By Dr. Yobert K. Shamapande, Concerned senior citizen.
No. Free education, or more appropriately, government-subsidized education, is not and cannot be regarded as a disastrous “hot potato thrown on the laps” of teachers and school administrators, as some PF leaders alleged the other day.
The New Dawn administration is exactly right on this. Full access to affordable, quality education is a social life line — a moral obligation pursued by progressive governments to move their societies into modern times. And that must be Zambia’s direction as well.
To a casual observer, any sign of highly enthusiastic children overcrowding schools at registration or on first day of classes was enough to press panic alarms about the “disaster” of free education. Absolutely not.
To me, that enthusiasm, that zeal and that overcrowding of children at schools was a positive sign. A positive demonstration of some progress – indicative of the pull factor of free education as desperate children, once wallowing in the shadows of abject poverty, now seize an opportunity to get an education; and the poor rural mother who had held back her daughter, her son from school because she couldn’t afford the registration fees, examination fees etcetera has now found a helping hand of government.
To me, that trend means Zambia needs to accelerate a step further – to guarantee universal, compulsory and free education for every school-age citizen from primary through secondary school level, with emphasis on uplifting the girl child.
Of course, any such expansively inclusive policy will be bound to increase pressure on government and the current education system – public or private. However, any temporary setbacks of overcrowding, congestion or other adverse impacts should eventually yield to sustained social interventions.
Zambia is well endowed. And all that is required now is the political as well as a collective focus to invest in education – expanding more and quality facilities, training more and skilled teachers and developing more and better teaching materials, including books.
We do not have to look far afield for lessons learned on this issue. Many of my generation, as well as that of the current President, were products of heavily subsidized or free education under the Kaunda or UNIP era. At times schools appeared overwhelmed by pupil overcrowding but nonetheless were able to spread the opportunities and benefits of education to so many.
On continental level, how do 10 of the 54 African countries often being lauded as having built some of the best education systems —namely, Seychelles, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Egypt, Namibia, and Libya – begin climbing on the ladder of providing world class education for their societies? Through creative thinking, I believe, accompanied with combinations of universal, inclusive, compulsory and free education as well as sustained government commitment to investing in the educational endeavour and removing inhibitive cost barriers from education.
There are standards for these things. UNESCO has long laid down principles of “education for all” as the fundamental standards for social equity and justice in the society. To achieve that, UNESCO further provided benchmarks to guide governments to devote around 15 to 20 per cent of their budgetary resources to educational programming.
In Africa today, only Seychelles has so far fulfilled UNESCO’s “education for all” feat. While countries like South Africa, Egypt, Namibia, Ghana, Kenya, Algeria and others continue to invest upwards of 15 to 18 percent of total budgets towards that compelling goal.
By contrast, Zambia’s total investment in education has been declining since 2015 to as low as a meagre 10 per cent devoted to education under the 2022 budget. We can and must do more.
Universal, compulsory and free education – meaning guaranteed and unfettered access to education for every citizen — is one social contract Zambia should never fail to fulfil. Education transforms the lives of our people in the most profound ways through acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits – all ingredients necessary for national cohesion we have so much aspired for as a people, and no other tool can instil them. It affords society with limitless possibilities for social progress. And, I would contend, education is the single most critical weapon to fighting poverty, the scourge of early marriages among girls as well as a host of other social vices ravaging our society.
Now, the critical question is this: how do we meet the cost challenges of expanding free education to every citizen in this country?
Below, I suggest a few measures, some of the go to the heart of reordering national priorities and undergoing painful sacrifices for those in leadership.
First, start through collaborative efforts of public-private partnerships, especially with the church institutions that have long championed education work, to overcome overcrowding and congestions in schools while improving the quality of the product.
In this regard, Government has already make commitments to building more schools and employing some 30,000 more teachers in 2022 to mitigate any adverse impact of increased pupils in schools and the resultant pupil-to-teacher ratios.
Second, get our priorities right. Stop engaging in grandiose, wasteful schemes, as in the past few years, of constructing costly flyover bridges over perfectly functioning roads while relegating thousands of children to mass illiteracy, malnutrition, homelessness and ill health. Let’s shift more funds instead to educating our children.
Third, seize this opportunity to reduce the cost of government business. Government needs to seriously reinforce more funding to education in the national budget allocations. Concomitantly, it needs to radically reduce further the levels of ministries and corresponding cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries to about fifteen as well as cut down on foreign mission representations (embassies, high commissions, consulates) to no more than twenty significant ones.
Fourth, scale down on heavily costly international travels, especially at the head of state level, to absolute minimum while undertaking only the most essential engagements. Instead, delegate all other international interactions to Zambia’s representations abroad as well as the respective ministers.
Fifth, reform another costly “tradition” whereby members of Parliament continue purchasing expensive SUV vehicles in each Parliamentary cycle, instead of buying smaller, less costly vehicles – example of the Tanzanian sacrifices. By so doing, the state can devote more money to education and other needy areas.
It is of concerning that leaders in government apparently feel comfortable driving around in fancy vehicles and drawing hefty allowances amid so much suffering among the people they purportedly serve. Public service must never be seen as a wealth mine.
Finally, here is the most disturbing feature of Zambia’s education captured by Roy Moobola’s recent analysis:
“In January, a total of 409, 441 pupils in Zambia progressed to start their secondary school education in Grade 8. … [but] only 140, 338 pupils will have started their senior secondary education in Grade 10 due to lack of places in senior secondary schools. … [thus] roughly two-thirds of children who completed primary school not being able to have a full secondary school education.” (lusakatimes.com February 2,2022).
Here then, in my judgment, lies the country’s real educational disaster, the tragedy of its underperformance. It leaves out huge segments of children in the cold, literally, without the any social tools or hope to improve their lot. What would the 269, 000 plus youngsters without secondary school education, realistically, do to improve their human condition or meaningfully contribute to the larger social progress?
I close with this plea: education is one area where Zambians should strive to find policy commonality or consensus. The stakes are too high – as the nation’s economic development and social advancement depend on it. All parties need to come to the table with fresh ideas and a focused agenda to move the country’s education to a higher level. Education is no political football. And for those incapable of differentiating between a disaster or progress in the educational field, will well be advised to stay out of the debate.
