Austerity measures imposed by the Government on the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2013 have had a negative effect on the country’s development, according to Zambian consultant and educator, Gideon Bulwani.
“The IMF advised the Government to maintain its public wage bill within 35 per cent of domestic revenue over the medium term and not more than eight per cent of Gross Domestic Product,” Mr Bulwani said in an article on the Education International website.
“The Government responded by freezing or decreasing Public Service salary scales, consolidating some allowances into basic pay,” he said.
“This also led to wage ‘caps’, limiting the capacity of the teacher unions to negotiate for better and improved salaries and conditions of service.”
Mr Bulwani said the IMF’s advice also resulted in a reduction in recruitment and deployment of Public Service staff, including teachers.
In addition, he said some of the allowances, involving extra duty, recruitment and retention, were withdrawn.
“For quite some time, the Government has not created new positions, instead recruiting just to replace those who exited the Public Service through retirement, resignation, or death,” he said.
“The impact of such stringent measures demotivated many teachers and led to a decline in morale and commitment to work. It also increased workload as teachers have been required to teach more hours without compensation due to a high pupil-teacher ratio.”
Mr Bulwani said it was reasonable to conclude that IMF advice on the public wage bill had contributed to low teacher recruitment and motivation however, the Government had significantly contributed to the situation through poor planning and inadequate use of public resources.
“The Auditor General has identified or highlighted gross misappropriation of public funds which could have been channelled towards teacher recruitment and motivation measures,” he said.
“The future of the teaching profession is at risk and quality education could suffer irreparably.”
Lusaka, 25 April 2022
