DECODING THE FREE EDUCATION MANTRA ! WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT FREE EDUCATION ? Those of us who have vast knowledge in education planning, research and policy would tell you how much it would cost to build more universities and schools, stock them appropriately and staff them with qualified and well paid staff and then allow all Zambians to learn for free; meaning increasing grants to these institutions. As it stands the education sector gets 20% of total budget. All these efforts mentioned above would require more than double this allocation. This would mean 50% of budget goes towards providing free education. This is arrived at with thorough consideration of the current and projected statistics: population, schools, universities, inadequacies in these institutions, cost projects, enrolment projections. Now if half the budget goes to education, it means allocations to all other sectors are reduced. It means agriculture, health, other social services and incentivising investment go down. This means loss of jobs by currently employed people and reduction in jobs created. So with high unemployment, poor health, food shortages how does the free education benefit the people. Economics is very simple. You need to grow the economy before you can dream of providing free lunch. This does not take one or two years. This takes some time with a lot of sacrifice along the way. Let these leaders produce a dossier explaining every single detail with certified and referenced statistics how they will provide free expanded and improved education, health services, improved agriculture, improved conditions for civil servants, expanded infrastructural development. All this in under two years. All political parties get into government with all sorts of dreams but government functions with a given framework run by immensely qualified technocrats who understand the real implications of some of these misplaced political promises and this is the reason why most politicians backtrack on their campaign promises. Those who have done research in economic development will tell you that infrastructure development with sound investment policies is the backbone to the development of every nation. However this requires painful decisions because you do away with subsidising basic consumption and this requires a legitimate and loved leader whom the people can understand. Thats why our great leader MICHAEL SATA, MHSRIEP, was able to do all that while enjoying massive support from the people. This is why PRESIDENT EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU has been cautious in his campaign messages. All his promises are feasible and backed by clear steps of what is being done and what the next steps are. He has a well-crafted and realistic development agenda. VIVA #TEAM7500 VOTE #LUNGU VOTE #PatrioticFront
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:16:36 +0000
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