• The target for allocation to the education sector is supposed to be 20 percent.
• Government has taken a downward trajectory from 11.5 percent to 10.4 percent for 2022.
• The overall allocation does not meet international standards.

Prior to the presentation of the 2022 national budget by Finance Minister Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, on 29th October 2021, stakeholders in the education sector had high expectations for the industry in terms of funding levels.
The stakeholders expected the new administration to increase the budgetary allocation to the sector from the current 11.5 percent to at least 15% of the overall national budget.
However, this is not the case as government has proposed an allocation of 10.4 percent of the total national budget for 2022.
And Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) is not happy with this development.
ZANEC Executive Director George Hamusunga told Money FM News in an interview that the current government is alive to the fact that the target for allocation to the education sector is supposed to be 20 percent.
Mr. Hamusunga noted that in its manifesto, the UPND has categorically stated that it will work towards meeting the international commitment of 20 percent but that they have instead taken a downward trajectory.
“We are not happy about the allocation of 10.4 percent of the 2022 national budget to the education sector. As the current government is very aware, the target for allocation to the education sector is supposed to be 20 percent of the national budget and in their manifesto, they have said categorically that they will work towards meeting the international commitment of 20 percent.”
“But we have seen that they have taken a downward trajectory as you know we had 11.5 percent for 2021 now we are going to 10.4 percent for 2022 which is a continued reduction in the share of the budget,” Mr. Hamusunga said.
He added that the overall allocation does not meet international standards and this does not give Education stakeholders adequate hope that the country will meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 target by 2030.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hamusunga stated that the organization is impressed with the size of the budget as it has increased to K173 billion, therefore the 10.4 percent is slightly higher in nominal terms from the 2021 allocation.
He said it is gratifying to note that the money has gone to real priorities such as the recruitment of 30, 000 teachers, removal of tuition, Parents and Teacher Association (PTA) and examination fees.
“But suffice to say that we are happy with the size of the budget having increased the national budget to K173 billion. We feel that the size of the budget has increased and this is why the 10.4 percent now is slightly higher in nominal terms from that which was allocated for 2021.We must mention also that one of the interesting or exciting thing is how they have allocated the current funds for next year.”
“We are happy that the money has gone to real priorities, the recruitment of 30, 000 teachers is one of them, the removal of tuition fees, PTA fees and exam fees is one of the priorities that they have looked at and we feel that is good enough in terms of removing the financial burden that make our children drop out of school,” he noted.
In the last six years, funding to the Education sector has reduced from 20.5 percent in 2016 to the current 11.5 percent and now 10.4 percent under the new administration.