‘Free education’ might be the poison pill that kills hard work and ambition

The Education ministry said this week it was considering cutting the grants it gives to private secondary schools that take in ‘USE’ students because it has built enough of its own schools to accommodate them. The ministry should instead consider doing away with free education in its current form altogether.
To understand the need for such drastic measures, we need to revisit a report released by the civil society organisation, Twaweza, in 2012. The report showed that when Primary Three pupils were given a Primary Two-level story, only three out of 10 could read and understand it.
More worryingly, they found that when the same story was given to pupils in Primary Seven, one of the three had fallen through the cracks and only two could read and understand it.
The problems with ‘free education’ go back to its inception in 1997 when it was hurriedly rolled out on the back of political considerations, instead of being phased in gradually. This, in and of itself, would not have been a problem – politicians need to win elections after all – but it soon became clear that we were determined to get high on our own supply.
For instance, officials constantly speak in glowing terms about the jump in enrollment – from 3.1 million primary school pupils in 1996 to 8.4 million in 2013 – but are careful to skirt around the bad news.

In fact, a study by Unesco a couple of years ago, found that out of every 100 students who join ‘UPE’ in Primary One, only 32 make it to the Primary Leaving Exams. That number continues to drop throughout secondary school and university.
What this means is that more pupils are going to school, for a short time, and to mostly learn nothing (ze doogo, for it, it have ate my shoe!).
It is easy to see why this is the case. First, for all the rhetoric, free education is not free. The government gives less than $3 per pupil per term in primary school and less than $15 for those in secondary school, which is less than the cost of education. Parents are therefore required to meet some of the costs, including uniform and feeding. Thus the first to drop out are the students of the poorest.
Then there is the lack of infrastructure, from classroom blocks and laboratories to basics such as toilets, with one official report noting an average ratio of one latrine to 71 students – enough for one constipated fellow to trigger the Third World War!
Unsurprisingly, poorly paid teachers eke out a living elsewhere – teacher absenteeism is up with pupil absenteeism – and many of those who turn up can’t pass the exams they are preparing their charges for, according to research findings.
Pupils who overcome these problems then find that they are taught out of a curriculum last revised before the invention of the Internet, and perhaps being taught about land forms that have since been swept away by glacial movements or Tsunamis.
It is no surprise that education is now celebrated as a rite of passage – something you do to get out of the way, rather than something you use to find your way. Anyone with half a million and half a brain will take their child to a private school and hope for better learning outcomes. As a result of the education system, far from being a social equaliser based on merit, has the (perhaps unintended) outcome of keeping the poor poor and allowing the rich to grow richer.
By attaching no official value to it, and by scrapping other incentives to work, such as graduated tax, it is possible that ‘free education’ has also come with the moral hazard of encouraging poor peasants to produce more children – after all the government will ‘educate’ them.
This could perhaps explain why the number of people living below the poverty line has increased, and why the fertility rate has reduced only marginally, despite the economy growing at around six per cent per year over the last three decades.
Education – and in particular keeping the girl child in school and empowering her to make informed decisions – is one of the key planks in ending teenage pregnancies, early marriages, reducing population growth rates to sustainable levels, and lifting societies out of poverty.
Is it not time we spoke candidly about the high price we are paying for ‘free education’? Now, amidst the frenzy of celebrating certificates of attendance disguised as degrees and exam transcripts, would be a good time.
Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and a poor man’s freedom fighter. [email protected]
Twitter: @Kalinaki.