The Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) President, Kasonde Mwenda, says he is alarmed by the recent UNICEF revelations on reported decline in the quality of education in Zambia.
The recent UNICEF report, as covered by the BBC on 15th July, highlighting the precipitous decline in the quality of education in Zambia.
“The once-envied status of Zambian education is now at serious risk of being downgraded to an international embarrassment,” said Mr. Mwenda in a statement issued to RCV News in Lusaka today.
Mr. Mwenda said the decline in education standards, driven primarily by the government’s inadequate funding, threatens to leave Zambian students ill-prepared and unemployable on the global stage.
He said the UNICEF reports that nine out of ten primary school students in the region struggle to read and understand simple texts is an alarming statistic.
“We demand that the Hakainde Hichilema’s government immediately revisits its priorities and allocates the necessary funds to rescue our education system from the brink of collapse. Failure to act now will condemn future generations to a cycle of poverty and unemployment,” said Mr. Mwenda.
Recently, the National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) Executive Director, Aaron Chansa, said government’s failure to disburse free education grants for the third quarter of the has led to a severe shortage of infrastructure, resulting in overcrowded classrooms that undermine the quality of education, especially for low-income students.
By Eva Hatontola
