President Hichilema Celebrates Full Classrooms

President Hakainde Hichilema has celebrated reports of full classrooms across Zambia, saying it is a “positive indicator of the huge appetite for education for our young people”. 

Writing on Facebook, the President observed that the high enrolment numbers were an indication of “how many children were left out of school due to lack of resources by parents”.

In January the New Dawn government introduced its flagship policy of free education for all primary and secondary school pupils, with compensatory grants paid out to parents by the state. Since then, enrolment figures have shot up compared to under the previous Patriotic Front regime. 

In response, Hichilema has emphasised the need to increase the number of classroom blocks using money from the Constituency Development Fund. He also called for salaries for more teachers to be included in this year’s budget. 

“We will not rest until and many more challenges of our education system are resolved,” he concluded.