Zambia education: Schooling was made free, now classrooms are crammed

The experience of pupil Richard Banda reflects this.

“We don’t learn in the same way as those times when we used to pay, there’s a little bit of a difference,” he tells the BBC.

“When we were few the teacher would explain a topic again if you didn’t understand, but now because we are many, the teacher doesn’t repeat it again. That’s the difference.”

The uptick in the number of learners is reflected across sub-Saharan Africa with more children in school than ever before, the UN children’s agency Unicef says.

But with nine out of 10 primary school students in the region still struggling to read and understand simple texts, according to Unicef, the focus for policy-makers is now shifting to the quality of the education, the hiring of qualified teachers and the physical infrastructure and resources.

“When you don’t sit properly in a classroom, that affects the way that you pay attention to teaching, the way that you write your notes,” says Aaron Chansa, the director of the National Action of Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ), which the government consults.

“We are seeing learners getting into secondary school when they can’t read properly,” he says, adding that there are problems across the country.

“In Eastern Province we have more than 100 learners in one class. This has also worsened the book-to-pupil ratio. In some instances you find one book being fought over by six or seven learners.”

The government says it is listening and taking steps to address the challenges created by making education free.

“This is a good problem,” says Education Minister Douglas Syakalima. “I’d rather let the children be in a congested classroom than in the street.”

“The president launched mass production of desks, mass infrastructure-building is happening.”