"Improved Quality of Basic Education for More School-aged Children."
Development Opportunities
Zambia's education is generally regarded as a basic human right
and is vital to the development of a nation. Education empowers people, enabling them to be
proactive, to control their lives and broaden economical and social opportunities.
The education system in Zambia has suffered a decline over the
past two decades as a result of a drop in national revenue, linked to the low copper prices and
substantial increase in fuel costs.
Despite this set back the Zambian government has made serious
effort to recover and reform the education sector. The Zambian government is committed to the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education For All (EFA) objectives. The Ministry of
Education is supportive of free primary education that has resulted in a massive increase in
enrolment.
The Government has recognized in the newly created Fifth
National Development Plan (FNDP) the role of education in poverty reduction and the need for
early childhood education. In addition, the Ministry of Education is fully aware of the needs of
orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Though a great deal needs to be done for orphaned children,
there is a sound platform to work from.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic remains one of the most formidable
challenges within the country. Unfortunately, there remains a lack of HIV/AIDS education and
support services for students and teachers. Teachers are just beginning to come forward for HIV
counseling and testing.
Decentralization of the education sector has slowly progressed
since 1990. Education Boards for basic schools, high schools and teacher training institutions
have been established. These boards, however, do not yet have the full authority to be effective.
Zambia despite its reforms in education is still not adequately
investing in education. The National Development Plans targets a 4% of the GDP but depends on
external sources to reach this target.
USAID's objective is to improve the quality of education by
closely collaborating with the Ministry of Education to bring about positive reforms. USAID has
been supporting the Ministry of Education for nine years. During this period more USAID has
provided more than 70 million dollars for the support of education. Currently, USAID is funding
four (4) separate education initiatives in Zambia: Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP2);
Quality Education Services Through Technology (QUESTT); Community Health and Nutrition, Gender and
Education support (CHANGES2); and the Textbook and Learning Materials Project (TLMP).
All USAID's education programs are designed to compliment and
contribute to enhancing the quality of education.
USAID supported EQUIP2 program is embedded in the MOE
headquarters and is considered part of the MOE structure. This program assists the MOE with
collecting information on the schools, supports implementation of the annual school census and
preparation of the Education Statistical Bulletin, contributes to national policy development,
institutional management and organization of an information technology network.
The EQUIP2 program also implements a unique HIV/AIDS workplace service for teachers and their
families.
The overall purpose of the workplace program is to encourage MOE
personnel to join counseling and take advantage of HIV testing opportunities. In addition, the
EQUIP2 program is assisting the MOE design and monitor regular classroom based student assessment
techniques and is introducing a global learning portal that will allow teachers and administrators
to access a wide range of new topics through the internet.
USAID also supports The Quality Education Services Through
Technology (QUESTT) Program. The core strategy of the QUESTT is to continue to expand basic
education through Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI).The radio program Learning at Taonga Market
is created for children that are not in a conventional schools. The children sing and complete
class lessons in consent with the teacher on the radio. The Learning at Taonga Market radio
program reaches more than 80,000 children. The QUESTT program also assists the Department of
Open and Distance Education (DODE) in the development of radio programs and materials for
grades 1-9 ensuring a full cycle of basic education is available to the children. QUESTT also
uses radio instruction and other technologies to support the pre-service and in-service teacher
training in order to ensure the quality of teaching.
The CHANGES2 program designed to support schools directly is also
funded by USAID and is an expansion and enhancement of the successful CHANGES program, implemented
from 2001 - 2005. The current program is strengthening basic education teachers' professional skills,
with a special focus on HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation. In addition, CHANGES2 supports the Ministry
of Education's school health and nutrition activities, and empowers students, teachers and community
members to improve education, gender equity and health in schools and communities.
CHANGES2 works in four provinces and in 400 schools per year
and trains at least 800 teachers annually. .In addition CHANGES2, provides small grants for
schools to begin income-generating activities, produces learning materials on HIV/AIDS, school
health and nutrition, to support effective teaching in schools and communities. The CHANGES2
program provides 4,000 scholarships a year to orphans and vulnerable children in secondary school
to allow them to continue their studies. CHANGES2 also works in partnership with the Ministry of
Education to improve curriculum and teaching methods in the Teacher Education colleges.
Finally, USAID is supporting through Mississippi Consortium for
International Development the production of 600,000 new math books for students in grades four and
five. The distribution of these books to the schools will begin in September 2007.
For additional information on these activities
please contact the USAID/Zambia SO6 Team on Tel: +260-211-254303/6, Extension 104. Email: fhenning@usaid.gov
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