Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) in collaboration with ActionAid TaxEd Alliance is pleased to join the rest of the World in commemorating the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) which was launched on Sunday 21st April 2024 by the Minister of Education Honorable Douglas Syakalima. GAWE is an annual event organized by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). Given that 2024 is the African Union (AU) Year of Education, this week serves to contribute to this agenda as a platform to raise awareness of the importance of education, highlight key education issues, and mobilize support for addressing challenges such as access to education, quality of education, gender disparities, and the impact of emergencies and crises on education. This year GAWE is a landmark as it coincides with the 25th anniversary of the GCE. It reminds us of the World Education Conference held in Dakar, Senegal in 1999 when the movements and civil society organizations (CSOs) from different continents joined forces to have a unified voice on education for all.
The theme for 2024 is “Transformative Education’’. This theme allows us as a Country to reflect on Zambia’s Commitments to the Transforming Education Summit (TES) held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2022. Several African Heads of State, including the President of the Republic of Zambia, attended the TES and made bold commitments about how they were going to transform their education systems to avert the crisis driven by COVID 19. Among others, Zambia’s commitments included the need to:
1. Construct more schools to make the teaching and learning environment conducive for all learners, and absorb the learners that have come back into school after the introduction of the free education policy.
2. Continue investing heavily in teacher development, recruitment, and deployment.
3. Zero rate tax on Information Communication Technology equipment, software, and concession internet connectivity for schools and institutions of learning to facilitate the use of innovative educational resources and teaching methods.
4. Transform Education Broadcasting Services and Zambia College of Distance Education into Information and Communication Technology in Education Centers of Excellency to provide free digital eLearning platforms and offer alternative modes of education provision, especially in times of pandemics.
5. Increase Budgetary allocation to the Education Sector to at least 20 per cent of the National Budget.
6. To increase revenue generation for education, we will introduce an Education Levy on popular products on the market (talk time/data, beer, and VAT).
Against this background, we would like to call upon government and stakeholders to invest in promoting transformative education by implementing these commitments. The call is also for us to recognize the importance of lifelong learning which is a commitment to continuous growth and development that extends far beyond formal education.
We also take this opportunity to applaud the government that the 2023 curriculum reforms are emphasizing on critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, we also thank government for giving loans and scholarships to all students with disabilities that qualified and applied for loans and scholarships in 2023/2024 academic year to public universities. This will go a long way in promoting inclusive education. We are also grateful that government allocated significant funding in 2024 towards the procurement of equipment for Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET) in order to improve the quality of education for skills and trade.
Further the 2024 GAWE calls for investment in public education and transformative education because it drives social justice, peace, gender equality and sustainable development. We also need to stand up for the protection of the right to education for children in conflict-affected countries because there can be no future without education. Member states of the United Nations must therefore support education financing in the UN Tax Convention, beat there drums for transformative education and let their diverse voices be heard.
Finally, we would also like to take this opportunity to inform the general public that during the commemoration of the GAWE, we will be having a number of activities such as social media campaigns, and radio programmes countrywide discussing various issues affecting transformative education in Zambia. Therefore, we would like to encourage all our stakeholders to take time to tune in and take part in the ongoing campaign for this year’s GAWE.
We wish everyone God’s blessing as we commemorate the 2024 GAWE.
George Hamusunga
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
