**8. Achieving primary education for all**

To address the challenge of including all children in quality primary school as a prelude to better economic standing, the new MMD government continued to emphasize self-reliance through production units but after 1991 sought more input from the local community as it further transformed the country into a marketbased economy. Under this government, Zambia committed itself to the *World Declaration on Education for All.* Enrolment in primary (Grades 1-7) and basic (Grades 1-9) increased as initiatives to ensure better inclusion of girls, orphans, special needs, and rural children followed as did monitoring of attainment of basic literacy.

Nonetheless, enrolment levels were constrained by the introduction of fees in a climate of widespread unemployment as well as by an increasing lack of confidence in the system to deliver much coveted formal employment as the opportunity

structure contracted [43]. Fees disproportionately impacted the poor many of whom not only failed to enroll but after enrolment were likely to drop out. Most parents could not afford to meet the obligatory costs of sending their children to school [44]. By 1998, the national average attendance in primary school was 66 percent of which only 50 percent progressed to Grades 8 and about 20 percent to Grade 10. This represented 61 percent in rural versus 80 percent in urban areas [45]. Not only did this reveal how rural children were marginalized but, despite efforts to assist, those excluded were disproportionately girls, those with special needs, and orphans [46].

However, though the overall impact was that the intake into the primary schools increased, because of government's financial situation and input, many of the schools were of poor quality leaving one wonder about the level of literacy of those who completed at either primary or basic level [47]. These basic schools provided wider access. However, only 64 percent of richer families enrolled in them. Instead, the better endowed opted for private or faith-based schools some of which did not transform their lower secondary schools to become basic. As a result, they had better facilities which promised better quality learning, increasing their chances of what was severely limited, entry to Grade 10 [48].

This overall movement towards primary and in some cases basic education for all became a leading motif within the system under strain. As a result, by 2001, the primary school enrollment reached 1.77 million as against 1.4 million in 1990. This modest increase nonetheless meant that 65 percent equal to 700,000 of sevenyear-olds were not in school. Of those who completed primary school, roughly 50 percent proceeded to Grade 8 (because of the basic school movement) and approximately 20 percent to Grade 10 which represented a significant drop-out rate especially at the end of Grade 9.

A key reason for the large out of school population was that, because of fees, the poorest were excluded. Yet, while the overall number gaining primary school education had increased, this did not translate into the fact that they would gain formal employment. What we have instead is a better schooled population within a declining employment rate [49]. Investment in education on a national level had not expanded economic productivity as had been promised and expected. Moreover, in this expansion of provision, as already indicated, the quality of schooling was uneven especially in rural areas, leaving those that completed largely and progressively less qualified in their search for formal employment.

Though basic literacy is to be prized as a human right, the universal primary school movement appears to have done little to enable those with primary or basic schooling to avoid marginalization and climb the educational pyramid especially since investment and expansion at the secondary level and higher level had been somewhat frozen. Yet, clearly that was what most desired in the interest of finding formal employment. It came to mean that more and more young people emerged from basic schools with slimmer and slimmer chances of being selected to go further. The opportunities for entry to Grade 10 were clearly linked to those who had quality schooling, which in rural and poor urban communities was less likely because of deprived facilities. Related to this, the question emerged: what was the economic or social value of these years in school when at the end graduates could not find formal employment? This needs to be seen within the context where about 10 percent of Zambia's employment was then at the formal level [50].

Since the majority of children who entered Grade I were blocked from ascending the ladder to higher secondary school (high school as it was called for some years) and beyond, the age-old question of seeking a different kind of schooling reemerged. Though numbers in school increased, the problem of formal employment for those who emerged remained, resembling what it had happened in the colonial

times. It was the long and fast developing problem of 'educated unemployed' [51]. Juxtaposed to this was the high poverty level ranging at about 80 percent of the population.

As the overall population increased and as the country went through financial struggle, the Ministry of Education sought more community (local and international)support, moving one might say from a welfare state to a market-based economy. In that setting it pressed ahead with the goal of universal primary schooling under the impression that this was the route not only to greater prosperity but to decreased marginalization and more equitable distribution of resources. The decade between 1990 and 2001 thus witnessed increased enrollment but did little for what was the major concern namely formal employment bringing again to focus the question of how appropriate was the school curriculum for job creation [52].

Attention inevitably focused on the nature and role of the Technical Education, Vocational, and Entrepreneurship Authority (TEVETA) which had been set up in the past and provided education more directly linked to employable skills. In 2000, 151 institutions under its control had an overall enrollment of 24,648 students. One might wonder why these settings with promise of some formal and self-employment had not become more attractive. It is true that many were private which entailed fees but perhaps more pivotally academic schooling had been seen for generations to be the pathway to formal and well-paid employment [53]. Thus, getting people interested in this technical mode of schooling proved to be difficult even if it promised to assist students to become productive particularly in the informal sector [54].

In any event, in the light of ERIP, by 2001, there was 1.770,000 million pupils in primary school and the progression rate to Grade 8 had pivoted around 35 percent. This overall increase in the primary and basic school populations resulted in large part because of the growth of basic and latterly community schools [55]. Though both these models of school made a major contribution in reducing the number of out-of-school children largely because they were free, they operated in ways that were rudimentary [56].

As Zambia gained relief from its debt through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in 2002, one of its first responses was again to provide free basic schooling in view of achieving universal primary schooling which had been such a long-term issue. This helped. Implementation and interpretation of this free schooling revealed 'hidden' fees as well as increased quantity at the cost of quality. There were too many over-crowded classrooms and schools with shortage of teachers. This was especially true in rural areas and densely populated sectors of cities and towns [57].

Following the re-introduction of the free basic schooling in 2002, enrollments increased though the degree to which the schools were free remained an on-going question. Correlated with this was government's inadequate support of school infrastructural needs [58]. By 2008, enrollments had increased to 2,909,436 at the primary level and 3,290,000 at the basic level [59]. This could clearly be seen as a major step forward in the goal of providing primary schooling for all Zambian children even if it included a low intake rate of 56 percent for the age 7-13 [60]. This pattern of increased enrollment was enhanced in the years following by economic growth in the economy largely because of increased copper sales and greater government investment in schooling.
