BA MALUME AND THE LAW THAT PROTECTED FREE EDUCATION.
Today, Ba Malume was seated inside the village shop listening carefully to the radio while people around him argued about football, cooking oil prices, and other things they discuss with confidence despite understanding only half of them. Then the presenter announced that the free education policy had officially become law after Parliament approved the Education Amendment Bill. Ba Malume immediately sat upright like a man who had just heard school fees had been erased from history. “Ahh!” he shouted proudly. “Now this is how a country protects its future!” The boys nearby looked confused, wondering why Ba Malume suddenly looked happier than pupils hearing classes have ended early.
One young man asked, “But Ba Malume, wasn’t free education already there?” Ba Malume laughed softly and shook his head. “My sons, there’s a huge difference between something existing because people said so and something being protected by law. The shop became quiet. “Before, it was mostly operating like an arrangement. Good, yes but weak in some places. That’s why some schools still tried to introduce strange charges from nowhere like magicians performing tricks.” The whole shop burst into laughter.
Ba Malume leaned forward and continued calmly. “But now the law creates accountability. It means education is no longer just a favour people can interrupt anyhow. It becomes a right.” He pointed toward the radio proudly. “This is important because education can completely change the future of a child from a struggling home. A child sitting in a classroom today can become a doctor, teacher, engineer, or lawyer tomorrow if given the opportunity.”
The boys nodded quietly as Ba Malume smiled and delivered his final lesson. “Some of you here would already be professors if your commitment to books matched your commitment to football and betting slips.” The shop exploded with laughter again. Then Ba Malume adjusted himself proudly and concluded, “A nation that protects education by law is not just building schools… it is protecting its future before problems even arrive.”
