Thu, 23 Mar 2017 12:58:33 +0000
Populist politics are fast becoming the bane of cogent public policy.
Good Government and social cohesion are invariably eclipsed by glib and often empty promises that offer reckless and mindless solutions to complex issues such as funding of universities.
Populism has been described as pandering to what is popular, reinforcing public prejudices irrespective of their validity, over-simplifying and distorting policy options, taking the politically expedient rather than optimal or principled course.
This is exactly what Mazabuka Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo exhibited yesterday when he advanced a private member’s motion in Parliament, urging Government to extend loans to all students attending classes at the University of Zambia.
Couched in highly endearing and paternalistic language, an impression was created that Government was derelict and remiss for not funding students in dire financial need.
The motion was supported by none other than former Vice Chancellor of the University of Zambia Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa who joined in decrying Government failure to provide and therefore minister to the financial needs of deserving students. He called for sacrifice and political commitment to the cause.
Not once in his debate did he give any indication of his contribution to solving this problem as a former Minister of Education.
Strategically a group of students from the University of Zambia were in the gallery with a holding brief for their colleagues.
The entire exercise was a sham.
The Minister of Higher Education Professor Nkandu Luo was rightfully indignant and rightly characterized the motion as a political ploy, because a comprehensive ministerial statement on the establishment of a student loan scheme was presented to Parliament on 13th December 2016.
It was stated then that a loan scheme would commence next year and that in the meanwhile the Government would continue to offer bursaries to qualified students. Accordingly Government offered more than 2600 bursaries.
It is against this background that Mr. Garry Nkombo’s motion must be seen.
The mischief is not in stating the problem but proposing a course of action that was not only feasible but totally untenable. For a start the University of Zambia apparently admitted 6,000 students, a figure that could not be accommodated.
On closer, scrutiny among the 6,000 were a large number of unqualified applicants who found their way onto the university list.
The folly of the motion was further compounded by its myopic nature as it centered on the University of Zambia, whose students were “coincidentally” in the gallery. The motion almost made no mention of students in other universities.
Logically and if well intentioned the motion should have been all embracing. The selectivity and timing of the motion gave credence to the statement by Professor Nkandu Luo that the motion was sheer political populism.
The danger of populist sham policies is that they attract attention even among those people who know better. The intention is to appeal to sentiment rather than sense and reality.
Education is expensive. The United Kingdom charges tuition fees of up to K113, 000 per year. The Government contributes up to 30 percent of the cost of higher education. The rest must be met in fees and university is own generated activities.
The same is true of the United States of America where the government contributes about 34 percent. This is in spite of the fact that it has the most expensive education systems in the world and boats of a student total debt in excess of US$1trillion!
