The Release of K324million to Cover 3 months Costs for Schools in Zambia

By Emmanuel Mwamba
The Treasury has released K1.284 billion of which K960 million will be payment made to farmers owed by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).A good thing as farmers were made to go into another farming season without receiving payments for their produce for the 2020/2021 farming season.The other release of K324million is the 2022 First Quarter Operational Support Fund to public schools aimed at facilitating the implementation of free education.

HOW MANY PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO WE HAVE?

As at 2019, we have 1,009 Secondary Schools and 8,343 primary schools.The allocation of K324 million to cover costs for the first quarter (3 months) translates to roughly K34.644.00 per school to meet administrative costs until April.

WHAT FEES WERE BEING PAID IN THE PAST

Education has been free at both Primary and Secondary Schools since 2011. It has never been Government policy to charge tuition fees for learners in both primary and secondary schools.
However, learners were required to pay user and boarding fees to meet costs of electricity, water and sanitation, stationery and payment of salaries for Daily Classified Workers (CDEs) such as cleaners, office orderlies (help) and guards to secure school premises. As seen from the release of funds to cover the first school term by the Treasury, the funds are clearly inadequate.
Government may consider picking up some of the costs such as wages of CDEs as the abolition of user fees and scrapping of the PTA fund poses an immediate challenge to school administrators.

CDF, BOARDING FEES & TERTIARY BURSARY SCHEMES

The Treasury may consider releasing immediately, the allocation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for 2022 where components of education fees such as boarding fees for eligible and identified vulnerable learners and bursary support for those going to Colleges and Universities are embedded in.The education sector will continue to attract attention this year as the recruitment of 30,000 teachers is expected to take place.Government has budgeted for K18.1billion to the sector, and of this, K1.7 billion is for recruitment of the teachers.
Clearly the entire 2022 National Budget standing at $10billion ( K173billion ) is ambitious. It remains to be seen, on the revenue side, if these ambitious goals set, will be met.

A QUICK CHAT WITH AMBASSADOR EMMANUEL MWAMBA ON K324 MILLION RELEASED FOR SCHOOLS

By Alexander Nkosi

I just read an article written by Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba, where he is saying that the K324 million released for schools for term one is not enough to cater for their needs. He argued that K324 million for 9352 primary and secondary schools is not enough as it gives us an average of K34,644.

I will not dwell on whether it is accurate to add primary schools and secondary schools and simply get the average or whether to simply bunch up urban and rural schools that clearly have different needs, but I will focus more on why the step taken by government is the right one.

At some point in my career, I was M&E Lead for the biggest education projects in the country by then. I interacted with schools, both rural and urban across nine provinces. I got to appreciate some of the serious challenges they faced. While these schools received small grants from government, sometimes they could go for months without receiving these grants and when they did, it was mostly only part payment which wasn’t even enough to cover what they owed. We have all seen how grant aided institutions, including the few universities, have struggled the past years. The situation was worse at district level and worse still in schools.

The other thing is that while learners paid some fees, not everyone managed to pay while others only made part payments. Since these are public schools, they were instructed not to chase learners who hadn’t paid. At some point a well known senior government official even instructed schools to accept in-kind payment like goats, chicken maize etc.

So what has changed? Leaners from grade 1 to 12 in day schools no longer have to pay and those in boarding schools can access sponsorship under CDF. This is definitely a step in the right direction. We all understand the huge debt overhang and other serious economic challenges we face. With time, especially after debt restructuring and once the economy starts recovering, Zambia can extend free education to boarding schools and expand tertiary education scholarships.

The other positive is that whereas previously a term would end without these schools receiving money from government and significant payment from learners, the situation is now different as three weeks before schools open, funds have already been released. In most cases it might actually work better than when they used to charge some fees but struggled to get this money in full and on time.

In conclusion, like every project, there is learning to be done and we will definitely get better as we go. If not already addressed, I’m sure government will look into the issue of Daily Classified Workers. One immediate solution would be to cover them under CDF if a quick ammendment can be made. Pending release of CDF, they can be covered for a month or two under the grants they have received.

By Kapya Kaoma

“You have been given an opportunity to elect. You elect a Hyena. And when the goats are eaten, you wonder why.”

I don’t usually pay attention to TikTok clips, but this clip, I replayed over and over. It brought to mind President Hichilema’s characterization of President Sata as “Chimbwi with no plan.” But after listening to dishonorable Felix Mutati lie to poor Zambians to wait until 2023 to thank the HH administration for the ongoing hardship despite promises to do otherwise, I realized it is akin to thanking hyenas after they have eaten all the goats. The problem is, the hyenas would have multiplied, and there won’t be goats. And so are the masses of Zambians who will die due to economic hardships because of HH’s devilish deception that made them vote for him based on his grand lies that he would take care of their plight rather than worsen it. To Mutati as to HH and his worshipers, those Zambians don’t count at all!

Amidst all talks of economic reforms, President Hichilema is maintaining two Presidential residences, a set of personnel, security details, daily motorcade, cooks, etc. One wonders if the New Dark Regime has quantified the cost of transporting the President from, and to his private home to the State House a day. How much does it cost to staff each House a day? How much does it cost to clean and maintain, power, maintain communication equipment, security, etc? How about the people cleared to work in those facilities? This is one example of misusing resources of untold magnitude.

Clearly, President Hichilema lacks empathy. Does he understand how his presence endangers innocent lives in New Kasama? The area was not zoned for Presidential housing. Aside from inconveniencing other residents whose private lives are now monitored daily by military, police and secret services, the President is endangering citizens’ lives. Assuming there is an attempt on his life (God for bid), innocent lives could be lost unnecessarily. Besides, does he care about the inconvenience he causes for commuters who endure traffic jams each day? No–it feeds his obsessively egotistical personality. This is the attitude that drives his values.

Why should people suffer daily inconveniences because of his refusal to live in the Official Presidential House? It makes one wonder what he is hiding in his house–feeding into many African traditional conspiracy theories surrounding his Presidency. Or is it his narcissistic pride that makes him think he is too special to sleep in the house that other Presidents have used? Yet Presidents live in Official State Houses for the national symbolic importance as opposed to the beauty of it. Another sign of his heartless personality–he rather waste national resources on promoting his egomaniac inferiority complex.

But there is something that clip led me to think about; the Simba–Scar (Simba’s uncle and main antagonist) scenario in The Lion King movie. Like Mutati, Gary Nkombo, and countless UPND cadres, hyenas were Scar’s most loyal followers and henchmen. They made Scar the King of Pride Lands, through grand deception. In return, Scar gave them liberty to hunt at will–leading to over-hunting and starvation in the Kingdom. After Simba returned and reclaimed the throne, Scar survived the fall. But it is the hyenas who tore him apart. Why? For his years of lies and treachery. And which Chimbwi knows this game, but Felix Mutati? A great hyena of every administration, always kissing the boots of each Scar in power. So today, he shout Bally, tomorrow he will shout X.

It is one thing to have a President without a plan, but not heartless. President HH is detached from ordinary peoples’ lives, thus his economic policies are unprecedentedly harmful to the poor. No matter how much these hyenas spin it, the poor will become poorer and a tiny minority will become richer under the new Dark Regime–among them is HH. This is true in 2022 and will be true in 2026!

So don’t believe hyenas as some Bally worshipers are doing. The price of fuel or the cost of living won’t come down, just get used to it. Your tummies will shrink as things become harder and harder. But be warned. The heartless Chimbwi will be sending his dishonorable liars with lie after lie to calm us down–“things will be better off the following year.”

Can we believe them for once? Why haven’t they told us that they won’t get their salaries until 2023? Why won’t they tell us that they won’t drive until 2023? Why don’t they tell us that they won’t sleep in hotels or get their allowances in 2023? Why don’t they tell us they won’t tax us until 2023? Why are they increasing everything on us, but giving themselves big checks? Such is the life of the henchmen of Scar–they care for nothing but their interests. They are happy to maintain two Presidential Houses, but watch kids die in hospitals, families go without life-saving drugs, students drop out because they don’t have bursaries, and the poor die in homes! For when it comes to the smell of goats, a Chimbwi is heartless!

President HH, I pray you are listening!