office of the provincial government is located in each of the district headquarters and has provincial local government officers and auditors. Each council is responsible for raising and collecting local taxes and the budgets of the council are audited and submitted every year after the annual budget. The elected members of the council do not draw salaries, but are paid allowances from the council. North-Western is a predominantly rural province and hence there are no city or municipal councils. The government stipulates 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. Education and economy As of 2004, the province had 536 basic schools, 23 high schools and the number of school children out of school in ages between 7 and 15 stood at 26,834. The unemployment rate was 14 per cent and the general unemployment rate for youth stood at 31 per cent as of 2008. The province had 25 doctors as of 2005. There were 439 Malaria incidence for every 1,000 people in the province as of 2005 and there were 2,859 AIDS death as of 2010. The total area of crops planted during the year 2014 in the province was 79,528.80 hectares which constituted 4.19% of the total area cultivated in Zambia. The net production stood at 175,592 metric tonnes, which formed 4.31% of the total agricultural production in the country. Sorghum was the major crop in the province with 1,038 metric tonnes, constituting 8.98% of the national output. Zambezi Airport and Solwezi Airport are the only two airports in the province. Notes References External links Paul David Wilkin's Professional and Personal Reflections of the NorthWestern Province of Zambia: 1963-1983 Provinces of Zambia