63 different functions for the councils with the majority of them being infrastructure management and local administration. Councils are mandated to maintain each of their community centres, zoos, local parks, drainage system, playgrounds, cemeteries, caravan sites, libraries, museums and art galleries. They also work along with specific government departments for helping in agriculture, conservation of natural resources, postal service, establishing and maintaining hospitals, schools and colleges. The councils prepare schemes that encourage community participation. Chama District from the province was aligned to the newly created Muchinga Province in 2011 but re-aligned back to the province in 2021 when President Hakainde Hichilema took office. Economy, health and education As of 2004, the province had 861 basic schools, 41 high schools and the number of school children out of school in ages between 7 and 15 stood at 861. The unemployment rate was 6 per cent and the general unemployment rate for youth stood at 12 per cent as of 2008. The province had 36 doctors as of 2005. There were 447 Malaria incidence for every 1,000 people in the province as of 2005 and there were 9,338 AIDS death as of 2010. As of 2010, the province had the lowest literacy rate of 54.4 per cent among all provinces in the country. The total area of crops planted during the year 2014 in the province was 387,273.09 hectares which constituted 20.41 per cent of the total area cultivated in Zambia. The net production stood at 799,026 metric tonnes, which formed 19.61 per cent of the total agricultural production in the country. Sunflower was the major crop in the province with 24,053 metric tonnes, constituting 70.20 per cent of the national output. Chipata Airport and Mfuwe Airport are the two airports in the province. Notes References External links Provinces of Zambia