THE POLITICAL RHETORIC BEHIND FREE EDUCATION POLICY

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