Oxfam calls for increased funding for education

Oxfam country representative in Zambia, Mahesh Mashra, accused the government of failing to come up with a national plan of action for universal free education, PANA reported on Monday. He said basic free education was attainable in Zambia only when government increased funding to the education sector. Mashra said other countries allocated a larger percentage of their gross domestic product to education but Zambia only allocated about 2.5 percent. “The government has a lot of opportunities for universal free education. Unfortunately, it has failed to come up with a national plan of action in line with what was agreed upon at the Dakar conference in 1990,” he said. Mashra suggested that the government could take advantage of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries’ (HIPC) initiative to access funds for universal education in the country.