A CHAT WITH AMBASSADOR EMMANUEL MWAMBA ON 2022 EDUCATION SECTOR FUNDING
By Alexander Nkosi
- INTRODUCTION
Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba shared an article where he highlighted that reduced education sector funding in 2022 will affect the quality of education delivered. I appreciate the effort made in putting the article together and the need to critically analyse and discuss all sectors. However, I don’t agree with him on a number of issues raised. I find a lot of contradictions with his policy positions on related issues.
- EDUCATION BUDGET
Ambassador Mwamba argued that for the first time in twenty years, the education sector has received the lowest allocation of 10.4% of the National Budget. The relative share of the 2022 Budget to the education sector budget is at its lowest in ten years with the highest level having been in 2016 where the sector received 20.2 per cent. He further argued that this development poses a significant risk to Zambia’s economic ambitions as education is an important source of human capital formation.
My response to this is: In 2020, the total budget was K106 billion while allocation to education was K13.1 billion (12.4%). In 2021, the total budget was K119.6 billion with education getting K13.8 billion (11.5%). In 2022, the total budget is K173 billion with education receiving K18 billion (10.4%). Given this analysis, it is clear that while the percent allocation to the education sector has gone down, the actual amount allocated increased by K4.2 billion whereas in 2021 it only increased by K700 million. Note that the reduction is the percent allocation was because the budget significantly increased to cater for huge debt obligations as well as increased recruitments. In 2021, the budget increased by K13.6 billion whereas in 2022 it increased by K53.4 billion. This explains the reduction in percent allocation to education even if the actual allocation increased by K4.2 billion. Hence while percent allocation to the education sector is an important indicator, it should not be analysed in isolation as it does not give a complete picture.
- STATE OF EDUCATION
On the state of education, Ambassador Mwamba presented that a study done by Examination Council of Zambia ( ECZ) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) revealed that 15 year old students achieved only 5 per cent and 2 per cent of the minimum international level of proficiency in reading and mathematics respectively. The average years of schooling stand at 6 years instead of the recommended 13 years ( from early childhood to secondary school education). Classroom parity for primary and secondary school level stands at 1 to 9. This means that the number of drop-outs and those learners remaining behind continues to be big due to lack of classrooms as one progresses higher.
My response to this is: To improve the quality of education, government has done the following just in 2022: (i) Funding to the education sector has increased by K4.2 billion compared to K700 million in 2021 as highlighted above, (ii) DCF has significantly increased, part of which will go towards ensuring schools have better furniture and other things, (iii) Free education from grade 1 to 12 for day schools and scholarships for boarding secondary schools, (iv) 30,000 teachers will be recruited to improve the quality of service delivery, (v) Education Infrastructure development will continue.
While I agree with Ambassador Mwamba that we need to do more to achieve better education outcomes, this cannot be done in one budget cycle. One of the biggest challenges we face is huge debt which is clearly chocking social sector spending. How do we achieve 20% budget allocation to the education sector when domestic revenue is all exhausted by debt service and wage bill? This is why debt restructuring is critical and this is hinged on the IMF deal which Ambassador Mwamba is against.
- SCHOOL FUNDING
While Ambassador Mwamba argues that funds allocated to schools are inadequate, his assessment of school funds in the previous years is incorrect. He assumes they had more funding by simply looking at how much allocations they were suppose to receive and how much was to be collected from learners. On paper this looks better but the actual situation was that schools went for months without receiving funding from government. Even when they did, it was not full funding and not even enough to pay debt. Schools also never received full payment from learners. Most learners in public schools only made part payments and government instructed schools not to chase them. Schools struggled to mobilise funds, but now we have a situation where three weeks before schools open, funds have been released. This is definitely a good starting point and whatever challenges are faced, improvements will be done in the subsequent school terms and years. This is a better solution than getting back to a situation where we are asking learners to pay again.
- ANALYSIS
5.1) Ambassador Mwamba opposes heavy borrowing but wants this education budget increased to match the 2016 percent allocation (21%). This would mean increasing the education budget to K36 billion (double the current allocation), where will this money come from? Even if we reverse the decision to make mineral royalties tax deductible, we will only raise K3.2 billion, so where does he expect government to get the money?
5.2) Zambia is spending a lot on debt service, i 2022 zambia will spend K78.6 billion on debt service and this has been increasing over the years and is chocking social sector spending. If we can restructure our debt and reduce annual allocation to debt service, we can significantly increase social sector spending. This debt restructuring is hinged on us being on an IMF deal which Ambassador Mwamba opposes.
5.3) It is difficult to attain good education outcomes with a poor students to teacher ratio. This is why government is recruiting 30,000 teachers, but again Ambassador Mwamba has repeatedly questioned this, labeling it too ambitious and unrealistic.
5.4) Ambassador Mwamba opposed increase in fuel prices induced by removal of K26 million monthly subsidy because of the impact it has on the cost of living, on the other hand he wants the same parents to pay school fees because government cannot afford it?
- CONCLUSION
In conclusion, an annual budget is like a cake, when one sector gets more, some other sectors have to receive less. I’m urging Ambassador Mwamba to offer a feasible solution after highlighting what he perceives as a big challenge. How do we in 2022 increase the education budget to match 2016 percent allocation?
Thank you.
