The Minister for Education says the government is still studying the prospect of introducing free education at secondary school level.
Godfrey Lungwangwa said currently the government is trying to ascertain the magnitude of resources that are required to offer free education up to grade 12.
He was speaking in an interview yesterday with ZNBC News.
The Minister said his ministry has set up a committee to see how this can be accomplished.
He said once the report is finalised it will be made available to the public.
Meanwhile Prof. Lungwangwa says the introduction of free education at primary school level has resulted into more children being enrolled into schools.
Introducing free education at primary level was ill-conceived. How do you let everyone get into free primary education then when they qualify to secondary level, they get stuck with school fees and drop out??? “Free Universal education” is the key word. lets learn from countries like Japan who invested loads in education that resulted into a well developed country. Education creates an intellectual platform for easy diffusion of technology thts why hi-tech countries are (were) investing (invested) more in education……
Hope free education be extended to secondary level and some time to colleges and universities.
No doubt you’re right but there’s more to it than just letting the students walk into class for mahala. Teachers’ salaries are a joke! Books in schools are dog-eared or missing pages, libraries poorly stocked….this study needs more than just a look at school fees. The whole education system needs to be reviewed.
This GRZ is a shame. These fellows did not pay for their education up to UNZA and yet they have been abusing their fellow citizens by their insane demands for school fees!! Levy and Mutati and Lungwangwa did not pay a cent for their education. They have been so drunk with power and wine with the IMF/WB that they have been destroying the same ladders they used to get to the top by denying their fellow citizens the right to a free, decent education.
Those of us who r above 40 knows very well how free education quickly transformed Zambia into an educated nation offering skilled manpower to the booming economy of post independent Zambia. Today there is talk of inadequate power, tomorrow industries will be importing skilled manpower due to lack of it locally. These multi-economic zones we are building will need various abundant skilled manpower in all areas of science and technology. Make it free up to tertiary level and be ready to leap into the next phase of development! Cost is not the issue, but priorities, lets cut unnecessary spending in unproductive sectors and pump cash into health, water, food, education and infrastructure ie rail
Free up to Grade 12 thats great we need man power especially with the productive (Skilled workers)population reducing due to AIDS we need to train more.
Don’t waste time studying the prospect of free education. implement it. All Zambian children have a right to free education. Just fight corruption that is sucking money from grz
do fast plaese our children dont offered, but your children they manage because you get something look for something great for the poor us
This GRZ is rubbish. KK showed the way why can’t they sit down with the old man and ask him how he did it? Mwanakatwe is also around, why not ask him out for a cup of orange juice and chat about how they made Zambia a well-informed nation through education? Trouble with levy is that he is a mental retard. He cannot think beyond his stomach where his brain is.
The problem with this government is that,it is too proud to consult!
We waste so much money on doing studies whose results are obvious? Free education up to grade 12 is a no brainer. I think the MMD wants to keep a lot of youths uneducated so they can use them as cadres during elections. An educated population will not waste time to listen to cheap campaign rhetoric and so the MMD fears losing it’s thug base. Implement free education and get our youths in class, simple.
Is this really a puzzle worth spending so much of public funds in the name of studying the policy of free education. This system is long overdue. It is no good playing on people’s intelligence making them think that you are doing them a favour. Studying what? Give our children the education they need.
The standard of education is the issue. Free education without incentives for the teachers only creates an environment where the teachers prepare the kids for failure so that the kids can then turn to them for private lessons where they then make their killing while evading tax.
Can’t blame a teacher for trying to survive. It hurts to see a chap you taught when the chap had mucus in the nose living larger while you waste away for a meagre pension you may never get on time.
Free education plus better incentives for teachers plus well stocked schools plus disciplinary measures for looters and plunderers of resources, both students and teachers in this case…
Change the whole culture!!!
A simple calculation concerning money: Take Evelyn Hone for example, How many students? Multiply by how much a student pays per semester for tuition.
How many hostels? Multiply by rooms per hostel, then multiply by how many students per room multiplied by how much each pays for accommodation.
Then consider that Hone is not the only institution with this arithmetic. So, talking about colleges alone, plus UNZA, how much money?
Can’t say there is no money, especially when these institutions do not even rennovate or build new blocks.
Mr Government and Miss Citizen, beware the hour of judgement!!! Brimstone and Fire!!!
Free education where has govt been all these years? No new schools and colleges built since 1964. Zambians jsut took over what was left behind by former rulers.
Look after your own should be the New MOTTO
Give every child the right to a good education.
free education is they key for reall.. trust me GRZ has moneyyyyy.. just look at the cars and other benefits these high profile GRZ dudes are getting..but they dont do ishh….
Mr president…?????????????? oh ma bad its DR lol
ohh yeah, free education is okay for up to university level but let us also consider the quality of that same education, is it worth its, i think yes its is considering you also provide the best education which is fairly competitive in the region and not mentioning the provision of jobs to those graduated bcoz it doesnt make sense when one graduate form the free education system and cant even get a job. so ba LPM make the implementation go on a fast track coz the culture with these thieves is that they spend millions and billions on kwachas into consultations,drinking coffee and eating biscuits in conferences but of which nothing happens afterwards…..
…. so ba GRZ instaed of wasting more money into the so called gratuities and MPs salary increment seating allowances etc for all those big tommy’s, they should instead invest in the future of the majority Zambians….. ohh yeah we Zambians have the right to free education, its not that were begging for it we deserve it thats our motherland and thus we pay high Tax’s… high time we see where the Tax’s we pay is going period.
i want to see my grade 12 result for the year 2009,at masala high school.