Zambia’s education minister Dora Siliya who is also ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) spokesperson, has in the last few months used Facebook to make important government policy announcements as well as party matters. A few days ago, Siliya, who holds an MPhil degree from the Cambridge University in the UK and a Bachelor of Mass Communication from the University of Zambia, announced changes in the educational system on Facebook and, as usual, attracted a lot of comments, both positive and negative from some of her 4950 online “friends”. She has also used Facebook to announce policies in the past. Zambia's Education Minister, Dora Siliya. Photo Source: Dora Siliya Facebook page The changes involve the Academic Production Unit (APU), a channel through which basic schools—that run from grade one to grade 9—offer secondary school places to children who fail to make it into mainstream schools with classes mostly running in the afternoons. These classes are also run as fundraising units for the schools which charge the pupils nominal fees for administrative purposes such as paying teachers’ allowances and buying requisites not provided for by government. Such classes are viewed with a lot of stigma because the pupils are viewed as not being too intelligent and derogatorily referred to as “solar” because they are conducted in the afternoons. But the biggest problem is the lack of support from government. Individual school administrations take it upon themselves to enter the pupils for examinations for which they pay for. Siliya wrote on her wall: We have transformed apu [Academic Production Unit] to open classes so that same fees and teaching offered to all children and give confidence to many parents since apu we viewed as demeaning since it was for kinds that had certificate but didn't make cutoff point. We believe access must be increased for normal lessons for all children with certificate and above [sic] She added: There will be teething problems as apu turns to open classes but will continue to build more schools by 2015 and also deal with teachers allowances since there will still be double sessions in most high school. Important point is we need to provide education equitably in our schools not encourage disparities. She continued: Our aim is to ensure all children have access to education by 2015. This means we have to also provide education equitably meaning apu classes seen as demeaning and for those who failed the cut point but got a certificate had to be transformed to open classes where teaching and fees are same with morning classes. Zambian citizens on Facebook responded: Emmanuel Mengo said that the government should have collected public views on issue: madam. I commend u for the work done so far. But dont you think u are in a hurry to change things before u consult widely. Early 2009 u said any child who makes a full certificate automatically makes it to grade 10. My niiece was not given …a place as the people in charge on the schools i went to simply said there were no places. What is on the ground is that there are no enough spaces for all pupils with certificates. U are doing a great job but surelly u are in a hurry to make pronouncements. U ve built a good number of schools in the rural but i believe we need more to be built in towns also in order to cater for the large population. If what we ve seen in the past few years was done in the past 20 years, things cud ve been better. Chinyama Chisambwe said: Why do u have to mix who have failed and who have passed mwasata mayo 0/10% access to every 1(education) bt u have failed to pass??????? Chris Derrick Munyama Thats gret madam,thumbs up 4 u.i fel u shud evn luk in2 da exam fees 4 GCE,they r 2 exotc especialy da centr # fee,ts a nyt mar.z necesary nway?many wud wnt 2 rsit bt bcoz of da chages impozd on thm thy let go hence afectin ya goal as da minstry of educ. Of ensurin dat evry pson gts da rqurd educ. Kanyanta Robin Sinyangwe listed four areas that the minister should have focused on: I think what you need to be talking about MADAM isn't about offering the same teaching to all. Because as far as iam concerned, APU and MAINSTREAM use the same SYLABUS. Even ing PVT schools. May be just on the fees that where i conquere wit…h you. Hon, what you need to be talking about right now is: 1. What you have exactly done with APU (forget the “open school” terminologies, put it in lay man's terms) 2. How the APU will be practical and viably incoperated in the MAINSTREAM SCHOOL. 3. What will happen to the SURPLUS. 4. The time period of converting APU classes to “WHATEVER” I don't personally have a problem with banning APU classes. But my problem is will have done it in a RUSH. We as a country a ILL PREPARED.