There is clearly a very strong positive correlation between a countrys level of the quality of its education and the level of economic development. Economic advancement, and even civilisation itself, seem to be anchored fully on a societys ability to design and manage an efficient system for human capital formation. It is education, and not natural resources, it seems, that makes a difference on whether a countrys people live in mud huts or are connected to the internet in the 21st Century. Economic efficiency in macro-economic theory has three dimensions: production of goods and services at the least possible cost; production of goods and services that the economy wants; and, allocation of resources in areas with the highest possible net benefits to the economy. With increasing globalisation, countries with efficient education systems will be the most competitive and will dominate the world economy; and in this respect, size of the country will not be a major factor. And in reverse, those countries that will not transform their education systems in tandem with the 21st Century needs of knowledge economies, will continue to be backward, uncompetitive and certainly at the mercy and receiving end of the others. When I examine the extent to which Zambias education system meets the economic efficiency criteria and explore the effects on the countrys competitiveness into the future; it is frighteningly apparent that Zambia is one of those at the very end of the list of countries that will remain backward for a long time and whose people will not be effective in 21st Century challenges of the knowledge economy and globalisation. It is plausible, through a cursory analysis, to conclude that Zambias education system is highly inefficient and consequently imposes huge costs on the economy. Further, that the education system does not lend itself to add to knowledge, creativity and to civilisation. Using the first economic efficiency criteria; production of goods and services at the least possible cost; access to quality education is extremely limited as it is well beyond more than 99 per cent of Zambian families. Quality education here refers to schools with functional science laboratories, creative arts, sports facilities and appropriately qualified teachers. It does not refer to numbers enrolled in schools. Such schools now only exist in the private sector, are a handful and take on less than two per cent of the enrolment of the whole country. Quality schools of this nature simply do not any more exist under government, the Ministry of Education, where the majority of Zambias children go. Therefore, Zambia is not producing educational services at the least possible cost. With regard to the second criteria, which is the production of goods and services that the economy needs, Zambia also fails. Because of a flawed system without a strong formative or kindergarten base (no Zambian public primary school has a functional pre-school, and children grow up without educational toys that help shape creativity and innovation); and also due to the almost total disregard for investments in science laboratories and science and mathematics teachers (90 per cent of public High Schools, 99 per cent of the so-called Basic Schools and 100 per cent of the so-called Community Schools have no functional science laboratories); entailing that Zambia cannot have required numbers of college and university graduates in mathematics and computing, science, medicine and engineering. These are the knowledge fields of the 21st Century and beyond, and will be the backbone for any countrys economic competitiveness. Instead, as an unfortunate consequent, the countrys embarrassingly few numbers of not-so-functional public colleges and universities - 95 per cent have obsolete pre-1980 or no equipment at all in 2011 - are producing college and university graduates in law, accounting, public administration, development studies; fields that are not required in large numbers in the 21st Century and whose value addition to economic competitiveness is negligible. The third criteria for economic efficiency is the allocation of resources in the areas with the highest net benefits to the economy. And with respect to education, the test is whether compared to other areas, the resource allocation to kindergarten, primary, secondary, college and university education in Zambia corresponds to the net benefits it produces for the economy; investment in human capital formation. The answer is simply no. Firstly, for a country like Zambia with a large population of illiterate people - many 10 to 30-year-old Zambians can hardly speak and read English- it is ironic that the countrys priority economic areas are agriculture, mining and tourism. Clearly education is not considered an economic priority. This classification relegates education to a lower status in terms of domestic resource mobilisation and allocation; part of the reason why Zambias educational system is dependent on foreign donor aid. And more importantly, as a result, Zambia has failed to build new universities and colleges. The only purpose-built university, The University of Zambia, is now in disrepair and unwittingly commencing so-called parallel programmes even in the School of Medicine, just to try and accommodate the growing numbers of young people. In addition, there is absolutely no effort to introduce kindergartens in all public primary schools or to enforce kindergarten education for all of Zambias children. There are clearly important structural gaps and imbalances in the educational system that will continue to constrain Zambias competitiveness into the future and continue to condemn the country its present status as an improvised backward nation. It is critical for Zambia to confront this education crisis now for the benefit of her future generations and the economy. And the solutions to this are pretty straightforward. First education must be the priority sector in Zambia. Second, Zambia must decide to build a new public university of the size of the University of Zambia, as a state university, in each of the nine provinces (not turning colleges into universities). Third, kindergartens must be introduced as part of the primary school system in all public primary schools. Fourth, Zambia must mobilise domestic and foreign investments into the manufacture of educational toys for all kindergartens in public institutions (India has models of this); as well as the manufacture of laboratory equipment and requisites. Fifth, solar power must be introduced in all primary schools in Zambia to allow children to study after hours and have access to internet. Six, tele-education, a satellite-based system of learning, must be introduced in all schools in rural areas to allow children have access to specialist teachers. Seven, Zambia must subscribe to the One Laptop Per Child programme that allows many children have a laptop. Other countries like Uganda and Ethiopia are surging well ahead in all these respects. Eight, Zambia must abolish the unheard of and unconventional so-called Basic School and Community School systems. These just help condemn Zambias poor children to fate and a cycle of illiteracy, poverty and backwardness. Zambia must anchor her education system on kindergarten, primary, secondary, college and university. Those experiments of basic and community schools are not economically viable and have failed. Lastly, even with so few higher education institutions, Zambia, as a matter of urgency and priority, must introduce an independent Board for Higher Education, to regulate and set standards in teaching, research, facilities and faculty in colleges and universities. By taking these actions now, Zambia can well be on her way to being an economically competitive nation in the 21st Century; and with her natural resources, if used within the country and certainly not put into private pockets, may even claim a place among the knowledge economies in 30 years from today. But this takes cool-headedness, away from everyday petty, short-term gains, politics. It also takes lots of courage and decisiveness; to think of and leave a good base, for Zambias children yet unborn. In economics, while education has private benefits, it is a public good and public investments cannot be relinquished for the so-called private investments, especially in a country which is embarrassingly one of the poorest in the world like Zambia.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 06:21:39 +0000
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