• UPND’s first commitment is increasing financing to education.
• Government must increase funding to the 2022 education and skills sector budget.
• The budget should increase from the current 11.5% to at least 15% of the overall national budget.

Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) has called on government to increase funding to the 2022 education and skills sector budget from the current 11.5% to 15% with the aim of reaching 20% by 2023.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, ZANEC Executive Director George Hamusunga said it is gratifying to note that in its manifesto, the UPND’s first commitment is increasing financing to education to levels that the country has committed at international level which is 20 percent of the national budget or 6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mr. Hamusunga stated that Education financing being the first commitment in their manifesto, stakeholders expect government to increase next year’s budget up to the minimum of 15 percent.
“Issues surrounding financing of education are very important, if you read the UPND manifesto you will understand that they understand the fact that in the last six years, funding has reduced from 20.5 percent in 2016 to the current 11.4 percent.”
“Now what we want to see is that this is their first test that we need to monitor the financing, being the first commitment they make in their manifesto, we expect them to increase the 2022 budget to go up to at least the minimum 15 percent of the national budget. If that happens, then we will tick that they are on the right track,” Mr. Hamusunga stated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hamusunga said education stakeholders expect the new regime to prioritize the development of the Education Policy that will guide education plans and budgets, among others.
He noted that the last national education policy was for 1996 which elapsed in 2006 and was supposed to be replaced.
“We don’t have a national education policy now and this is a bad legacy that the previous government has left, which we kept telling them to address. As you know policies are supposed to be effective only for 10 years after which they are supposed to be replaced.”
“So we should have replaced that policy which was done by the MMD in 1996, we should have replaced it in 2006 but it was not done,” he lamented.
He further stressed the need for government to revise the curriculum designed to come up with a framework that will promote the acquisition of core competencies in numeracy, literacy and life skills; creative and emotional skills; national values; and social benefits.