By G.Mtonga
Horrace Mann, the American education reformer who also served as a representative in the country’s legislative house once said, “Education…beyond All other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men –the balance wheel of the social machinery…It Does better than to disarm the poor of their hostility toward the rich; it prevents being poor.” Public education for most of the world was for the earlier part of the 20th century a right that the nation’s poor fought for. Much of the western word has already implemented a free public school system and suprisingly much of the developing world has yet to do that. In Zambia Iam aggressively championing for free public education from grade 1 to grade 12 and this discourse is premised on fundamentals of economic development, human rights, and progress for our country.
In Zambia, the ” Youth” is a term that is thrown around by politicians with as much ferocity as the words ” investors” and ” donors.” In fact if you put the words ” The Youth Of Zambia” in the search engine Google you will get : ” About The Youth In Zambia;” ” Alcohol Abuse On the Rise Among Youth in Zambia:” ” Youth Alive Zambia: Choose Life” ” Youth Vision Zambia.” And recently on 9/9/2011 MINISTRY of Sport, Youth and Child Development Permanent Secretary Teddy Mulonga is in the Times of Zambia saying that ” the youth entrepreneurship is a useful way to promote self-employment for the young people.” Of course our discourse about this peculiar group called the ” Youth ” is continuous and politicians and political pundits use this group as the object of their comments ( as Iam doing) and their policy initiatives as Minister Teddy Mulonga is quoted advocating. But what exactly can we do about the youth and what intelligent policies can we implement to address the problems that come from high unemployment, lack of education, and often crime among our young generation; who obviously are growing up at a time when Zambia is undergoing a multitude of transformations.
Im certain we all know about Liberia and their history of ” child soldiers.” Alot of research was done on the children there and the researchers made attempts to find reasons as to why children as young as 12 years old participated in the war. Above all the war created an environment where children had no option other than to join the chaos.The lack of options among young men and women often results in them entering into criminal activities and for women the general trend is prostitution. Kenya has become a ” sex tourist” destination for many Europeans not because of the county’s beautiful women but because of poverty; and in Zambia Chinese men of course have no problem taking an occasional Zambian prostitute. The greater concern though is what ” options ” this group called the “youth ” has and that to me is the most important question!! What options do young people in Zambia have, what has the government given them, what programs do we have that these young people can benefit from? What is our government’s role in investing in the future of Zambia?
Government’s main investment in the future of the youth should come in the form of making a free public education accessible to every Zambian child from grade 1 to grade 12! NGOs of course will always play a role in alleviating the social problems of the ” Youth ” in Zambia just like other NGOs do in the western world; but we can not let the education of our children become a concern for the Non-governmental organization world. My argument is that if we are going to invest in the ” Youth” we should cease to perform political gymnastics with words and stop making promises and simply implement the public school system in the Ministry of Education. Zambia has enough reserves and funding that can make this goal easy to realize as long as our politicians and our citizens see the intelligence in it and fight for it.
Consider this argument, If the government made public education free from grade 1 to grade 12 it will be socially, financially, and politically to the benefit of our country. A student will learn all the studies that will allow them to be productive citizens of our country and all this before they reach 18 years of age; which is the general age for finishing high school. Any university or technical training is usually done from 18 to 21 years of Age. Young people will be exposed to civics, math, geography, and history among many subjects and these create foundations for them to be productive members of our society. If it takes the government $30, 000 to educate a child from grade 1 to grade 12; there is a far much higher chance that that child will pay more in taxes and their less numerical contributions will on average exceed the initial government investment of $30, 000 from the time they start working to the time they retire. In other words, would it not be a logical investment to spend $30, 000 educating a child who will come and work and pay taxes and productively contribute to society? Any investor would see that this would be a good investment! If indeed the Zambian government really cared about the ” Youth;” they would create an intelligent public school system to help the poor who can’t afford school fees or send their children to prestigious institutions such as Simba, Rhodes Park or any of the many schools in Zambia that tailor their education to the higher society of Zambia. The fact is the poor are a larger part of the Zambia social composition than the rich and at the moment our education system serves the interests and needs of richer families than poorer ones.
Iam an advocate of education because I started my schooling at Lyuni Primary School in Masala, Ndola and the hardships of school fees on my family was obvious. However, with time I moved to more prestigious schools as my family’s wealth increased and went to Olympia Basic School and then Muzi Boarding School and then Frederick Douglass Academy in the United States. The point is that educational advancement in our country is astoundingly tailored to the richer families and consequently poorer ones loose the very mechanism that in the entire world is an equalizer of class and a proven method to reduce poverty: EDUCATION. If we are to invest in Zambia’s youth lets build government schools and create better pension plans for our teachers, allow our administrators to have benefits that will allow them not to resort to corruption and make our Ministry of Education accountable for the state of our education system. Investing in our youth at its highest level will only be true if we build a public school system that does not continue social divisions based on class, background, or sex! We have to educate the Zambian youth with the same level of investment that other countries put in the education of their younger generation.
G. K. Chesterson, the English writer, says that; ” Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” If Zambia is to pass the soul of its current society; then my children, or maybe even their children can see the dream of Zambia having “free’ public education a reality. I really do hope that my generation, a generation that is more exposed and has had the benefits of a democratic society can see the benefits of my argument and maybe, just maybe, in 10 years or 20 years or it might even be 5 years from now Zambia will be a country where young people regardless of economic background, tribe, or religion will be able to get an education and our government will be able to facilitate that progress.
Well articulated article. You have given us some break, no politics involved. But wuold to bring in a bit of it, youths in Zambia have had a raw deal. politicians make lofty pronouncements but ideas end up in the dust bin. CEEC funds aimed at empowering local pipo esp youths, has ended up making the rich richer. Our govt has no workable youth policy.
Great article.Education is indeed an important issue that needs to be addressed.I believe KK did a commendable job kick starting the Zambian educational system during his reign,we lost the plot somewhere in the early 90s. When I first went to UNZA my seniors told me I wouldn’t make it without ‘crooks’ .I was against it at first but soon realised there was no way out.The type of education we received didn’t allow us to research neither did we have the means to go out and gather data.Hope things are better now.
things are worse at UNZA now. the institution doesnt even have experienced lecturers in most of the desciplines…
What is the PF policy on education- just curious.
#3, this is where you come in. Its time to go and give back.
#3 that is disheartening to hear.It was already bad over 10years ago. no wonder so many Zambians are sending their kids abroad.Think of all those millions of dollars being sent from Zambia to other countries.Surely if that money was going to UNZA things would be different.It goes to show that leaders of the institution have no vision.Improve working conditions for lecturers,allow for research,publish papers for academic journals –all that and much more will bring money to the institution
Good afternoon
The main thought behind the article (Free education for all) is definately a good one but I must say apart from the openning and the final parts, I found it hard to follow the author properly through his argumentation. Somewhere in between, he seems to lose his way as he starts talking about war crimes, Chinese investors and prostitutes etc. Not so well articulated nor eloquent enough according to my standards.
I agree that the government needs to play a major role in funding free basic education but I wish the author could also focus on the importance of tertiary education and job opportunities because what use is free education if in the end you don’t own a pay roll?
” Somewhere in between, he seems to lose his way as he starts talking about war crimes, Chinese investors and prostitutes etc” Madam/ Sir I didnt mention the words ” war crimes” or for that matter the words ‘ Chinese investors”. Look at the argument. The part where i mention Liberial and Chinese men as consumers of prostitution was to show what the lack of options for the youth often results in: Liberia was the extreme example and prostitution statistically serves as the only means for younger women without educational options to gain some economic stability. I hope I explained myself and I will be sure to be less complex in the presentation. The Idea was simple. Intro. Lack Of Options, Economic Argument, Personal Story, and Conclusion As To The Effect On Society.
There needs to be an overhaul of the education system- why should pupils/students be made to regurgitate whatever the lecturer says.There should be room for free thinking and more mentorship.
Thank you all for your comments. Im certain we all see thew economic and social value in making education in Zambia free; Any Zambian who has exprienced poverty will attest to the fact that the decision between an education and food should not be made by any Zambian family; the government has an interest long term and short term to provide our citizens with the necessary skills that will allow them to take advantage of private opportunities. Thanks for the comments.
This is an important piece of work Mr Mtonga, well written. PUBLIC Education ,Healthy, and employment are a must for Zambia.And seriously the policy makers must take seriously with action.Yes, they MUST!! Yes we can uphold all the gains we have scored as a country in keying these gains and such policies in a better legal frame work called A NEW CONSTITUTION. Thats why I agree with the jesuit centre for theological reflecting on the need for the BILL OF RIGHTS in our constitution based on a well founded ideology to challenge the current status quo…
As others have stated before, through out history, wrongs/evil can only thrive if GOOD MEN do NOTHING. TThe conviction of good men takes cause for that common good, change triumphs and the common good prevails for the benefit of
Im in the process of looking at the Zambian constitution for some constructive analysis.. But i do agree with you.. the constitution is the law of the land and generally what it says we should look into it and see how we can shape our laws to reflect the future we want to have. GNM
As others have stated before, through out history, wrongs/evil can only thrive if GOOD MEN do NOTHING…..but when the true conviction of good men takes cause for that common good, change triumphs and the common good prevails for the benefit of all. I say this because the common good is the reason for the existence of political, social and economic institutions. We have no alternative but to struggle without respite to construct a state with social-economic system that has coherent passion in the development of its citizens. This is only possible when the constitution confers our institutions of governance with true independence from the executive both financially and administratively.
Listening and watching presidential candidates on muvitv, General Miyanda exhibited inexperience, bad temper and outright lack of understanding issues. There was no need for him to be angry by calling HH foolish young man when in fact HH never refered to him specifically. HH argued, as usual sensibly so, that old politicians for 47 years since zambia attained its freedom time has now come for young generation to take over! The General appeared visibly angered. Zambia is doomed to have such old politicians who react with spite, evy, selfishness and hatrade to up coming Generation which is more educated to handle current political issues.o him specifically. HH argued, as usual sensibly so, that old politicians for 47 years since zambia attained its freedom time has now come for young ge
Old politicians must be responsive to the young Generation whether they like it or not, the likes of Miyanda and sata who don’t accept young pipo’s politics are dispots, bad leaders never to be voted for.
Thanks for bringing up this not so light topic. It remains me this quote learnt at school. “After bread,
education is the first need of the people.” Georges Jacques Danton, XVIII century
*reminds
I agree with you .. thibault.. if indeed the future is a concern.. education should be the concern of a government.. because we all spent time in school so that we can be able to have a better tmr.. BUT OUR INSTITUTIONS SHOULD REFLECT THE WIsdom you have shown.. and the government should implement policies to allow people to become educated and improve a society; there is no chance of improving a society if the very people in that society are unable to provide that improvement.. my argument is simple.. a free public education school system is the greatest investment that a country can ever make in its people or for its people.. and their contributions to society will be far much better than the money spent in educating them.