Quality education in Zambia on the horizon

By Pelekelo Liswaniso

EDUCATION in Zambia is a basic human right and is vital for the development of the nation because it empowers people, enabling them to be proactive, to control their lives and broaden economic and social opportunities.

However, the education system in Zambia has suffered a decline in the recent past as a result of a drop in national revenue and other factors.

Despite this set back, the government has however, made serious effort to recover and reform the education sector.

We are, therefore, cheered by the on-going programme to decentralise education and the subsequent creation of education boards because this is a sure way of delivering quality education to the people.

It is commendable that the Ministry of Education is equally supportive of free primary education that has resulted in a massive increase in enrolment across the country.

The announcement by Education Minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa on Tuesday that Government is now involving all stakeholders in the provision of education is therefore a laudable move to ensure no one is left behind in the educational reforms.

Prof Lungwangwa said in Livingstone that Government has, through projects like CHANGES2, been encouraging the involvement of community participation so that it can render direct support to the operations of the education institutions.

This is how it should be because decentralising the delivery of education and involving local communities dismantles the top-bottom approach in planning and budgeting for education boards.

Planning for orphans and vulnerable children, for example, can better be done by local communities in which the orphans live as opposed to centralised prescriptions from the ministry headquarters in Lusaka.

It is gratifying that the performance of CHANGES2, a programme supported by USAID, which trains at least 800 teachers annually has so far proven to be a very useful tool to decentralise education.

The programme provides small grants for schools to begin income-generating activities, produces learning materials on HIV/AIDS, school health and nutrition, to support effective teaching in schools and communities.

We thank the United States government for supporting this progamme since inception in 2001 and we hope other well-wishers can assist the Ministry of Education reach out to other areas in the country.

We are aware that despite the reforms, investment in education is inadequate and support largely depends on external sources and we urge other cooperating partners to emulate USAID to accelerate the decentralisation of education in the country.

The government, too, should, on the other hand, seriously look at improving local resources and strengthen support to the education sector because it is a priority area in national development.

It is equally important that the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is still one of the most formidable challenges facing the country and the education sector in particular, is given attention because there are inadequate education and support services for students and teachers. Teachers are just beginning to come forward for HIV counselling and testing.

We hope under the decentralised system of education, HIV/AIDS education will be high on the agenda by the education boards, the high schools and the teacher training institutions and protect future generations.