Maravi

Raising standards of education

Raising standards of education
By Editor
Saturday July 14, 2007 [04:00]

It cannot be denied that the standards of education in Zambia are declining, not only at the highest institution of learning but at all levels. This must be a very worrying concern to all those concerned about the development of our country. That is why UNZA chancellor Dr Jacob Mwanza’s observation that the university’s reputation has, in the perception of many, declined over the past 15 years or so should be taken seriously. And in our view, this decline is real. It is not just a perception.

Access to quality education should be a must for all. In our world today, conditions are constantly changing and for one to adapt to these changes, they must have good education. Even those who are already educated must go on improving their education.

It is for this reason that we should continue to spend more and more money on education. A society or country that values its successful future affords the highest priority in providing quality education for all, from nursery up to university.

Dr Mwanza attributes the decline in the university education to the brain drain that led to low staffing levels and instability brought about by student and staff unrest. Yes, this observation is correct but we feel there are more problems or issues which have contributed to the fall of education standards in our country.

Our education sector is faced with more challenges from all fronts today. We may have what we may call an education sector but beneath it there are a myriad of problems.

These problems range from poor conditions of service for teachers to insufficient classroom and lodging space for students and school children.

How can we expect quality education when both the teachers and students have got so many complaints touching on their personal and professional lives?

We have to be more serious and focused as a country if this trend has to be redressed. It is time we started addressing these problems that are compromising the quality of education if we are to achieve any development as a country. We should not be under any illusion that Zambia will develop when our education system is not greatly improved.

And quality education is never cheap. Quality education will always require more and more resources. Yes, Zambia’s resources may be limited but we should remind ourselves that good things do not come cheaply.

But if we are to change this state of affairs, we first need to understand what is going on in our education sector and the implications to the country. UNZA vice-chancellor Professor Stephen Simukanga has appealed to the government to allow the university to start charging economic fees to help offer quality instruction to students.

It is true that UNZA is seriously under-funded and highly in debt with several suppliers of goods and services. UNZA owes its suppliers over K100 billion and it is not possible under the current circumstances for the university to liquidate this amount.

If this under-funding is not addressed in a meaningful manner, it will soon prove to be a serious fetter to the development of our country. In most cases, UNZA gets less than 40 per cent of its budgetary allocation. How can we expect our university to function effectively and efficiently with that kind of financial support?

For as long as this continues, our universities and other institutions of learning will never be run in a stable and orderly manner. It doesn’t matter how intelligent the UNZA management can be, the current problems will not disappear from the university in the absence of adequate funding.

As we have said before, the university or indeed any other institutions of higher learning are not a business like the Zambia State Insurance Corporation or Zambia National Commercial Bank which can run on their own after the injection of initial capital.

That is why we feel Professor Simukanga’s proposal of increasing fees is not sustainable. Education is an investment that the state has to continually sustain. We shouldn’t deceive ourselves that UNZA can be commercialised or turned into a profit making enterprise.

Even in more advanced countries of the West, education is still being funded by the state using money from the national treasury.

This is out of a realisation that no country can develop and continue to do so without educated people.

This explains why education levels in our country are forever on the decrease. We all know how many of the many educated Zambians today benefited from UNIP’s policy of free education. Now the gap is constantly widening between the generation that received quality education under the free-education policy and the generation of today which is not benefiting from that arrangement.

These are the realities we should confront as a country and find lasting solutions to, otherwise we will be setting the country on a path of self-destruction if this problem remains unattended to.

Labels: EDITORIAL, EDUCATION, UNZA

posted by MrK @ 4:38 AM