By Alexander Vomo

The UPND government, under the leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema and through Education Minister Douglas Syakalima, has loudly celebrated the introduction of free education. Yet behind the fanfare lies a disturbing truth: our classrooms are overcrowded, and our children are learning in chaos because there simply aren’t enough teachers to teach them.

Free education without adequate staffing is not a solution, it’s a publicity stunt. It’s a policy written in headlines but abandoned in implementation.

What kind of leadership declares victory while pupils are squeezed into classrooms of 80, even 100 students, per teacher?

What kind of New Dawn is this, where a child attends school but learns nothing because there’s no one to teach?

While parents rejoiced and children flocked to schools hoping for a brighter future, the government made no serious attempt to match that hope with action. Thousands of qualified, trained teachers are sitting at home, unemployed, waiting to serve their country. Meanwhile, those lucky enough to have jobs are overworked and underpaid, burning out trying to cover the gaps.

And yet, while this crisis grows, the same government is busy creating more constituencies, funding political campaigns, and bloating an already swollen bureaucracy.

Let the UPND answer this:

Where is the money for expanding parliamentary Seats coming from?

Where is the money going to come from to buy more Land Cruisers for more MPs?

Where is the leadership that understands that free education without teachers is like building hospitals without doctors?

Instead of building the future in classrooms, they are building careers in Parliament.

Instead of empowering minds, they are empowering themselves.

Instead of hiring teachers, they are hiring silence.

This is not what Zambians voted for.

This is not the transformation we were promised.

More MPs won’t teach a child how to read.

More political districts won’t solve illiteracy.

Constitutional amendments won’t help a student who has never even held a textbook.

Zambia needs more teachers, not just empty education slogans.

Zambia needs a government that matches policy with planning—not one that uses children’s futures as photo ops.

To every unemployed teacher, to every student packed into classrooms like sardines, to every parent losing faith in the system—your voices matter. You were promised change, not neglect. You were promised opportunity, not overcrowded failure.

A blackboard without a teacher is just a wall.

And a government that fails its children, fails its future.

Alexander Vomo is a Zambian entrepreneur, farmer, and advocate for self-reliance and sustainable development. He is a member of a growing movement encouraging African youth to take leadership in agriculture, governance, and economic transformation.