The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

Zambia: Summary
COUNTRy CONTExT
Following a decade of post-colonial economic growth and development, Zambia
became a one-party state in 1972 under the United National Independence Party
(UNIP) and President Kenneth Kaunda. In 1975, Zambia’s economic fortunes
plummeted with the world decline in the price of copper, Zambia’s main export;
the next 15 years saw negligible GDP growth, high rates of joblessness and the
increasingly inability of the state to finance basic health, sanitation and education
services to its citizens. By the late 1980s, movements supporting Zambia’s
transition to a multiparty democracy gathered strength. These movements,
rooted in resistance to the corrupt one-party state, reaction to the ongoing
economic turmoil, and a popular hope that a change in political and economic
philosophy would bring greater prosperity to Zambia supported Zambia’s
transition to a multi-party democracy in 1991 and a new era of reform. Zambia
remains one of the poorest countries in the world: its GNI per capita declined
from USD 590 in 1975 to USD 300 in 2000.
In the early 2000s, Zambia’s economy began
to grow and Zambia reached its HIPC
Completion Point—releasing it from 15
years of the restrictions and conditionalities
of Structural Adjustment, and the majority
of its external debt.
The state of Zambia’s education sector in
1991 was influenced by the copper crisis,
Zambia’s subsequent economic decline, the
deterioration of government institutions
and services, and the increasing demand
for education. In the decade following
the copper collapse, population growth,
at 3.3 percent, far outstripped economic
The government has financed the
growing education sector by reducing
the real incomes of teachers, allowing a
withering away of public funds from all
but the most essential salary payments,
relying more heavily from contributions
from the community and participation
by the private sector, and turning to
foreign aid for general budgetary
support. At the Ministry level, a decline
in Inspectorate capacity (measured
in terms of inspector: teacher ratio)
over the decade, an ongoing shortage
of executive staff and a culture in the
planning unit that focused on policies
supporting system expansion prevailed.
—From Education in a Declining Economy: The
Case of Zambia 1975-1985 by Michael Kelley
SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES
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