MINISTERS MUST PREPARE BEFORE THEY MAKE PUBLIC OR MEDIA APPEARANCES
Dear Editor,
"HOW will the CDF deliver free education and bursary schemes?"
The ZNBC Sunday Inter view with Grevazio Zulu this week hosted the Minister of Education, Mr Douglas Siakalima.
The Ministry of Educa tion is key among institu tions tasked to implement pre-election campaign prom ises made by the UPND.
Major policy changes have been pronounced including free education for early child hood, primary and secondary schools, and the way educa tion services will be delivered to Zambians.
Although, education ser vices to these category of schools have largely been free since 2011, Mr Siakalima was expected to explain the dif ference or changes that have occurred since his govern ment came into office.
He also missed the oppor tunity to explain how the new changes will be implemented.
Two key issues I felt Mr Siakalima has not under stood or failed to explain is how the recruitment of 30, 000 teachers would be done and how CDF will be used to support bursary schemes for learners at boarding schools and those pursuing tertiary education.
TEACHER RECRUITMENT
The Minister was clearly sailing at sea and failed to explain the recruitment pro cess of teachers in the public service.
Let me help him as his technocrats clearly failed him.
The mandate of teacher re cruitment is now deposited in the Teaching Service Com mission ( TSC) in line with Ar ticle 223 of Republican Con stitution as amended in 2016.
Further, the Service Com mission Act no 10 of 2016 gives mandate to the Com mission to delegate some of its Human Resources func tions to the Human Resourc es Management Committees at district level, whose com position of its membership is prescribed in the Act and one of the major functions was teacher recruitment.
THE ROLE OF CDF
IN BURSARY SCHEMES
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is estab lished by Article 162 of the Republican Constitution and is operationalised by the CDF Act No.11 of 2018.
Government has since is sued the CDF guidelines on the management, disburse ment, utilisation and ac countability of the fund.
The CDF has a secretariat at the local council. It must be emphasised that there are no developmental structures at the constituency level al though Government is try ing to include Ward Devel opment Committees in the process.
The Fund is divided into four main components;
1. Community-based proj ects – 60 percent
2. Youth Empowerment – 10 percent.
3. Women Empowerment – 10 percent.
4. Secondary School and Tertiary Bursaries - 20 per cent (K6, 425, 000)
When asked how the CDF will pay for vulnerable chil dren and the selection cri teria especially that schools may open by January 10, 2022, Mr Siakalima just sum marised that everything will be ready by then.
He also failed to explain why parents have to pay fees of K1, 000 for boarding schools.
He also failed to explain how vulnerability will be determined or assessed for children eligible for free ed ucation especially for those located in rural areas.
Mr Siakalima is one of the longest and experienced members of Parliament serv ing Chirundu constituency and he is a qualified educationist.
He is expected to deliver the policies on quality educa tion and implement the poli cy of free education.
His appearance on ZNBC Sunday Interview appeared unprepared and unfortunate ly cast doubt as to whether or not whether he is equal to the task.
Learners from early child hood, primary school, sec ondary schools, colleges and universities want to under stand how they will benefit from the bursary schemes.
Similarly, school managers also want to understand how this will be done and how the cost of running schools will be met.
The minister and his tech nocrats may be required to roll out extensive informa tion on how all this will be done and achieved.
Further, a close collabo ration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is required and is imperative, especially that 20 percent of CDF will fund the education needs and bursary schemes of eligible learners.
Further concerns is how equitable the 20 percent
of CDF which is K6, 425, 000 will be shared as constit uencies are different by size, population and distance.