The quality of education in Zambia

The Post, Zambia's biggest selling daily newspaper, carries a story today reporting that the Catholic Church has expressed concern on the quality of education provided in schools. This comes to know surprise to those of us associated with the Thembinkosi Foundation and the Zambezi International Green School.

The newspaper reports that the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) spokesperson Father Paul Samasumo has said that many basic and community schools had been established to enhance universal access to basic education. However, he said this had not matched the required investment in human resource (teachers) and infrastructure thus putting a serious strain on the products of these schools. Fr Samasumo also said most basic and community schools did not have the necessary infrastructure such as science laboratories and pupils in these schools leave school without seeing the inside of one. He said even though there were efforts to improve the quality of education, a lot more needed to be done. Fr Samasumo said there was need to motivate teachers and reduce the teacher pupil ratio which sometimes reached 60 pupils against one teacher.
“Most of us, even politicians they were inspired to be what they are today because of a teacher, but what happens if a class has 60 pupils and the teacher does not even know all of them. There is need to employ more teachers and provide incentives to retain the ones already working. There are many teachers who are walking the streets because they are unemployed,” he said.

This story clearly indicates an underlining problem with well meaning but hugely misguided Millennium Development Goal to establish Universal Primary Education by 2015. Unfortunately this has led to a focus on getting 'bums on seats' rather than a drive to improve the quality of education in Zambia and across the developing world.

He said another area that needed to be looked into was the curriculum in Zambia.
Fr Samasumo said pupils should be able to have skills to survive on when they complete school.
He said pupils should be prepared for the future while in secondary school because not every pupil had the capacity to go to university. Fr Samasumo said pupils should be prepared to work in factories and industries upon completion of school.

Help Zambia fight back against the vultures

In 1999, a 'vulture fund' called Donegal International bought a debt owed by Zambia, originally worth $15 million and then valued at about $30 million, for a knock-down price of $3.3 million. It then sued Zambia in London for the full amount, plus compound interest – a staggering total of over $55 million! The judge rejected the size of Donegal's claim, after Zambia fought back in the courts. But he nevertheless ruled that under law Donegal is entitled to something from Zambia, and awarded the company $15.5 million.

Zambia desperately needs all its money to invest in teachers, doctors and infrastructure. Thousands of campaigners have contacted Donegal, urging it not to take the money. But it's ignoring our calls. The UK and other wealthy governments need to take action to prevent this kind of predatory action. Please add your voice to the call of the Jubilee Debt Campaign by taking action by clicking on the link below and contacting your MP.

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/vultures

The Chancellor of the Exchequer - Making Poverty History?

“Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.”
Nelson Mandela’s challenge to us at start of this year’s make poverty history campaign.

On Thursday 17th November seven of my A level students and I joined parishioners from a local parish and CAFOD activists to go to Manchester to listen to the Chancellor Gordon Brown speak on the theme of ‘MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.’

One of my students wrote the following for our school newsletter:

‘MAKE POVERTY HISTORY is a campaign I have followed with interest and I looked forward to hearing the opinions of such a major political figure. As a student of A level Politics and Religious Ethics it was a fantastic opportunity to hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer speak about one of the major issues of 2005.

I went to the speech expecting to hear a fair few untruths and reasons why actions could not be taken.

However, when listening to Gordon Brown’s speech, he seemed really passionate about the cause and wanted to see action taken to help the world’s poor as much as his audience did. He was pro-active in seeking change for the developing world and urged the current generation to be the generation to make a difference rather than the generation that had the opportunity but missed it.

Overall it was a very impressive speech which inspired me and encouraged me and hundreds of others to continue the fight to MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.'

Whether or not Mr Brown is true to his word I hope and pray that the interest of my students in MAKING POVERTY HISTORY is sustained. They have so much hope for the future and the future is in their hands! They can be the generation that makes the difference!