ZANEC

Category: Press Statement

  • ZANEC 2023 PRE-BUDGET PRESS STATEMENT ON EDUCATION AND SKILLS

    ZANEC 2023 PRE-BUDGET PRESS STATEMENT ON EDUCATION AND SKILLS

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is looking forward to the presentation of the 2023 National Budget by the Minister of Finance Hon. Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane (MP).  Firstly, we would like to indicate that our expectations on the 2023 national budget detailed in this statement were also submitted to the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in collaboration with ActionAid TaxEd Alliance and the National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) in June 2022.

    Specifically, our expectations on the revenue side of the budget are fourfold.

    1. We expect that the budget will consider broadening the skills development levy into an education levy that will provide dedicated funding for the education sector.
    2. We expect government to remove harmful tax exemptions and incentives to ensure that multi-national corporations pay the prescribed statutory corporate tax of 30% instead of the 19% being realized currently. This measure can help realize additional revenue of $406 million.
    3. We also look forward to the re-instatement of the mineral revenue sharing mechanism (MRSM) clause in the mines and minerals development Act and Policy. This will help increase revenue generation for the country which can be channelled to the education sector.
    4. Renegotiate and restructure the debt by pursuing multiple solutions such debt cancellation, debt swap and favourable repayment terms.

    Our recommendations on the expenditure side of the budget are as follows.

    1. Increase the share of the education budget from the current 10.4% to at least 15% of the national budget.
    2. Prioritize the procurement of education inputs such as classrooms, laboratories, libraries, desks, toilets, teachers’ houses as well as teaching and learning materials at all levels from Early Childhood Education (ECE) to secondary education. This will help enhance the delivery of free education of good quality.
    3. Creation of a budget line targeting gender transformative and inclusive quality education under the Ministry of Education to address teacher training for inclusive education, provision of assistive technologies, appropriate teaching and learning materials, and home-based education for learners with disabilities who cannot access regular schools.
    4. Increase the budgetary allocation for tertiary education to ensure support towards more student scholarships, payment of student meal allowances and infrastructure development.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC’S PRESS STATEMENT ON THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT ON THE GOVERNEMENT PAYROLL FOR THE FINANCIAL YEARS 2017 TO 2021

    ZANEC’S PRESS STATEMENT ON THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT ON THE GOVERNEMENT PAYROLL FOR THE FINANCIAL YEARS 2017 TO 2021

    The Zambia National Education Coalition wishes to express its views on the recently released Auditor General’s report on salaries.

    It is disheartening that the government lost a lot of resources to ghost workers, irregular payments, as well as to delayed action to remove deserters and those who had separated from the service from the payroll. As a civil society organisation, our mandate has been to advocate for the provision of quality education for all and we have so far been advocating for an increase to the education budgetary allocation because much of what is allocated is spent on personal emoluments. It is, therefore, appalling that even when the education sector has been struggling to improve infrastructure and resource allocation to schools, some individuals saw it fit to steal the little that the sector has.

    We, therefore, propose that the following actions should be taken by the government to improve accountability in the education sector,

    1. Teachers working at stations different from their PEMIC ID should have their PEMIC IDs changed so as to avoid paying teachers allowances that they do not deserve such as rural or remote hardship allowances. This will leave room for only deserving teachers to benefit from these allowances.
    2. The government should expedite the gazzetting, creating establishments as well as granting treasury authority to the upgraded schools so as to avoid sending teachers whose pay points are different from their work stations in the none gazzeted schools. This is necessary so that loopholes through which offenders use to embezzle money from government are sealed
    3. The government should put in place a mechanism that instantly upgrades teachers to new salary scales once they upgrade their qualifications to prevent teachers and corrupt individuals from doing it through dubious means
    4. More investigations should be carried out and the owners of the PEMIC IDs mentioned in the report should be brought to book.

    It is therefore our hope and plea that all those who were involved in embezzling government resources will be brought to book as the education sector is currently in need of resources if our SDG4 targets are to be met.

    I thank you.

    For/ZANEC

     

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

    The Zambia National Educational Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to join the rest of the world in commemorating International Literacy Day which falls today 8th September, 2022.  Literacy, which simply refers to one’s ability to read and write should be a must especially in this era where almost everything is being digitalized. The important role that literacy plays in a person’s wellbeing and the ability to contribute to national development cannot be over-emphasized. Despite the important role that literacy plays in our education system, we note with sadness that youth and adult literacy education continue to be least resourced in the Education and Skills Sector as evidenced from the analysis of the 2022 National Budget allocation to the Education and Skills Sector by ZANEC.

     

    This year’s theme is “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces”. According to the Cambridge English dictionary, transformation means a complete change in the appearance or character of something, especially for purposes of improvement. A transformation is therefore an extreme radical change. As we can deduce from this definition, it is indeed important to transform spaces that we have been using to deliver literacy. This is because the COVID 19 pandemic brought about a wakeup call not to do things as usual in the Education and Skills Sector. Learning should no longer be confined to a classroom or meeting physically.  Instead, we need to embrace blended learning spaces that combine face to face and remote learning modes in order to mitigate against the learning loss that has resulted from the closure of schools due to the COVID 19 pandemic. We need learning spaces that can help us provide continuity of learning even during calamities such as the COVID 19 pandemic. It has been observed that although digital learning is key in providing continuity of learning in homes, not everyone has access to digital platforms, hence the need for investment in digital infrastructure especially in rural areas. Therefore, there is need to narrow down or completely reduce the digital divide between the vulnerable and the privileged people to ensure equitable access to e-learning platforms.

    The main challenge that our education system is currently facing is the low literacy levels even among our children at primary school level. with only 5% of grade 7 pupils achieving minimum proficiency in literacy according to the 2018 report by the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, our education system is experiencing a foundational literacy crisis. Therefore, something needs to be done now to reverse the status quo.

    ZANEC is saddened that according to UNESCO, nearly 24 million learners might never return to formal education post COVID 19, out of which, 11 million are projected to be girls and young women. Further, according to the Zambia demographic health survey of 2018, people living in urban areas are more likely to be literate than those living in rural areas, although the gap in literacy rates between urban and rural populations is higher among women than among men. Eighty-one percent of urban women and 91% of urban men are literate, as compared with 54% of rural women and 74% of rural men.  It is also evident that most people in our communities are unable to access Constituency Development Funds (CDF) because they are unable to read and write.

    To ensure no one is left behind, we need to enrich and transform the existing learning spaces through an integrated approach and enable literacy learning in the perspective of lifelong learning. The characteristics of youth and adult learners, their evolving needs for literacy learning such as flexibility, proximity, ease of access, and link with the labour market are guiding factors for the transformation of literacy learning spaces. The transformation of literacy learning spaces not only entails the management of physical facilities more sustainably but also comprises changes in the governance structure of education systems and institutions by allowing the outcomes of literacy from informal and non-formal settings to be recognized, validated, and accredited through flexible data-driven monitoring and evaluation processes.

    Therefore, we also take the opportunity to appeal to our government through the Ministry of Finance to allocate funds to recruit more adult literacy instructors targeting all the provinces and not only one province as it was in the 2022 national budget.

    ZANEC wish all of you a fruitful international literacy day commemoration.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

     

  • ZANEC’S PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DIRECTIVE FROM THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE MINISTER TO RESTART THE TEACHER RECRUITMENT EXERCISE.

    ZANEC’S PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DIRECTIVE FROM THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE MINISTER TO RESTART THE TEACHER RECRUITMENT EXERCISE.

    The Zambia National Education Coalition wishes to add its voice to the ongoing debate concerning the directive from the Southern Province Minister to withdraw the list of newly recruited teachers and restart the process in Southern Province.

    It is our view that this situation is unfortunate as it discredits and undermines not only the Teaching Service Commission’s mandate to appoint teachers as articulated under the Constitution (Amendment) Act No.2 of 2016 and other mechanisms that were put in place to ensure that there is transparency in the recruitment process. Restarting the process also risks opening up a pandora’s box on the credibility of the entire recruitment process and at the same time, makes the process an expensive undertaking for the government as those involved will still need to be paid for their work.

    As ZANEC, we are against restarting the process of selection not only because of the anxiety it will cause among the applicants but also on all the other issues that will be brought to the fore such as suspisions of corruption.

    In his ministerial statement to parliament in April this year, the Minister of Education, Honourable Douglas Syakalima gave a clear roadmap for the recruitment process. This was done to ensure that there was transparency as well as reduced chances of corruption. Therefore, Honourable Mweetwa’s sentiments are detrimental to the image of the Teaching Service Commission as well as the Ministry of Education.

    We, therefore, call upon all well-meaning Zambians to speak against external and political interference in the recruitment process in order to ensure credibility in the recruitment process.

     

    For/ZANEC

     

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DISQUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS WHO ARE ABOVE 45 YEARS FROM THE ONGONIG TEACHER RECRUITMENT

    PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DISQUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS WHO ARE ABOVE 45 YEARS FROM THE ONGONIG TEACHER RECRUITMENT

     

    The Teaching Service Commission in today’s daily mail is quoted as having stated that trained teachers who are above 45 years are not eligible for consideration in the ongoing teacher recruitment. As ZANEC it is our view that this decision, although legally binding, is unfair because there has been no mass teacher recruitment in the country since the year 2012. Therefore, the number of teachers being recruited annually has been reducing over the years, with the last recruitment exercise having employed only about 2000 teachers based on their year of completion. This means that there are some teachers that were disqualified in previous years for having completed their tertiary education late and the same teachers are now being disqualified for being above the recruitment age.

    Moreover, the government has been encouraging adult literacy and education programmes in the country. In our view, the discrimination against those who are above 45 years has the potential to discourage those who are currently enrolled in adult literacy classes.  Some of the teachers who have been disqualified are individuals that once belonged to the adult literacy classes. We therefore recommend that the government through the Ministry of Education rescinds this decision and perhaps considers recruiting such teachers on contract basis.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    Executive Director

  • ZANEC Press Statement on World Press Freedom Day

    ZANEC Press Statement on World Press Freedom Day

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to join the media practitioners in commemorating the 2022 World Press Freedom Day.   This day is special to us because the press has been fundamental in ZANEC’s advocacy work of promoting quality Education for All in our country.  As ZANEC we believe that the press is key in fostering national development because it is responsible for educating and informing the general public. We also want to take this opportunity to appreciate the media for effectively reporting on education matters even amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. It is for this reason that ZANEC has been holding the Education Media Awards since 2015 and will continue to do so in order to encourage and promote reporting on education related issues as well as to motivate our key allies, the journalists.

    The theme for this year’s World Press Freedom day is “Journalism under Digital Siege” This theme is timely as the use of digital platforms is now the most effective and modern way of communicating and disseminating information. However, it is unfortunate that a few of our online media platforms do not conform to journalism ethics and sometimes disseminate false information that is detrimental to press freedoms and also journalism as a whole. It is for this reason that we support the need to finalise legislation designed to empower the media to self-regulate as they are better placed to tame the few that try to tarnish the image of this important profession. Therefore, we need to be deliberate as a nation in protecting the integrity of the media even amidst the inevitability of digitalisation.

    Despite the many challenges the media is facing in this era, we wish to add our voice in wishing the media a happy and successful commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day even as we continue lobbying government for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill hopefully before the end of this year.

    I thank you all.

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC Press Statement on the 2022 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE)

    ZANEC Press Statement on the 2022 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE)

    Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to join the rest of the World in commemorating the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) from Monday, 25th to Friday, 29th April 2022. GAWE is one of the major campaigns for the education movement. The Global Action Week is an important event to all stakeholders in education including government, cooperating partners, civil society organisations and the general public as it presents an opportunity to reflect on the progress made in the provision of quality education for all. The event is also aimed at raising awareness and promoting action toward the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal number 4 by 2030.

    The theme for this year’s GAWE is “Protect Education in Emergencies Now”. Therefore, this year’s commemoration emphasizes the importance of protecting and safeguarding education at all times, particularly in emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic which has hit the world and has unimaginably affected the education sector. Evidence from the surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 by ZANEC, UNICEF and Ministry of Education on the continuity of learning during the COVID 19 pandemic revealed that learners from rural areas and poor households as well as those with special education needs faced a lot of challenges in accessing Alternative Modes of Education Provision (AMEP). It is a fact that the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic has worsened the already existing inequalities in the education sector. Therefore, more needs to be done to mitigate against these inequalities so that no one is left behind in our country regardless of their social or economic status. It cannot be over-emphasised that education is a basic human right which should be accessed by everyone even during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

    We, therefore call upon the government through the Ministry of Education and education cooperating partners to urgently:

    1. Protect and guarantee the fulfilment of the right to public quality education for all amidst COVID 19, by providing empowering, safe, respectful, inclusive and accessible learning environments for all learners, regardless of their legal status, age, gender, disability, socio-economic status, ethnicity, race or any other form of discrimination and exclusion.
    2. Develop and implement crisis-sensitive national education plans and budgets, integrating emergency preparedness measures into the education sector planning to ensure the fulfilment of the right to quality education for all.
    3. Listen to the voices of the people affected and the local actors (including local civil society, teacher organizations, children and youth groups, parents and communities), while acknowledging their crucial role in the response.
    4. Ensure sufficient, sustainable and predictable funding for education amidst the COVID 19 pandemic, by allocating at least 10% of the education budget towards mitigating the impact of covid 19, including fully supporting the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Education Cannot Wait (ECW) replenishment process.
    5. Ensure that girls and women have equal opportunities to fulfil their right to education in emergency contexts and apply a gender perspective in the planning, budgeting and implementation of emergency response plans.
    6. Ensure that learners with disabilities have equal opportunities to fulfil their right to education in emergency contexts and apply an inclusive education perspective in the planning, budgeting, and implementation of emergency response plans;
    7. Ensure the availability of adequately trained teachers in emergency contexts, by improving their remuneration, incentives and support.
    8. Endorse and implement the safe school’s declaration and ensure that all learners and educators can learn and teach in safety.

    Finally, ZANEC would also like to take this opportunity to inform the general public that during the commemoration of the GAWE, we will be hosting some talk shows on some community radio stations countrywide as well as  on ZNBC radio 2, to discuss various issues affecting education amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. 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 2022 GAWE.

     

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE RECRUITMENT OF 30,000 TEACHERS

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE RECRUITMENT OF 30,000 TEACHERS

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) appreciates the progress that government, through the Teaching Service Commission, has made towards the recruitment of the 30,000 teachers provided for in the 2022 education budget. More important, the announcement by government that the recruitment process will be decentralized gives us confidence that the process will be completed in good time. 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 which 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 in. As a result, in some countries teachers are recruited at school level. If a teacher attends interview at a school, the chances that they will stay at the school for a long time are high.

    Furthermore, what has excited us the most are the measures that government has put in place to ensure that the recruitment process is transparent and free of corruption. We have learnt from the ministerial statement made today in Parliament by the Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima that apart from using Post Office Services for receiving applications, officers from Zambia Police, Anti-Corruption Commission and Drug Enforcement Commission will also be deployed to provide oversight in the recruitment process. This to us is very important because previous efforts to decentralize the teacher recruitment exercise to district level have been unsuccessful. The unfortunate trend has been that although the districts were able to do a good job in selecting the candidates, almost the entire proposed lists of teachers selected from the districts were replaced at national level.

    ZANEC would like the deserving teachers to be recruited regardless of their status or where they are based.  Specifically, we would like the Teaching Service Commission to consider the following when recruiting the 30,000 teachers.

    1. The need to bridge the current huge gap for Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers which is affecting performance in these subjects as evidenced from the 2021 grade 12 results.
    2. The need to allocate at least 10% of the teachers to early childhood education in order to scale up the annexing of ECE centers to existing primary schools.
    3. The need to ensure equitable distribution of teachers to understaffed schools in rural areas to ensure that priority is given to underserved schools.
    4. The need to give priority to qualified teachers who are already volunteering in respective schools as a way of appreciating the sacrifices they have been making and the experience they have acquired in the process.

    I thank you and God bless you.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON AWARDING OF STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON AWARDING OF STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) would like to express its profound gratitude to Government through the Higher Education Loans and Scholarship Board on the awarding of additional 2,780 student loan scholarships to University of Zambia (UNZA) first year students for the 2021/2022 academic year. We would like to specifically thank the Minister of Education Honourable Douglas Syakalima for securing this additional funding from the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.  This positive development means that over 5000 first year students at UNZA have so far been granted loan scholarships, the highest number recorded since the operationalisation of the scheme.

    Further, we note that the Board has followed the affirmative action for prioritising rural and female applicants who have received 30% of the scholarships each. It is also gratifying that all applicants with disabilities were awarded scholarships in the first selection. This will go a long way in promoting equity at tertiary education level, in line with the nation’s aspirations of leaving no one behind.  As ZANEC, we look forward to a situation where there will be an equal share of the available resources allocated to both males and female applicants between the eligible rural and urban applicants.  The distribution of the recently awarded scholarships in which 45% of rural and 55% of urban applicants received scholarships, representing 63% males and 37% females is positive as it shows that the gender gap is slowly closing up.

    ZANEC is very hopeful that government will continue to prioritize investment in all the levels of education in order to accord every eligible learner an opportunity to access quality higher education. Finally, we call upon loan beneficiaries who have completed school and are now earning an income to begin paying back their loans so that more students can benefit.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

  • ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DECISION BY GOVERNMENT TO ALLOCATE THE MONEY RECOVERED FROM PROCEEDS OF CRIME TO THE LOAN AND SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME UNDER THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

    ZANEC PRESS STATEMENT ON THE DECISION BY GOVERNMENT TO ALLOCATE THE MONEY RECOVERED FROM PROCEEDS OF CRIME TO THE LOAN AND SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME UNDER THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

    The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) would like to express its profound gratitude to Government through the Minister of Finance Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane’s and the Minister of Education Honourable Douglas Syakalima for the channelling of the 65 million Kwacha and US$57,000 cash money that was recently recovered from proceeds of crime. More importantly, ZANEC is elated that this money will be utilized to provide student loans and scholarships to 2,242 applicants that were left out in the 2021/2022 academic year. This is a progressive action and wish to commend government for this gesture and it is our hope that they will continue to prioritise the education sector as it is the solution to the various challenges that we are facing as a Country.

    We would also like to encourage the Ministry of Education through the Higher Education, Loans and Scholarship Board to heighten its loan recovery program from former university students and deal with barriers to the loan facility to allow for new eligible students to access the loan scholarship. We need to aspire to a level where every student that applies and is eligible for the loans and scholarship will be able to receive the support they need. This will ensure that the Country is able to produce the higher-level skills that are necessary for driving national development and poverty alleviation.

    Lastly, the increased investment in higher education will go a long way in ensuring that vulnerable children who are benefiting from free education at ECE to Secondary school level have the opportunity to pursue higher education as well. Research has shown that countries that are doing well economically have heavily invested in all the levels of education up to higher education.

    For/ZANEC

    George Hamusunga

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR