pump, the Energy Hub, on behalf of the Ministry of Energy, installed it. However, due to poor rainfall, the underground water level decreased, causing the pump to sink into the mud and the borehole to collapse,” Hara said.
“We attempted to retrieve the pump, but it was damaged and returned to the Energy Hub, where it remains to this day. The current borehole was donated by the Chongwe CDF [Constituency Development Fund] office. The pump in question is still at the Energy Hub, and it’s serial number matches the documentation. This can be confirmed by the director of that same company where it is still there. We sent it back to Energy Hub because it was within the warranty period.”
Hara also dismissed allegations of transferring workers as a form of punishment, explaining that some teachers would be reassigned to other schools offering subjects not currently taught at Faith Baptist Secondary School because of the school’s recent upgrade to a provincial STEM school.
“Faith Baptist doesn’t offer expressive arts, teachers in that department will be directed to schools that do. However, no transfers have been made yet, and the school has only informed staff members about the possibility,” Hara said
She said in fact, the administration had had a meeting with the district officer two weeks ago, requesting the school to concretise and submit the career pathways in the event that it had now teachers that needed to be deployed to other schools.
“What I can say is that most of the teachers that have been transferred from this school have been promoted to higher positions,” Hara said.
She also denied threatening staff members.
“All these claims could be verified as false by DEBS office because they had already been addressed,” she said