HUNGER IN ZAMBIA,MAKING FREE EDUCATION UNATTAINABLE .

 By Masauso Mkwayaya.

 In the last 50 years, the Zambian government has made several strides in ensuring it provides incentives to facilitate for free education at different levels.Since 2002, government has made it a mandate to provide free education to all pupils in grades 1 to 7 in all government schools.


 But does free basic education really exist in a country where pupils in grade 1 to 7 nominally do not pay any school fees but  meet other hidden fees such as, Parents Teachers Association (PTA), and report form  fees?

 It is however worth noting that the Zambian government has tried and is still trying to provide free basic education.In 2002  Government through the Ministry of Education formulated a  policy, which among other things stipulates that basic education should be provided and availed for free to every pupil in grade 1 to 7.

In 2007, the Ministry of Education also implemented the Every Child to School policy, which had a bias on infrastructure development.This  led to the building of 4,627 new classrooms.

UNICEF Zambia records indicate that In 2008, the Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI) also sanctioned Zambia’s national education strategy.  The same records further review that FTI played an important role in the prioritization of education in national policies.

 As a result of such ambitious undertakings government with support from, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s)  like UNICEF and other donor organizations and countries has increased its funding to the country’s education sector in order to increase resources for the implementation of free education among other things.

Records at the Ministry of Education, Science and Vocational Training   show that funding to the education sector steadily increased from 2.9% in 2006 to 3.5 % of the total GDP in 2010.

Some of the above highlighted steps that the Zambian Government has taken were in response to the Millennium Development    Goals (MDG's) on Education.

And by 2013 Zambia had already met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 2 which aims at ensuring that all signatories of the MDG’s have 2/3 (two thirds) of their children in school.

But despite all these numerous efforts,  more than seven hundred thousand (700,000) children are out of school and 47% of those enrolled in school do not complete the primary cycle.

 The above statistics  leads to one wondering whether, free basic education does really exist?  If it does, why are over seven hundred thousand (700,000) children not in school, and why are 47 percent of the children already  enrolled in the free basic education system dropping out?

UNICEF’s records further review that children from poor households, rural children and girls are the last to enrol in school and the first to drop out, and are significantly underrepresented in the upper grades of basic education as well as the secondary level.

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Furthermore, the number of Community Schools which apparently accommodate majority of pupils from poor families in Zambia, had skyrocketed from slightly over a hundred (100) in the 1990's to slightly over three thousand (3000) by 2005.

This simply shows that children from poor families who cannot afford to enrol in much organized government Schools are hungry for education.

The Zambian Youthful Thought has sadly observed that majority of these education hungry pupils, at times stay away from Schools because of hunger.

It is overwhelming that these same disadvantaged pupils at times perform better academically than their counterparts in more organized government Schools.

This can be evidenced by the dismay that former Education Minister John Phiri expressed towards the pupils and teachers from government schools after he learnt that grade 7 pupils who sat for the 2013 grade 7 exams in community schools recorded a higher pass rate than that recorded in government schools.

Dr.Phiri is on record to have scolded teachers and pupils in government schools for what he felt was a poor performance especially that they had better funding, better infrastructure and generally a more organized system than community schools.

 

The Zambian Youthful Thought is of the thought that if pupils from disadvantaged set ups, are able to defy the odds of poverty and produce better academic results than those in more organized government schools.

Government and other concerned stake holders should put in extra efforts and come up with a deliberate feeding system in community schools as was the case in the Kaunda days.

 The Zambian Youthful Thought believes that the move will attract pupils who shun school because hunger and lack of food thereof. And it is common knowledge that one needs energy to learn, and only food is the source of that energy.

Majority of these children from poor families who live under a dollar($1) a day ,would rather save the little money available and use it on food other than on what appears less pressing to them, such as school uniforms and other hidden fees that are charged by schools.

Families where these children come from, are faced with painful predicaments, if they use the little money they have on school uniforms or books, the family will have nothing to eat. This is why they would rather sacrifice the little money they have to buy food and feed the family.

These challenges will only be sorted out if relevant stakeholders create an environment where families  will be able to carry out their responsibilities of NOT only feeding their young ones .But also ensuring that they take their children and dependents  to school without any intention of withdrawing them out of school, because of inadequate resources.