By Isaac Zulu
Basic Teachers’ Union of Zambia Kapiri Mposhi district vice chairman Kennedy Masiye Theo has expressed fear that if not well implemented, the free education policy has the potential to compromise quality education.
In an interview, Theo explained that the free education policy has led to increased numbers of enrollment in schools, which has led to inadequate classroom space and insufficient learning materials.
“The free education policy is not a new phenomenon or debate in Zambia. Prior to independence, UNIP advocated for free and compulsory education for primary as well as secondary schools. The coming of the free education policy by the UPND government has given access to education to almost all the people from all walks of life. But what has brought to the fore? It has brought about the challenge of inadequate classroom space and learning materials,” Theo explained. “Free education has proved that we can have quantity instead of quality education… we can seriously compromise on quality education. For example, this time around we are having 80 to 90 pupils in one class being handled by one teacher.”
Theo urged government to construct more classrooms and procure more furniture and stock education facilities with more learning materials.
“The government should embark on a robust programme of constructing more schools across the country and stocking those schools with furniture and learning materials because the number of learners has swelled in our schools and children are sitting on the floor,” said Theo.
He also urged government to consider increasing the number of teachers to be recruited this year, saying the 30,000 that government intends to employ is “a drop in the ocean.”
“Government should recruit more teachers as a matter of urgency and retain qualified teachers in schools in order to address the challenge of teacher deficit and enable us provide quality education,” Theo explained. “And as government embarks on the staff recruitment exercise, I personally feel that we need at least 40,000 teachers recruited this year because the 30,000 teachers being talked about is a drop in the ocean. If government takes such bold decisions, we will improve on pupils’ performance; thereby attaining quality education.”
He, however, commended the UPND administration for introducing free education.
“Of course there are advantages to this. The picture I have right now as pronounced by the new dawn government, we can say free education is welcome and has come to provide an opportunity to all those that dropped out of school or just stopped school deliberately or because of inability by parents to buy school requisites or parents and guardians were unable to pay school fees. This policy has given access to education to almost all the people from all walks of life,” said Theo. “The enrollment numbers have increased such that some learners are coming to enroll on their own. And we commend the new dawn government for providing an opportunity for citizens to access education. And if well implemented, this free education policy will improve the literacy levels in our country. And we will support the government of the day in order to ensure that this policy is actualised.”
