Africa-Press – Zambia. We have taken note of the statement released by the Patriotic Front (PF) through its Media Director Mr. Edwin Lifwekelo, dated 21st May 2025, in which he attempts to discredit the strides the UPND administration has made in the education sector since assuming office.
While the PF continues to engage in political nostalgia and rhetorical gymnastics, the people of Zambia are living the real results of the UPND’s transformative agenda.
Let us address the PF’s claims with clarity and facts.
1. Free Education: From Rhetoric to Reality
Unlike the PF, which talked about education without ever removing the burden of user fees from poor households, the UPND government delivered free education from early childhood to secondary school, as promised. This has resulted in a significant increase in enrolment, especially among girls and children from rural and poor families. Education has been restored as a right, not a privilege. That is transformative.
PF’s record? Children sent home for non-payment of K150. Meal allowances scrapped. School dropouts. That is the legacy the PF must own.
2. Teacher Recruitment: From Stagnation to Expansion
Under PF, there was a freeze on teacher recruitment. The PF boasts of building schools but conveniently omits the fact that many stood empty—white elephants without teachers.
Under UPND, 45,000 teachers have been recruited—the single largest teacher recruitment drive in Zambia’s post-independence history. That is not “filling vacancies”; that is building a foundation for the future.
3. Infrastructure: Quality with Equity
PF lists thousands of schools, yet fails to disclose how many were completed, staffed, and functional. Quantity does not equal quality. Many were poorly planned, under-resourced, and left unfinished.
The UPND has taken a pragmatic approach—completing what was abandoned, building where the need is greatest, and ensuring functional education spaces, not just facades for ribbon-cutting.
4. Higher Education: Reviving Integrity and Access
PF’s record at universities was marred by unpaid lecturers, meal allowance cuts, and chronic strikes.
The UPND reinstated meal allowances and expanded access to students at all public universities. Salaries are now paid on time, and university infrastructure is being improved. We are not just expanding access; we are restoring dignity to learning.
5. School Feeding Programme: From Collapse to Coverage
PF’s reckless borrowing and financial mismanagement collapsed the school feeding programme. The UPND has revived and expanded it to all 116 districts, improving learning and nutrition outcomes for our children.
6. Education Quality and Curriculum
Under the UPND, the review of the national curriculum is underway to make it responsive to 21st-century skills, including digital literacy, climate change, financial education, and entrepreneurship. It is not enough to teach; we must teach what is relevant.
7. The PF’s Selective Amnesia
The PF claims credit for policy intentions that were never implemented. A long list of “plans” and “initiatives” does not substitute for delivery. What Zambia experienced under PF was:
• Bloated debt that crippled service delivery.
• Ghost schools and empty promises.
• Corruption in procurement, especially in the education sector.
• Youth unemployment and no clear path to skills development.
8. The Cost of Living Argument
PF’s narrative that free education is being “paid for through charcoal and fuel” is both misleading and desperate. The cost of living crisis is global, driven by climate shocks, supply chain disruptions, and economic shocks inherited from PF’s debt binge. What matters is this: despite constrained resources, the UPND is investing in human capital—a sure way out of poverty.
Conclusion
The PF should learn that governance is not just about building infrastructure. It is about building lives, expanding access, ensuring equity, and preparing a nation for the future.
Mr. Lifwekelo’s statement is not a rebuttal; it is a reflection of a party struggling to remain relevant by rewriting history and downplaying the suffering they caused. Zambians have not forgotten.
The UPND is building a system, not slogans. And unlike PF, we are not governing through press conferences but through results.
To our citizens: judge us not by opposition press statements, but by what you now experience in your communities—teachers in your schools, meals in your children’s hands, and zero school fees. That is real. That is progress.
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