Scrapping off of meal allowance not the solution – JCTR
Prof Luo
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has disagreed with government’s reasons for abolishing meal allowance for government-sponsored students in public universities.
On February 6, Higher Education Minister Nkandu Luo announced that government will no longer pay meal allowances and that students on the loan scheme would only receive tuition fee, accommodation fees, book allowance and project expenses. She said the move was taken to scale up resources for the loan scheme to five other public universities namely; Kapasa Makasa, Mulungushi, Kwame Nkuruma, Chalimbana and Palabana Universities.
But the JCTR disagrees with the government’s reasoning, saying the fact that student bursaries have been turned into recoverable loans to students negates the need to abolish meal allowances.
“What Government needs to do is to enhance recovery of student loans/bursaries in order to allow for scaling up of bursaries and increase the scheme beneficiaries. While JCTR agrees to the need to scale up bursaries to other public universities, we object to abolishing meal allowances which essentially is denying some students an opportunity to receive tertiary education,” reads a JCTR statement sent to Zambian Eye
.
The JCTR also disagrees with Professor Luo’s recent claims that the removal of meal allowances will end inequality among students.
“This move is not progressive because it promotes inequality in our society as students from poor families are not allowed to receive tertiary education which is key to addressing the malaise of inequality. The removal of meal allowances may deprive students of affording the basic necessities and may infringe on their right to a dignified life.”
The JCTR has since advised government to view education as an investment and not a cost.
“Provision and enhancing access to education is an investment and not a cost, this has been proved by countries like Japan and China that have educated their citizenry into prosperity. This provides enough evidence that education improves the economy as educated people are more productive and less dependent on provision of public goods.”
The JCTR further urges the government to improve the bursary management system so that only deserving and vulnerable students are the ones to benefit from the loan scheme.
“As a country we should be talking about increasing meal allowances for our students to enable them meet the high cost of living. Further, JCTR urges the Government to cut down on unnecessary spending in other areas such as foreign travel of government officials and move those resources to education instead. JCTR also decries the abrupt and unilateral manner in which the decision to abolish meal allowances was made. We therefore call for a transparent and consultative process to precede such announcements,” the JCTR said.