Government is considering extending provision of free education up to Grade 12 to enable more Zambians have access to quality education.
Currently the provision is from Grade one to seven.
Education Minister Dr John Phiri said this when he featured on a Radio Phoenix programme dubbed “Government and You” in Lusaka yesterday.He sais the Government would upgrade free education from Grade one to Grade 12 to enable many children have access to education.
The Government intends to phase out the basic schools and re-introduce the traditional system of education of primary and secondary school education. He said this would be phased out methodically without disadvantaging anybody
Dr John Phiri also praised teachers across the country for their continued hard work despite working under difficult conditions with low salaries.
He has disclosed that government would next year recruit 5, 000 teachers saying the move would go a long way in removing teachers from the streets.
Dr Phiri said his vision was to ensure that his ministry attained the highest education for all and improve the standards of living for
Zambians.
“My overall vision is to ensure that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology attains higher education for all and promote science and technical education and for me, this vision will depend on the technocrats and teachers in my ministry who must show diligence to their work.
Let’s do a lot of hard and practical work for the benefit of a miserable child especially in the rural and shanty township to ensure that they escape from the shackles of poverty which is dehumanising. I promise accountability in this ministry and that every ngwee allocated to it will go to the intended purpose,” Dr Phiri said.
He said deployment of teachers to rural areas was a nightmare because of the deplorable conditions which made it difficult to attract teachers.
Dr Phiri said other than the rural hardship allowance, the Government would put in place incentives that would attract teachers to go and teach in rural areas to make their lives more bearable.
He said it was unfortunate that housing for teachers was a source of concern. The minister disclosed that the Government would build 200 houses for teachers next year and engage with commercial banks to give housing loans to teachers at affordable lending rates for which Government would act as a guarantor.
He said the Government was thankful to the thousands of teachers in the country who have endeavoured to work under difficult conditions with low salaries.
The Government is waiting for the report from the Salaries Commission that was put in place by the former MMD government to come up with recommendations on the way forward.
Dr Phiri said the PF Government was committed to the plight of teachers hence the increased budgetary allocation to the ministry among other things.
Since there were already many primary schools in place, the Government would concentrate more on expanding secondary and tertiary schools.
“We will endeavour to construct 2,000 classrooms in schools though this will still not be enough to bridge the gap between primary and secondary schools,” Dr Phiri said.
The Government would study how the current free education system to grade seven was performing so as to draw lessons that would assist in guidelines on the way forward.
He said free education would only be effective after the study and drawing of lessons from the current system.
He commended the MMD government for doing a good job in the education sector adding that the PF Government would continue building the sector from where their predecessors ended.
Some callers to the programme commended the ministry for performing well but expressed concern on issues of special education for the disabled children and scrapping of basic schools which they said would send many children to the streets.
But Dr Phiri assured the nation that no child would be sent to the street as a result of phasing out the basic schools which would be done methodically without disadvantaging anybody.
Earlier Dr Phiri said the Government has set aside K145 billion for recruitment of 5,000 teachers next year in order to reduce the backlog of unemployed graduates as well as to improve the education standards.
The ministry has in the 2012 National Budget been allocated K4.85 trillion compared with the K3.71 trillion for 2011.
Other things that have been improved are personal emoluments that saw an increase to K3.05 trillion from K2.59 trillion and the ministerial ceiling for non-personal emoluments was also increased from K1.1 trillion this year to K1.8 trillion next year.
On infrastructure projects, Dr Phiri said at primary school level, K18.6 billion has been allocated for contractor mode projects while K143 billion has been set aside for community mode projects.
At secondary school level, K303 billion has been provided for contractor mode and K5.4 billion for community mode projects.
On the allocation to public universities, Dr Phiri said the University of Zambia has been allocated K138. 4 billion grant while K56.4 billion in grants would go to the Copperbelt University though this was not enough.
[Times of Zambia]
That is awesome if it is established all over the country.Then what about the private schools???
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. NOW is the correct time to study contact your local University also check for an interesting article called High Speed Universities on web
good move..mwambeko nokulatutuma ku UK for further studies…start with bembas:…tonga bulls after all the bemba chaps with interest in further education are finished..
sounds good, lets also try to evaluate the teachers perfomance, headteachers too, i know a few headteachers who have run down good schools, they are corrupt and misuse school funds.Â
Munali school, DK, these are schools where our national heroes archived there basic eduaction and now they look like a school in war ton congo. Â president sata, allocate funds to these schools, there are tourist attractions like Mr Lubinda would say.
good move on this one but bad on street vending.
Well done ,this is the type of neww we want to be hearing and not cheap political fights.The President should sit back and let the minister do their work.
Sorry for the typing mistakes. I meant news and not neww,ministers and not minister.
Fantastic news!!
Excellent. After all we are just 12 million people out of which very few learners. We have plenty of wealth which we misuse or misapply and the expect father christmas to help us. 47 years of independence but we still think small and do small things! This move is good. Look at its multiplier effect: More teachers in employment, more houses needed, more housing loans, more money for the banks, more market for goods as a result of more teachers, more economic activities and thus a vibrant economy. Just stop plundering government resources. We have more than enough to move this country far ahead. Think big, stop stealing. Think of projects like dual courages on many of our major road network, build proper bridges, build more schools…..all my God, why do we think so lowly!Â
To consider?
Thi was in your manifesto you dim wits!
Have you now realised reality?
Smart move. A big project, but one worth doing.
No need for insults. Just be sane and talk about what would bring development. Whether it was in manifesto or not, but if it is meant for the development of mother Zambia, its good. What is good is good, you don’t have to be dodge about it. When you are outside the country and look at Zambia its surprising how we have missed opportunity to develop due to myopic tackling of real national issues. What is in it by calling others dim wits? There are many who mean well for our country but majority are not, surprisingly!
WHEN IT UPND YOU SAY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, WHEN ITS PF YOU SAY THUMBS UP. THESE ARE UPND POLICIES,
Ndeke, what do you mean?
Good move,keep it up mr presido.
Good move,keep it up mr presido.
Good move,keep it up mr presido.
This could be good news if well implanted. However I still believe basic education should still be maintained from grade 1 to 9. Let all children get this “basic” or primary education. It could be good if children can be allowed to go 9 years at primary level and do their exams at Grade 9 level. After completing Grade 9 then children should proceed to grade 10 or Form 1 at secondary school. This secondary school education should go up-to grade 13 or Form 6. This would make universities reduce their 4 year programmes to 3 years or at least reduce most programmes at university level should be reduced by a year or so. My thinking is that at least a child who reaches grade 9 would be mature enough to apply some education acquired even if such a child drops out or pushed out at this level.Â
But if we follow the so called traditional education from say primary education from grade 1 to 7 and secondary from Form 1 to form 5 then we are just reinventing the wheel and it would be disastrous to most children I can assure you. I end here!
Iam not comfortable with abolishing basic schools. I need to see the plan. The current sector of administration has done a lot of good and needs to be thought well. The population has grown and people are still poor. Think about the past and compare to now. Demands have evolved. I do not think the country has the capacity to educate the whole masses for free. Grade one thru nine is idea.
#19,20 you are spot on. We also need to revisit the curriculum. There is so much unnecessary material that is still taught, subjects like history, RE and, geography needs scrutiny.
Planning must be thorough to ensure sustainability with quality. Ensure it is only for ZAMBIANS. During KK time, we ended up educating so many non-Zambians using our givernment money, at times at the expense of some Zambians who got bumped off because of the limited school places in higher education. Introduce very low interest rated education loans for tertiary education to be repaid when they start work to sustain the programme. Learn lessons from KK’s free education – how it ended into a disaster when it was such a nice thing at the beginning. Get into the habit of using the best brains you have to work on such mammoth projects.
Just know it is not possible, what does the minister know about education financing? Where do the money that pupils pay at high school go? It goes to feeding, text books, chalk general adminisration, lab chemicals, managment and excution of examinations, sports and sometimes pay employees employed by the baord etc.In the absence of these funds, can Government garantee that they will pay for all the costs and on time? Improve quality not quantity, overcrowding etc.
Yes, if GRZ will pay for that but we already learnt a lesson from basic education. How much and often do basic schools receive funds from GRZ? Cos of lack of funds, most basic school have vigorously fought for introduction of grades 8 and 9 so they can have something for chalk! Stop dreaming, be real and also ask around.
I hope when it is introduced, it will be free education as in free.
At the moment there is no such a thing as free education in Zambia at any level whatsoever. Parents, guardians and pupils pay some money to the school establishments, failure to which children are sent home, never to return to education without producing some cash.
The same is true also of the recently declared free primary health care. For example at the Ng’ombe clinic in Lusaka the staff there still charge a user fee, even for pre-school to grade one children… and won’t attend to late evening emergencies for children with injuries.
Let free education or free health care be FREE!Â
This is the same story written into the said ”17 POINTS ADEDO ZAMUCANO MANIFESTO”,that is a good move sir!
Thank you, something good to talk about.Â
@ Snr GRZ official – I totally agree with you.
The word free is misleading. There is no such thing as a free lunch. How and where is Govt going to provide these funds consistently? Â
This is not news, we need information like, my ministry with effect from today has approved free education up to G12 and schools should proceed like A,B,C ETC unza has been given so much money to sort out this problem and the balance be sourced in future
Zambians need to demand free education from Grade 1 to 12.Zambia can afford to offer free education to all the Zambian children by doing the following;
1.Put all the MP’s on half salaries what they are earning Now
2.Cancel the Constituency Development Fund
3.Put all the Ministers and Members of the Cabinets on half the salaries they are getting Now
4.No Cell phones for MP’s and Ministers
5.No Presidential visits outside Lusaka or Zambia 1 trip per year
6.No Govt vehicles for the Ministers or any civil servant they will use their cars to work
7.No Govt housing all civil servants from cleaner to Minister to be paid K300,000 (Three Hundred Thousands a month)
The list is endless
Zambia has never had a balanced budget because of lack of leadership.It will take tough and sacrifice by all.Politicians can not be living with full potty belly stomachs when millions have nothing
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