CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Zambia |
EDUCATION
The
Government has abolished the payment
of statutory examination and school fees in all government schools.
But the business sector will have to foot the bill
The business community in Zambia has rejected the move by President Fredrick Chiluba’s government to impose cost-sharing measures of educating Zambians, which have been transferred from parents and guardians to the business community through the introduction of the training levy. Education experts say that the move taken by the business sector in rejecting the President’s decision, will jeopardise the new government policy to abolish statutory school fees.
According to education minister, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda, who announced the landmark decision on 14 December 2000, the move is aimed at ensuring many children have the opportunity of proceeding to higher institutions of learning, and is also a response to the tough economic scenario that has led to many pupils dropping out of school at the early stages in their education.
General Miyanda says the abolition of school fees which came into effect in January 2001, is in line with the government and donor-funded Basic Education Sub-Sector Investment Programme (BESSIP). This Programme aims at ensuring more pupils receive a good education and also provides help to poor children.
The education fees
Before the scrapping of the education fees, some schools were charging fees that the pupils’ parents were unable to meet. Others were asking for payment in kind, in the form of chickens, goats and agricultural produce, such as groundnuts and maize.
Ending the practice of charging school fees means that some schools will find it difficult to make ends meet, so the Zambian government has decided to help these schools by giving them grants and basic material. This means pupils will no longer have to fork out for such requisites as school chalk and other teaching aids.
The Education Minister says Parent-Teachers Associations in all government schools, must halt the practice of demanding cash from pupils’ parents for basic needs. He challenges the Parent-Teachers Associations to find alternative ways to raise funds for school expansion and rehabilitation programmes.
Most parents interviewed say that school fees have for a long time been a nightmare to them. Some say that they have had no choice but to withdraw their children from school.
Charity Mulenga is one such parent with three children of school-age. She says: «Before the Government’s landmark decision to abolish school fees in government schools, many children from poor families were denied their right to education. Now, this will be a thing of the past. Giving up school, forced boys onto the streets as street children; and the girls turned to prostitution to make a living.»
Involvement of the business sector
As mentioned above, the Zambian government has put in place plans to transfer the costs of educating Zambians from parents and guardians, to the business sector. And the Ministry of Science and Technology and Vocation Training has already introduced the training levy policy. This policy demands that industries and their employers contribute a certain percentage of their monthly earnings.
In taking this move, the Government has received the support of International lending institutions such as the World Bank. Indeed, the idea of establishing a training levy policy was adopted as a priority option for all Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) states, at the April 2000 meeting in Swaziland.
Abel Chambeshi, Zambia’s Science Technology and Vocational Training Minister, says the Zambian government is committed to the training levy policy, but recognises it is facing a lot of opposition from the business sector. Why is this? Maybe because the business sector says there is no tax-relief incentive in Zambia for companies who already devote large sections of their budget to training. They wonder how they are expected to support the new policy.
Over the past year, the government has been struggling to convince the business community to accept the training levy policy. But Abel Mukandawire, chairman of the Zambia Association for Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI), says the training levy policy is contrary to what the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) promised in 1991, during its election campaign in the country’s first multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections. On that occasion, the MMD had vowed to end any form of subsidies, and to reduce the number of taxes, fees, duties and levies then existing.
The Zambia Association of Manufactures’ chairman, Mark O’Donnell, says: «Many business sectors spend vast sums of money on training, and to impose a training levy on such businesses is totally unfair.»
Abel Chambeshi has warned the business sector not to kill the levy policy which is aimed at ensuring Zambia has an educated population — a long-term solution to solving the country’s economic problems. Edu-cation experts say that unless the government and the business sector end their contention over who is supposed to help in footing the bill for free basic education, then any effort to benefit poor Zambians, will not be realised.
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