Debt Crisis and its inpact on development and administration of education in zambia

The external debt for many years now has deprived the less developed countries like Zambia to invest in its people in a way that is essential and necessary for accelerated poverty reduction. Many poor countries have been trapped in a debt overhang that has been blocking national development. Therefore this essay will attempt to critically discuss the origins of debt and its effect on the development and administration of education in Zambia and what measures should the government put in place in order to lighten this burden and then conclusion. Firstly it will define the key concepts such as education, administration and development.

According to Kelly (1999:2) defines education as an “organized and sustained communication process designed to bring about learning”.

The concept administration refers to the organization and running of a particular system such as the education system (Hornby, 2000).

Todaro and Smith (2003:51) defines development as “a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions, as well as acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality, and the eradication of poverty”.

The origins of debt can be traced back from the time Zambia became independent. Upon independence in the 1964 October the new government in Zambia was faced with a daunting task. This was due to the fact that popular expectations were very high, fuelled by nationalist enthusiasm and the pledge by the government to correct the glaring imbalances and inequities created by colonial rule ( UNDP,2005).The government was influenced by the ideology of state socialism which aimed at attaining political and economic independence from the western industrial countries. It contrasted sharply with the reality of heavy dependence on expatriate technical skills and external financial assistance. It is important to understand that Zambia had the highest per capita income at independence because copper dominated the economy at the time (JCTR, 2001).The few years after independence Copper was regarded as the vehicle to development and modernization and this enabled the government to take control and ownership over all the sectors and nationalized substantial part of the manufacturing sector, public utilities, and key elements of transport and communication.

Therefore there are certain challenges that led to the country start borrowing from institutions such as IMF and World Bank and this act resulted in the heavy indebtedness in Zambia. For example the increase in the oil prices affected the copper prices and this led to the excessive borrowing. UNDP (2005:68) argues that “the major and compounding factor contributing to the increase in Zambia’s external debt was the world oil shock between 1973 and 1979 which led to frequent regional and global recessions, and increase in the interest rates at the international and capital markets, accumulation in arrears falling due while copper prices continued with a downward spiral”.

The other source of Zambia’s heavy indebtedness can be classified as a political factor which occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s.For example Zambia during the same period participated by actively supporting liberation struggles such as those by ANC in south Africa and the ZAPU-PF in Zimbabwe that were waging war against the racist regimes in the southern regions and this enabled the country to incur a total debt of US$5.3 billion in opposing the apartheid system of government(JCTR,2000).This not only did it bring increase in debt but also led to human loss, and physical damage of the infrastructure.

Zambia’s heavily indebtedness was also as a result of both domestic policy findings and exogenous factors that were beyond government control. It is also important to understand that Zambia borrowed excessively for development purposes during the 1970s and 1980s but some of the borrowing was wasted or was not used properly for instance projects such as the Chipata Muchinji rail that never even took off. Henriot (1996) argues that between 1970 and1974 the debt in Zambia was at US$776 million while for the period between 1980 and 1984 it stood at US$3629 million representing an increase in percentage.

The debt continued to increase even the 1990s but the country had challenges in terms of balancing debt servicing and financing social services or infrastructure development in the country. Due to the failure by most impoverished countries to pay back the debts they are forced to concentrate on servicing the debts by cutting down expenditures, job loss, privatization of parastatals and wage freeze rather than concentrating on investing in the well being of the citizens and this is economically expensive and morally wrong(Kelly,1998).

This debt crisis in Zambia has an effect on the social sector especially the education system in the country. This means that the high debt that is upon a less developed country like Zambia has serious effects on the social and economic development of the country. For example, Prior to 2004 Zambia’s debt had reached US$7.1 billion and the country was spending a lot of money towards debt servicing rather than on social sectors such as the education, health and infrastructure development (Henriot, 1996).This means that a lot of resources were being channeled into debt servicing rather than in providing for the needs of the people in the country and this has limited the development of education in the country. This enables schools to be in a poor state and increase in the poverty levels in the country.

The debt has also affected the country to develop and to provide proper administration of the educational activities or the education sector (Carmody, 2004). This was because the country was choking by the burden of debt and there is no way the country could fight high poverty levels and develop the social sector such as the education system under the status of high indebtedness. This affects the provision of quality education through supplying materials, equipment and the infrastructure needed for effective delivery of instructional and educational services. This is because if the less developed country like Zambia is in a debt crisis it is difficult for it to raise adequate revenue to service its debt and at the same time to finance the developmental activities in the education sector (Kelly, 1991).

Also the conditionalities that come with aid from donors such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have an effect on the development and administration of the education system in Zambia. For example the SAPs come with certain conditions such as the wage freeze of the workers like teachers in the various schools, and public restructuring which leads to most people experiencing retrenchments or no jobs to accommodate the much needed teachers or human resource in the education sector to provide effective services (Kelly, 1999).

Therefore debt and debt servicing is the major factor that affects the development and administration of education in Zambia. This means that debt servicing is the obstacle to the development of education in the country. The government needs to come with certain measures in order to lighten the burden of debt which is affecting the national development. For example the government must come up with a comprehensive law on debt contraction that gives the parliament the powers to oversee and approve all loans to be contracted on behalf of the Zambia people by debating, scrutinizing and approving instead of the minister belonging to the ministry of finance alone (JCTR,2001).This is important in the sense that it will enable the process to be more consultative, transparent and accountable rather than it being individualistic and impulsive and the conditionalities that come with aid must be debated upon before accepting them. This will be able to allow the country to know the purpose of each loan and its effects on the social sector such as the education and health.

The other thing that the government supposed to do is that it must find alternative means of getting financial resources within the country to meet the expected budget plan, development programmes such as poverty alleviation, infrastructure development of schools and other public services which will be able to enable the government to operate and provide key services more effectively. In order to do this the government must be able to find ways of improving and increasing revenue base as an alternative to borrowing (UNDP, 1996).                         

Alternatively the government must only accept grants rather than loans which attract high interest rates or converting the existing loans into grants to lighten the burden. The other thing that they should do is to meet first the needs of the people before the needs of the creditors are met and also the user fees in the schools and health should be abolished to enable increase in the enrollment of learners. The government must also prioritize the two fundamental concerns such as the education and health sector (Henriot, 1996).This means that it must show genuine committement to social development of education and health which are very important. There must also be a political will for debt cancellation and avoidance of further debt or come up with a proper debt mechanism which will be able to ensure that debt relief resources are used for the benefit of people in Zambia.

In conclusion debt is a major barrier to development of the social sectors in most less developed countries. This is because the money that is supposed to go to development and proper administration of the education system in Zambia is channeled to debt servicing. The government must concentrate on the needs of the people first before meeting the needs of the lenders to ensure effective delivery of education. Must avoid over reliance on foreign aid and try to depend on the local resource to raise revenue for development.

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