ZANEC

Author: ZANEC

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE COMMEMORATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE COMMEMORATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

    Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to join the rest of the world in commemorating the Day of the African Child which falls today the 16th of June, 2024.  The Day of the African Child is a time to celebrate the children of Africa and reflect on the progress we are making in the realization of the right to education for all our children across the continent including our own country.

    The theme for this year is “Education for All Children in Africa: The Time is Now”. The aspect of ‘education for all’ is key because the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child under Article 11(1) states that ‘Every child shall have the right to an education’. Education is a right for all children in Africa despite their location, race, parental status, disability, gender, and any other status.  As ZANEC, we are pleased with the government pronouncement and implementation of the Free Education Policy from Early Childhood Education (ECE) through to Primary and Secondary Education. This policy is important in that it gives an opportunity for every child to access education in our beloved Country. Education for all children should be the cornerstone of every country in Africa because of its potential to transform our countries into developed and prosperous nations. It is a fact that countries and continents that are thriving economically have and continue to make substantial investments in the education of their citizens and people.

    However, for Zambia to benefit from the free education policy, ZANEC recommends the following in line with the commitments outlined by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of Children:

    • To assess the status of education by collecting updated and desegregated data on school enrolment, completion, out-of-school children and other key indicators relevant in especially with the free education in from ECE to secondary education.

     

    • To take deliberate measures and increase the budget allocated for education to enhance access and quality of education for all of at least 20% national budget to education as stimulated by the Cairo and SADC protocols which Zambia is part of. The financing to education should be mobilized through domestic funds and international cooperation.
    • To build more schools that are child-friendly and accessible to children with disabilities in areas where there are fewer schools.
    • To identify vulnerabilities and other factors affecting the enrolment, passing, and completion rates and devise programmes addressing the addressed factors such as gender-based violence, discrimination, and economic factors. Fully implement the School Re-entry Policy.
    • To renovate schools to ensure that they are disability friendly and provide sanitation and hygiene facilities.
    • To recruit more teachers and reduce the teacher-to-student ratio, especially in marginalized and remote areas, and build the capacity of teachers through continuous training.
    • To establish alternative learning for children who are out of school, in vulnerable situations, in the workforce, or in street situations.
    • Put in modalities in the shortest time to ensure the implementation of the new education curriculum from ECE to primary and secondary education. Further, integrate human rights education through full implementation of the Life Skills and Health Education.

    Finally, we appeal to all stakeholders that the time to provide quality education for all children is now and requires concerted effort. Therefore, let us all be involved in the education of our children to secure a bright future for our country, communities, and families.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    Executive Director

  • Joint Press Statement on the 2024 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE)

    Joint Press Statement on the 2024 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE)

    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

  • Expression of Interest – Mentor Student Researches ZANEC

    Expression of Interest – Mentor Student Researches ZANEC

    EXPRESSION OF INTEREST MENTOR STUDENT RESEARCHES ZANEC

  • Terms of Reference Student Researches – ZANEC

    Terms of Reference Student Researches – ZANEC

    TERMS OF REFERENCE Student researches ZANEC final

  • Happy International Mother Day

    Happy International Mother Day

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  • Terms of Reference (ToR): Review and Update of the Communications and Policy Advocacy Strategy to Ensure Gender and Social Inclusion are Integrated into the Strategy

    https://zanec.org.zm/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Terms-of-Reference-ToR-Review-and-Update-of-the-Communications-and-Policy-Advocacy-Strategy-to-Ensure-Gender-and-Social-Inclusion-are-Integrated-into-the-Strategy_-.pdf

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE RECRUITMENT OF 7, 221 TEACHERS

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE RECRUITMENT OF 7, 221 TEACHERS

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased that the government has recruited the 4, 500 teachers provided for in the 2023 and an additional 2, 721 to replace the teachers that have left their positions for various reasons. We are also happy that the Minister of Education Hon Douglas Syakalima assured the nation that these teachers will start working on 12th of February, 2024 when schools reopen for the first term. For the first time, we have also seen transparency in the handling of teacher replacements in which the process was informed by a thorough mapping exercise of teachers who have left their positions conducted by the Teaching Service Commission. This too is commendable and we would like to encourage the TSC to continue on this path.

    The Coalition applauds the TSC for the continued use of the decentralized process in both the recruitment and replacement of teachers as it ensures teacher retention and transparency. This is line with both the Decentralization Policy and the “Service Commission’s Act no. 10 of 2016”. As ZANEC, our view is that decentralized recruitment of teachers is the hallmark of teacher retention in our schools. Our belief is that teachers must be recruited and deployed to schools that are as close to their place of residency as possible to mitigate against the prevailing housing crisis for teachers. Centralizing teacher recruitment encourages the migration of teachers deployed in rural areas back to urban areas. In other words, good practice requires that teachers are deployed to teach within the community they live.

    We have also noted that the recruitment exercise upheld the 10 percent allocation for applicants with disabilities and focused on secondary school teachers specialized to teach mathematics, sciences, business studies, ICT, special education and Zambian languages. This will go a long way in promoting inclusion and bridging the current gap in teachers of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) which is affecting performance in these subjects as evidenced from the grade 12 results.

    Overall, ZANEC would like to recommend that the Ministry of Education starts the process of recruiting the 4200 teachers planned in the 2024 education budget early, giving priority to schools in rural areas.

    Finally, we wish to congratulate the newly recruited teachers and urge them to fully embrace the opportunity they have been given by ensuring that they work hard and uphold their professional ethics.
    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga
    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • Press Statement on the Grade 12 School and Teacher Education Examination Results for 2023

    Press Statement on the Grade 12 School and Teacher Education Examination Results for 2023

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) has taken note of the statement by the Minister of Education Honorable Douglas Syakalima made on 26th January 2024 during the release of the 2023 Grade 12 School and Teacher Education Examination Results.

    ZANEC would like to applaud the Ministry of Education on the efficient release of the Grade 12 results. This will allow those who did not do well to register for the 2024 external examinations before the registration deadline of 1st March 2024. It is good that there was an increase of 30.88% of candidates who registered for the grade 12 examination in 2023 compared to 2024. It is gratifying that yet again the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) successfully conducted the school certificate examination to candidates in South Africa for the second year running. We have observed that the statement also included the Teacher Education Examination Results for the Teacher’s Diploma in three programmes namely Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary. It is progressive to know that the colleges have continued producing teachers at these levels given the political will exhibited by the current government in the recruitment of teachers to bridge the existing gap.

    We further thank the Ministry of Education for conducting examinations free of leakages at both Grade 12 School Certificate and Teacher Education Diploma levels as this will render credibility to the quality of our school leavers and college graduates. It is also good that there was a significant reduction in the number of examination malpractices at grade 12 from 112 cases reported in 2022 to 31 cases reported in 2023. This entails the new measure put in place examination malpractices are beginning to bear fruits. We therefore also commend the government for withdrawing the examination center status for two GCE centers in Central Province and Copperbelt Provinces as it will act as a deterrent to would-be offenders.

    ZANEC is however concerned that:
    1. It is good that girls are performing well at Grade 12 school examinations level but we need to investigate why boys are not performing as well as the girls and further address the root causes.
    2. It is our hope that although the Ministry did not highlight the percentage mean scores recorded in the various subjects for examination candidates’, as they usually do, such an analysis was done to enable the Ministry take appropriate remedial measures.
    3. As earlier promised by the government, it is important that the Examinations Council of Zambia generates research evidence on the reasons why so many candidates simply register but fail to sit for examinations. Such evidence can help the government devise effective strategies for addressing the problem as having 3, 093 candidates absent from examination at grade 12 is costly and retrogressive.
    4. It is our hope that government will continue deploying more teachers in our schools as the number of teachers who are graduating continues to increase.

    Finally, we would like to congratulate the candidates both at Grade 12 School and Teacher Education Diploma Examinations who obtained certificates as well as our teachers and lecturers for the job well done.
    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga
    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC Press Statement on the extended closure of schools due to cholera outbreak

    ZANEC Press Statement on the extended closure of schools due to cholera outbreak

    Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) respects government’s decision to extend the closure of schools on account of the increasing number of cases of cholera. The decision significantly aligns with the public health recommendations from our health experts. However, we believe postponing the school reopening from January 29th to 12th February, will result in serious learning losses which will undermine the education recovery post COVID 19. For this reason, it is important that the Council of Ministers utilizes the evidence from the researches conducted by ZANEC with support from the Ministry of Education and UNICEF during the COVID 19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022 to mitigate the impact of the cholera epidemic on education. Therefore, there is need to consider the following important actions.

    1.The National Disaster Management and Mitigation Council of Ministers that decided the school closure to be extended need to put in place adequate measures in the two weeks that schools will be closed to ensure that schools will have all the necessary requisites that will protect learners from cholera when they reopen.

    2.It was also not prudent to generalize the closure of schools in all parts of the country, the extended closure of schools should have been only in parts of the country that have cholera for example according to Zambia Cholera Situation Report Sitrep No. 23. Provinces like Muchinga, Western and Luapula have only recorded imported cases. Therefore, the closure should have been in the districts that are epicenters, have active cases or are at high risk.

    3.There is need for government through the Ministry of Finance to release adequate cholera epidemic response funding to the Ministry of Education to enable them put measures in schools that will ensure the health and safety of learners. The tendency by government to think that investment in the health sector alone can also address the impact of the cholera epidemic on education is misplaced. For us, we attribute the failure to open schools to the lack of political will to support the Ministry of Education with the required resources to make our schools conducive for learning amidst the cholera epidemic.

    4.The Ministry of Education must also be supported to deliver Alternative Modes of Education Provision that can help provide continuity of learning at home for children during the closure of schools. Unfortunately, although we all agree that the Education Broadcasting Services (EBS) is the panacea to our digital learning solutions in Zambia, the institution is poorly funded to the extent that they have not aired a single education programme for a year now. We would like to call upon government, through the Ministry of Finance to quickly fund EBS so that it can resume its work. Furthermore, EBS must be given an express license to air education programmes countrywide to mitigate the current learning loss. This investment is critical in the long term for continued learning during calamities or natural disasters.

    5.The Ministry of Education must start preparing for the re-opening of examination classes now so that in the event that the cases of cholera continue increasing for the next two weeks, learners in examination classes can be given the first priority to go back to school. The Ministry can leverage on its past experience in running examination classes amidst COVID 19 to reduce the loss of learning time among our 2024 examination candidates.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga
    Executive Director

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF EDUCATION

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF EDUCATION

    ZANEC is pleased to join the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of Education which falls today. This day is important in the education calendar as it provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the importance of education as a human right and its contribution to socio-economic development.

    In line with this year’s theme which is “Learning for lasting Peace”, research evidence shows that education can catalyse and buttress peace, especially when there is equitable access for all. Education can also play a vital role in peace building and reconciliation. Education initiatives have a proven potential to help marginalized populations gain access to justice that contributes to peaceful societies. It is important to note that when people are educated, they are able to appreciate the value of peace and avoid conflict. Therefore, learning for lasting peace is a timely theme. Education is also the key to the escalating climatic challenges (natural calamities), persistent inequalities, growing discrimination, racism, xenophobia, hate speech, violence, and conflict on a global scale. Indeed, education emerges as a powerful tool to both address and prevent these challenges in our societies.

    Even if we leave in a peaceful Country where there is no conflict, we need to embrace peace education to address the challenges such as the mushrooming of gangs or junkies, crime and various forms of abuses that represent a breach of human rights. Our Government needs to deal with the issue of junkies that are terrorising innocent people in communities by using education as a tool for both development and peace. One way we can prevent more children from becoming junkies is by investing in quality education and training that is accessible for all. Peace education is transformative as it enables learners to gain essential knowledge, values, attitudes, skills and behaviors that promote co-existence and a culture of peace, respect for cultural diversity and non-violence which are key to sustainable development.

    ZANEC is therefore pleased that Social justice is one of the principles that underpins our new curriculum, in which human rights is also posited as one of the main crosscutting issues. We are therefore hopeful that the new curriculum which spans from early childhood education to teacher education will lay a firm foundation for a more peaceful, just, and sustainable Zambia.

    Furthermore, we urge government and education stakeholders to work towards actualizing the UNESCO recommendations concerning education for international understanding, cooperation and peace designed to guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms. The following are some of the UNESCO recommended principal guidelines for cultivating peace education

    -Recognize that quality education is a public and common good, which should be accessible to all;
    -Irrespective of race, colour, descent, gender, age, language, religion, political opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, economic or social condition of birth, or disability and any other grounds, ensure non-discrimination, inclusion and equity, in and through education, as prescribed by international human rights law while empowering learners as rights-holders;
    -Promote gender equality in and through education. It is key to the realization of the right to education for all and for the empowerment of women and girls;
    -Recognize education and learning as a continuous, lifelong, life-encompassing, holistic, humanistic and transformative process;
    -Encourage, empower and support the willingness, and build the capacity, of individuals to engage proactively in solving problems at community, local, national, regional and global levels notably through the ethical and responsible use of current and future technologies;
    -Promote intercultural and intergenerational dialogue for cooperation and solidarity and reinforce effective communication to help develop friendly relations between and among peoples, societies and countries.

    Finally, ZANEC encourages all citizens to take their children to school with the free education that is there as it gives an opportunity for every child to be in school and safe guard their future for national sustainable development and peace.
    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga
    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR