The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to
join the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of Education
that falls today the 24th of January 2020. This day was proclaimed
by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018 to honour education and
its positive impact to human beings and fostering sustainable development of
the UN member countries. The 2020 celebrations are designed to position
education and learning as humanity’s greatest renewable resource and re-affirm
the role of education as a fundamental human right and enabler of the 2030
Agenda for sustainable development.
This year’s theme which is “Learning for people, planet, prosperity and
peace”. Indeed, learning for people
is very critical for developing people’s talents for inclusive development. The human resource that is used in industries
and work places has to be skilled and therefore education plays a major role in
developing individuals, communities and countries to mitigate poverty,
inequalities, improving people’s health and their well-being. For instance, statistics have shown that
women who are educated are able to take charge of their lives and also educate
their children who later become financially independent thereby breaking the
chain of poverty and inequalities. Additionally, education can play an
important role in reducing or combating environmental degradation of our planet. Learning about the planet is very
crucial in moulding our children at all levels of education to take care of the
environment and preserve nature. It is important to acknowledge that the impact
of climate change is already in our midst as evidenced by the drought experienced
last year and the floods we have experienced so far this year.
Furthermore, education is also a proven door to prosperity and is therefore essential
for individual growth economically, culturally, socially, and politically. Education accords everyone regardless of
their gender, tribe and race an opportunity to prosper in life. For any country to prosper, it is important to
invest in inclusive education of high quality. According to an analysis
conducted by United Nations Education, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), if all people completed secondary school,
as called for by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, world poverty could be
reduced by half. Additionally, countries like Japan have prospered economically
because of huge investments in human resource skills development.
Research evidence also 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.
It is however concerning to see that
despite the overwhelming evidence on the vital role that education plays in
accelerating economic growth, reducing inequality and eradicating poverty,
Zambia’s investment in the education sector has remained low over the years. It
is common knowledge that funding to the education sector in Zambia has been on
the decline since 2015. Although
we are oblivious of the per capita cost of providing quality education in our
schools, there is no dispute whatsoever that the current education budget is
inadequate to enable the delivery of quality education. The share of the
education budget has reduced from 20.2% in 2015 to the current 12.4%
representing a 39% decrease. As evidenced from our research, this low funding
has resulted in most of our primary schools running without funds to procure essential
education inputs. Worse still, the annual recruitment of teachers could not be
undertaken in 2019 due to a limited education budget. Even the little funding
that our parents were contributing to our schools has also been reduced by
government at a time when the Ministry of General Education is constrained with
funds to support our schools.
This low investment in education and
skills development sector has manifested itself in the poor quality of
education at all levels. The 2018 PISA results released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) underscore the scope and magnitude of the contemporary
learning crisis in Zambia. According to OECD, only 5% of 15 year old pupils achieve the
minimum level of proficiency in reading in Zambia compared to 2% in
mathematics. The report attributes these low learning achievement, among other factors, to inadequate
funding which is below the internationally recommended standard of 20% of the
national budget. As ZANEC, we would like to stress that unless government
doubles its investment to the education sector immediately, the achievement of
the national aspirations contained in the 7th National Development
Plan and the vision 2030 of becoming a middle income country will forever
remain a pipe dream. Therefore, we would like to urge the Ministry of General Education and the
Ministry of Finance to realise that there is no successful formula to economic
and social growth without factoring in the education component. There is no proven
single sector that contributes more to development – not even the roads. Therefore,
our call to action for the Ministry of Finance is that they must place a great
premium in financing our education system if they would like Zambia to achieve
economic and social progress.
For/ZANEC
George
Hamusunga
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
