ZAMBIA National Education Coalition (ZANEC) Board Chairperson Henry Kabwe has commended government over its decision to move the free Education bill in parliament.
Mr Kabwe said education was every child’s right regardless of their family background.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, Mr Kabwe said if the free education bill was passed into law, it would help stop early child marriages, child labour, alcohol abuse and other bad vices that society was grappling with.
He explained that the provision of free education will enable parents channel the resources meant for school fees towards economic activities and contribute to national development.
He noted that ZANEC is in full support of the government’s decision but called on it to come up with a plan on how it will meet the needs, such as desks, infrastructure and academic provisions.
“We welcome the move by government to turn free education into law, because education is not a privilege but a right that every child should enjoy,” said Mr Kabwe.
He added that so far, government is doing well with the provision of free education and that a lot of children who could not previously afford have been given an opportunity to go back to school.
“If we have children going to school, we will reduce on the number of junkies that we have around,” Mr Kabwe said.
Mr Kabwe, however, appealed to government to consider building more infrastructure and ensure the provision of quality education.
He explained that free education could not come at a better time than now, when there is an introduction of education pathways.
“With the introduction of the new curriculum where children are allowed to choose their education pathways, it is important that children are allowed to show their capabilities so that they can contribute to National development in future,” Mr Kabwe said.
He added that birth registration should be mandatory in order to enable government plan for infrastructure and other services that may be required by the children.
“We cannot plan if we do not know how many children we are planning for, so the starting point is, let’s register all the children for us to plan for them,” Mr Kabwe said.
