PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has said the Government will continue to treat education as a priority sector.

President Banda said the Government had allocated large sums of money towards infrastructure development in the sector.

Mr Banda said more resources were allocated towards teacher recruitment, teacher education development and the supply of learning materials.

The president said this on Saturday night in a speech read for him by Education Minister Dora Siliya during the education awards initiative presentation at Hotel Intercontinental.

Mr Banda said the curriculum was being reviewed so that it had relevance and attainable learning outcomes.

"The teaching methods and strategies to go with it (curriculum) should be such that graduates will be able to stand on their own and be more self-reliant," he said.

Mr Banda said the application of science and technology should be learnt using Zambian languages.

He said this would help in that after attaining various college diplomas and university degrees using English language, graduates eventually go to serve the rural people whom they needed to communicate with in their languages.

He said the Government wanted people to participate in the governance of the country and language should not be a barrier.

The president said the good practices learnt from the fifth Africa e-learning international conference, which was held in Zambia last week, should be cascaded down to all levels.

Mr Banda said the motivation the conference would give to the teachers would be encouraging, as they would integrate information communication technology into the teaching process.

Mr Banda said as a result, learners would become more creative and critical thinkers.

Meanwhile, Ms Siliya said there is need for education system to be re-engineered to produce learners that are creative and highly innovative.

Ms Siliya said for education to be the true passport out of poverty, there was need to have learners that were able to use their knowledge and skills for the development of their communities.

Ms Siliya said Zambia's vision to become a prosperous middle-income country by 2030 could only be attained through investment in the education sector.

She said to strengthen the sector, the Ministry of Education held a curriculum symposium and an education consultative forum so that the curriculum was reformed and aligned so that learners acquired the relevant knowledge, skills, values and attitudes.

The objective of the education awards initiative is to recognise individuals and institution's outstanding contribution to the education sector in Zambia.

The sponsors of the awards were MTN, National Savings and Credit Bank, Bank of Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic, Citi Bank, FAWEZA, Banc ABC, Access Bank, Finance Bank, Zambia National Farmers Union and Bayport.

Others were Times of Zambia, ZNBC, Radio Christian Voice and Zambia Daily Mail.