Unmasking free education myth
…how Mundubile tried to rewrite Mwense’s history
By DAVID KANDUZA
NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile shocked the electorate in Mwense District this week by crediting his running mate and former Education minister David Mabumba, with pioneering the country’s free education policy.
However, this claim fundamentally contradicts Zambia’s political and historical records.
The foundation of Zambia’s free education policy traces back to the 1960s and 1970s under founding President Kenneth Kaunda.
Dr Kaunda established the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation, providing free school supplies, uniforms and exercise books to ensure widespread access to education.
Mr Mundubile’s claims are starkly contrasted by Mr Mabumba’s own track record.
In late 2021, when the UPND government moved to implement universal free education from early childhood to secondary school, then-Mwense member of Parliament Mabumba strongly opposed it.
The former Education minister publicly criticised the initiative, arguing it would be a “sheer waste of Government revenue” and create a “huge loss of income for the Government”.
During a campaign swing in Luapula Province, Mundubile attempted to alter this narrative, telling Mwense residents that Mr Mabumba was the one who actually “started Free Education”.
“It’s us the Patriotic Front Who started free education In Zambia,” Mr Mundubile told the cheering crowd.
He forgot that Zambia’s free Education Policy was first introduced by Dr Kaunda.
This rhetoric was met with significant public pushback, as citizens recalled both the historical Kaunda-era policies and Mr Mabumba’s vocal parliamentary opposition to the current Government’s free education roll-out.
It is a completely fair critism to say that Mr Mundubile’s proposals focus much more on the logistics and costs of school than the actual academic standard of what happens inside the classroom.
When political candidates talk about “quality,” they often focus on things that are easy to measure and see—like buildings, desks and uniforms—rather than deep reforms to the learning system itself.
Critics point out that his platform leaves out the core pedagogical changes needed to genuinely elevate Zambian education.
While a Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance government promises manageable class sizes of 40–50 students, critics argue that his platform fails to address the actual pillars of educational quality,
Mr Mundubile has not explained how his administration would update Zambia’s syllabus.
He has offered no strategy on how to transition classrooms toward modern skills like coding, data analysis, or technical trades that match the global job market.
Putting fewer students in a room does not automatically make a teacher better.
His platform promises higher pay and a dedicated school bus for transport, but it remains silent on mandatory retraining, teaching performance tracking, or upgrading teacher-training colleges.
In an era where quality education relies on internet access, computers and e-learning, his rallies focus heavily on physical materials like paper textbooks and physical school uniforms.
He has not detailed how he would bridge the tech gap for rural learners.
The Government recently announced a record 70 per cent pass rate at Grade 12. If Mr Mundubile claims quality has collapsed due to overcrowding, he hasn’t provided an alternative educational assessment or metric to prove why those statistics are misleading.
Is it “Quality” or just better management?
Ultimately, Mr Mundubile is campaigning on infrastructure expansion and administrative relief, but calling it “quality.”
He argues that reducing a classroom from 120 students to 40 is a prerequisite for quality, because a teacher cannot evaluate students when overwhelmed.
However, until his campaign team releases a detailed policy blueprint addressing curriculum reform, educational technology and teacher standards, voters are entirely justified in arguing that he is fixing the shell of the education system while ignoring the substance inside.