“A fellow like me takes this very, very seriously….’ says President Hichilema of Zambia as he welcomes the ADEA visitation team at the State House in Lusaka

Africa’s Foundational Learning Champion and the President of Zambia, His Excellency Mr Hakainde Hichilema, insists that all countries in Africa must offer early child education as the basic minimum to all their children. He shared his perspectives on education in Africa while receiving the ADEA leadership team, on Tuesday July 16th. The team led by Executive Secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva, were on a courtesy visit to the State House in Lusaka. Mr Hichilema insists that all stakeholders must obligate all African countries to provide early education to children from all profiles. 

Following the High-level Policy Dialogue Forum on Foundational Learning held in Lusaka in November 2023, ministers and ministerial representatives from 21 countries issued a five-point communique including the demand for ministers to urge their Heads of State to become the foundational learning champion. Following up on this, ADEA, through the Zambian Ministry of Education, wrote to President Hichilema, requesting him to be the foundational learning champion in Africa, a responsibility he accepted in April. 

Thus, the courtesy visit was to acknowledge the president’s strides in education and foundational learning, thank him for accepting the role of foundational learning champion in Africa and urge him to leverage his voice and influence to push colleague Heads of State to expand investments in foundational learning and address the worrisome learning outcomes in Africa. 

In his opening comments, ADEA Executive Secretary, Albert Nsengiyumva, acknowledged the president’s efforts in education as a good lesson for other countries to emulate;

‘It is my privilege to be here, to acknowledge your engagement. We believe what you’re doing in Zambia can a be good lesson for many other countries. So it is in this perspective that we are on this courtesy call. First of all, to thank you, but more importantly to express the need for Your Excellency to help advocate for more investments in foundational learning and education as a whole. And this can be done in different ways. I know you’re meeting your peers in some of these gathering and conferences. In a couple of days, it's going to be the mid-year coordination summit in Accra. There’s going to be, by the end of the year or early next year, the summit in Addis Ababa. All these are platforms where we believe we need to engage and mobilize as many Heads of State as possible so that they understand the importance of investing in education, but more importantly, foundational learning.’

President Hichilema, whose response was filled with passion and conviction, was clear about his initial agenda as foundational learning champion. He first articulated Zambia’s efforts towards achieving access to education for all children in Zambia, including those in remote locations. He believed these would not be possible without foundational learning. He then expressed his gratitude for the honour shown to him and the people of Zambia by making him a Foundational Learning Champion.

“I want to thank our team and yourselves for advancing this agenda, honestly speaking, and we take this very seriously! A fellow like me takes this very, very seriously and I want to assure you [that] we will do our best within our challenges. We have a drought situation now which has stretched our resource envelope, but we will do our best, out of conviction, to continue bringing more kids into educational facilities at an early age because that makes a difference.”

Following up immediately, President Hichilema was clear in his initial tasks as Champion, as he urged ADEA, his technical team, and all stakeholders to ensure that early child education should be the basic minimum for all countries. 

"But one ask I want to make to all of us, just one ask. I believe that we need to begin to push the agenda, that on our continent, there must be basic minimums [of what] each of our countries must offer to its own kids [and] children by way of education. And early childhood should be one of those. The minimum that we require to obligate our countries [is to] support all the population profiles, especially those who are not able to.

That's where our focus is. I am happy to push it through your technical team, that you can work together, and I'm happy to push this with our peers on the continent on the various platforms, so that each country has the basic minimum policies to open up education to all our kids."

Also speaking during the visit, the Division Manager for Education and Skills at the African Development Bank Group, Hendrina Chalwe Doroba, urged the President’s support as the Bank develops a financing package to support countries with resources to fund education. She also mentioned that the conversation to make the President the Champion of the African Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation Fund was ongoing.

The ADEA Executive Secretary led the team, which included Dr. Jacqueline Jere Folotiya, ADEA’s Senior Foundational Learning Expert, Ms. Doroba, and senior officials from the Ministry of Education in Zambia. ADEA is excited about what the continent will achieve in foundational learning, working closely with the Champion to advance the FL agenda. ADEA will work closely with partners in education to support the Champion in this mission.