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Zambia's children need education

Issue date
Solidarity with Zambian workers

Standards Committee, Convention 138

ILO Geneva, June 2008

Speech by TUC member of the ILO Governing Body, Simon Steyne

I am speaking for the workers' group, but the Committee may know that I also represent the ITUC in the International Council of the Global March against Child Labour - the world's largest alliance of trade unions and NGOs - We have advanced a simple policy framework on child labour: the triangular and mutually reinforcing relationships of universal basic education, elimination of child labour and decent work for adults. Zambia's application of Convention 138 exemplifies the challenges of that triangular paradigm.

The Experts report considers four key elements:

  • The need for free and compulsory basic education up to the minimum age for entry into employment;
  • The prevalence of child labour in agriculture - including large-scale farming operations - and in areas of the informal economy;
  • The need for accurate statistics;
  • Effectiveness of programmes supported by IPEC.

First let me make clear: Zambia's appearance today in no way detracts from the efforts it is making, in collaboration with IPEC, to meet its obligations, including innovative approaches to inclusive education such as the return to school policy for pregnant teenage girls.

But the report also makes clear the need for greater efforts to bring law and practice into conformity with the Convention.

So, Madame Chair, turning to education - appropriate given the theme for next Thursday's World Day against Child Labour.

The Convention requires that the minimum age of 15 years for entry into full time, non-hazardous employment should be consonant with the minimum school leaving age. Yet Zambia does not yet have a system of free, compulsory, formal, public education and without it, it will not succeed in eliminating child labour. Primary education has been declared free, but while there are some bursaries for vulnerable children, hidden costs such as school uniforms and school books act as barriers to the attendance of children from poor families - whose children are most likely to become child labourers.

Though the state education budget has increased, leading to recruitment of much needed new teachers, it still trails behind regional benchmarks. Though substantial donor funding makes up for some of the budget deficit, there is an acute need for more classrooms (in many schools triple shifts are operated) and equipment.

The 2006 Education Policy of the Zambian NUT noted:

'The disparities in enrolment levels as well as completion rates across gender are ... issues of central concern that require concerted efforts to bring about a balance in economic participation. Despite Government putting in place policies aimed at increasing enrolment levels for the girl child, completion rates show that girls are more severely affected than boys.

'ZNUT also acknowledges the central role that Government plays to the establishment of comprehensive and relevant education.... As a stakeholder, the Union wishes to work hand in hand with Government on issues pertaining to the betterment of our educational system.

'We hope the Government is accepting that offer and working in a spirit of true social dialogue to implement the Convention.'

Legislative progress appears to be underway. In March 2007, the Cabinet Office requested the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to adjust the National Child Labour Policy to include better coordination with the Ministry of Youth Sport and Child Development, responsible for the overall National Child Policy. Subsequently, a draft Child Labour Policy has been re-submitted to Cabinet Office. Similarly the hazardous labour list for Convention 182 (which has bearing also on Convention 138) is with the Ministry of Justice for review. But understaffing holds up a backlog of legislative amendment.

And of course, in the struggle against child labour, understaffing and lack of provision in schools as well as in enforcement agencies also plays a pivotal role.

Zambia's education system is described by the World Bank as a 'Low cost, low quality system' In 2006, Zambia spent 3.8% of its GDP on education - 2.2% below the mark. It is estimated that through direct and general budget support about 35% of the education costs are covered through external financing.

The system comprises 9 years of basic education followed by 3 years of secondary. At the end of the 9 years, pupils do final exams but only about one third of them can be absorbed in the secondary public school system. Those who cannot enter the public system and can afford it go to the private sector. The rest have no provision.

The annual output of Zambia's teacher training colleges is 8,000. However, the Government recruits only 4,000 new teachers in the public system, so as not to increase Government expenditure on public sector wages. So, the bottleneck is not teacher training capacity but rather the financial means available to employ newly qualified teachers. Often they have to wait up to 4 years before finding work.

The tragedy is that Zambia has so many schools without qualified teachers, and so many qualified teachers without schools. Ministry statistics indicate that, in 2006, there were 3347 unqualified teachers teaching in Zambian schools, yet there were about 6000 trained teachers unemployed. This situation results mainly from World Bank and IMF conditionalities imposed in contradiction to policy coherence, and to which my colleague Leonard Hikaumba, President of the Zambia CTU will allude.

The Global Campaign for Education corroborates, 'The vacancies have not been filled-because the IMF says that the government cannot afford to hire the teachers it has trained'.[1]

The ZNUT confirms that and describes a critical shortage of teaching staff in general and critical subject areas in particular due to unattractive low salaries, unfavourable working conditions of service and unpredictable deployment policy dictated by conditionalities arrived at between the government and...the World Bank and IMF.[2]

These qualified teachers could be contributing to the quality of Zambia's education system, replacing unqualified teachers and reducing pupil teacher ratios, as high as 115:1 in some rural schools. This failure to utilise available qualified human resources, having invested so heavily in them, is a serious loss.

However, I do want to stress that there are positive elements which should be built on.

The Ministry of Education has started recruiting more teachers, though too slowly.

The abolition of school fees in Zambia caused a sharp increase in primary enrolment of both girls and boys. And total enrolment increased too, the number of out-of-school children fell from 760,000 to 228,000 between 1999 and 2005.

But, despite the innovative approaches to which I referred, disadvantaged children are still two to three times less likely to be in school than other children.

One point goes to the heart of any sense of security, dignity and quality education for children, and though it is not restricted to Zambia it surely affects the attitude of children towards school. A study by Pinheiro showed between 9% and 30% of pupils (girls more that boys) have been forced to have sex in exchange for preferential treatment in class and better tests results. This is relevant for Zambia as well and indicates that safety levels and equality in school environment must be improved and effective sanctions applied against those who abuse children.

Yet data collection and enforcement remain inadequate - my colleague Jan Sithole will say more about labour inspection - and the figures provided in the Experts' report require clarification. There has been no survey since 1999 when half a million children were working and not just in the informal economy - including domestic service - but also extensively in large scale farming. We look forward to the completion of the first National Labour Force Survey and we would have welcomed more information about the sectoral and geographical incidence of child labour and action in those sectors.

The Decent Work Country Programme launched in December 2007 included Elimination of Child Labour among its three priorities, but that needs to be mainstreamed consistently into district development plans.

In the last six months Zambia has recorded some progress in the education, health, mining and human rights sectors and I would like to conclude with these points:

The Ministry of Education Joint annual Review confirmed an increased budget and set out the following objectives;

By end of 2008 to increase pupil enrolment and expand the provision of bursaries to orphans and vulnerable children especially girls

And to improve the quality of education provision through

  • by constructing 1,500 classrooms
  • recruiting 5000 more teachers
  • retention of teachers in rural areas and continuous replacement of those who leave teaching
  • increasing the number of teachers receiving in-service training.

The Ministry of Health is working with the Ministry of Education in the provision to teachers of treatment for HIV and AIDS. Health workers are visiting schools to provide food supplements and ART to infected orphans, prevent diarrhoeal diseases in children and strengthen the assertiveness of girls on HIV & AIDS and sexuality issues.

Tax negotiations between the government and the mining companies are underway. We hope that will result in increased government revenues to fund social and other investments.

We hope too that in the country's constitutional review the interests and rights of children - including the right to education and to be free of child labour - will be clearly spelt out in line with international standards, especially Conventions 138 and 182.

Free education, without hidden costs, is a key. The World Bank and multinational investors needs to support and not hinder efforts to ensure universal, free, formal, compulsory education delivered as a quality public service. That includes effective social dialogue with the ZNUT to ensure decent work for teachers. We recall yet again that for every $1 invested in education, $7 is returned in national development.

The social alliance against child labour needs to be strengthened, with greater attention paid to strengthening the capacity of the social partners.

A coherent National Programme of Action against child labour is required, reflecting the complementarities between Conventions 138 and 182.

Labour inspection must be child friendly and significantly strengthened.

Madam Chair, Zambia is demonstrating political will. But it is moving too slowly. It needs to be clear about its obligations and pursue them with vigour and the international community must support its efforts. We hope that the Government's next report to the Committee of Experts will indicate significant further progress towards full compliance with the Convention.


[1] GCE, Undervaluing Teachers: IMF Policies Squeeze Zambia's Education System, 2004, p1

[2] Teacher Capacity Building and Teacher Reforms in Zambia, A Paper Presented by Roy Mwaba, ZNUT General Secretary at a Conference on Building Capacity in the Education Sector in Africa, Oslo, Norway, 13-14 October 2005

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