The 2015
National Budget proposes to spend ZMW 9, 433.33 (20.20%) on our education
sector. This amount is not sufficient enough to carter for our growing demands
in the education sector.
Our education
sector needs a lot of funding as it is struggling right now. But I do
comprehend that allocation can’t be increased abruptly as it need thoroughly
planning. It can be done gradually and sequential so as to accommodate other
sectors as well.
Right now as
a country, we don’t have sufficient schools and universities to accommodate the
rising school leavers. This is being experienced both in rural and in urban
areas although in rural areas its very high compared to urban. As a country, we
are faced with this crisis for long time now. 50 years down the line, we are
still struggling with the crisis of proper education facilities! This has
devastating impact on the economy of the country at intellectual level.
Contemporary Economics tells us that no country can develop without proper
human capital – intellectual capital.
Previous
Governments concentrated on building more primary and secondary schools than
tertiary education. That’s not a problem but they lacked foresight of having
high demand of school leavers and inadequate tertiary places. Currently, this
country has only 3 universities ( Mulungushi, CBU, UNZA). Technically and
truthfully speaking, these universities have evidently failed to accommodate
the rising number of secondary school leavers. My fellow youths are mushrooming
the streets as they been denied access to education which can enhance their
lives.
With
inadequate education infrastructure that we face as country now, what we need
is to build more education infrastructure (schools and universities). The issue
of human resource (teachers) is another challenge our education sector is
facing. But one step at a time. What is of significant right now is to have the
right infrastructure in place to deal with the crisis at hand. It’s gratifying
to note that the current government has embarked on building a number of university
projects (Chalimbana, Mukuba, Robert Makasa, King Lewanika – construction to
start in January and Luapula Universities) and schools. Although these
Universities are not sufficient to carter for future growth of our education,
it’s a step in the right direction in resolving the crisis that we are facing.
I would urge the government to continue building schools and universities until
such a time we have enough to carter for everyone and the cost of “access to
quality education” becomes cheap.
As things
stand, we have a lot of mushrooming universities and colleges that does meet
the required stands. These private-owned tuntemba colleges have come in to
bridge the gap that our government has failed. Most of them lack proper
infrastructure and human resources, and unfortunately contribute immensely to
poor education standards that our country continue to obtain.
The free
education policy issue (up to tertiary level) right now is a political rhetoric
coming from our politicians. This doesn’t hold any water at all as it is
unrealistic considering the many challenges our education sector. This can only
come in after we have built enough schools and universities. Having free
education up to university can be a huge burden on our national budget right
now. And for that matter the 2015 Budget doesn’t have the capacity for that.
Our politicians should be telling us how they will finance such kind of
policies rather than just making mere pronouncements that are unrealistic
currently. Even now, with free education which is up to grade 7, the government
still faces many challenges when it comes to funding our primary and secondary
schools.
The
government should also increase the Ministry of Education budget allocation to
build more schools and universities and not finance free education. The issue
at hand can only come in after we have built enough schools and universities,
say in the next 10-25 years from now.
Having said
that, it would be nice to see our politicians refrain from making careless
pronouncements of education as it is not feasible right now. Populist policies
should be rejected as they are a sign of mediocre leadership.
Lukonde L. Chaibela
