CATHOLIC CHURCH COMMENDS CDF, FREE EDUCATION
Ndola Diocese Bishop Dr. Benjamin Phiri has expressed gratitude to the government for free education and the education financing components of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Speaking recently at Christ the King Cathedral in Ndola when President Hakainde Hichilema celebrated mass with the congregation, Bishop Phiri observed that free education was just school fees taken care of, but other things still needed to be bought.
“We are grateful for free education and especially for the CDF because free education is one thing—it’s just the school fees, isn’t it? You still have to buy the other things, but CDF should be able to help the vulnerable attain to those levels that are needed, especially not just to acquire papers,” he remarked.
Bishop Phiri noted that there were already too many youths in the streets with qualifications but “you can’t eat a qualification, and you can’t eat a degree, a paper.”
He said young people need to be able to use their degrees for something useful, but if the qualification just enables one to go and line up for a job, then it is no good.
“What we’d like to see is what you’ve already embarked on, where there will be these pathways. I’d like somebody, as soon as this young man or woman graduates, they are able to set up their own enterprise, and they are able to sell their skills and products to the community. This is empowerment. We are looking forward to that,” he stated.
Since 2022, the government has been implementing free education from early childhood to secondary school in all Zambian public schools. This has increased learner numbers in schools by at least 50%—from four million to more than six million children.
Further, the expanded CDF financing has created specific allocations for education support through bursaries and scholarships for skills training. This has enabled young people who are unable to pursue academic-inclined pathways to tertiary education for various reasons, including financial constraints, to gain technical and entrepreneurial skills.
The government has equally reinstated and increased meal allowances and bursaries for the funded higher learning institutions and expanded the education loan scheme.
Kalemba
The Catholic Church is a big tent, a big community. There are always Catholic priests of good will who are able to appreciate the good intentions and good deeds of others. They’re in fact the silent majority but it’s the vocal minority who make it into the news.
The vocal ones are the ones that see no good in whatever government does. They are only there to cast demonic comments. Woe to them they will reap bad spirits.