The Ministry of Education has moved to clarify the history of Zambia’s Free Education Policy, responding to what it described as recent public commentary on the subject, and drawing a distinction between the legal recognition of free education and its practical implementation.
In a statement issued by Permanent Secretary for Educational Services Dr Kelvin Mambwe, the Ministry said the recognition of free universal education in the Education Act No. 23 of 2011 amounted to a statement of national aspiration rather than an operational policy. It argued that a government policy only exists once that aspiration is backed by deliberate implementation, financing and institutional support — conditions it says were not met until 2021.
According to the Ministry, public schools continued charging user fees and mandatory levies in the years following the 2011 Act, while learners also faced examination fees that added a further barrier to access and completion, particularly for children from low-income households. It says this changed with the New Dawn Government’s implementation of the Free Education Policy in 2021, which abolished user fees and examination fees across public Early Childhood Education, Primary and Secondary schools, and was paired with increased grants to schools intended to offset the lost fee revenue without shifting costs back to parents.
The Ministry credited the policy with enabling more than 2.6 million additional learners to access education since 2021, describing it as one of the largest expansions of educational access in the country’s history. It said the reform has since been entrenched in law through amendments to the Education Act, converting free education from Early Childhood Education through Secondary School from a government policy into a legal guarantee for eligible learners.
The Ministry further appealed for stakeholders to distinguish between legislative recognition of a principle and the actual implementation of a policy, with the Ministry maintaining that fee-free access, backed by government financing, began under the New Dawn administration and has now been secured in law “for present and future generations.”
Sources: Ministry of Education press statement, issued by Permanent Secretary Dr Kelvin Mambwe, July 8, 2026
