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Assessment of the Progress of Measures Adopted for the Growth of Education Sector.
A Case Study from Zambia.
Lucia Majova
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of theMA degree in Development and Emergency Practice
Oxford Brookes University
January 2012
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Statement of Originality
I certify that this thesis is the result of my own independent work except where otherwise
stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references
…………………………… …………………………Signed Date
I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for
inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside
organizations
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Statement of Ethics Review Approval
This dissertation involved human participants. A form E1BE showing ethics review
approval has been completed and signed by the author of this dissertation and
submitted to the dissertation supervisor.
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Abstract
The evaluation of success in achieving the EFA and UPE goals is controversial. There
are lots of successful stories coming from all around the world on the improving in
provision of education. However, more gaps, discrepancies and challenges are being
identified.
The problems are being transferred from the global level to the national and school level
without being challenged or appropriately addressed. This results in failing in some of
the most important steps towards achieving the global goals.
Implementing the global education targets in Zambia is, according to the global
community, a successful story. However, the research reveals severe problems and
difficulties within the education sector in Zambia. The struggles faced by the schools on
daily basis are opposing to the successes advertised and the present situation at
schools is far from achieving national and global development goals for education.
The measurement strategies and indicators set for the evaluation of progress towards
accomplishing the global education goals are not providing the data and information
required to reveal the reality at the school level. Consequently, the actual data on the
status and progress towards the global educational initiatives is distorted.
The research at five Zambian primary schools indicates a great gap between the
aspirations of the global initiatives and the reality at schools. Without addressing the
issues presented in the study the global education targets will not be accomplished.
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Acknowledgements
It is my privilege to have an opportunity to express my deepest respect and appreciation to few people without whom I would not be able to undertake this degree at the
CENDEP and finalize the dissertation. These are:
My parents,for everything;
Richard Carver and Mo Hamza,for giving up their valuable time to provide guidance, supervision and valuable
comments on my work;
Kay Litebelefor her friendship and hospitality during my stay in Zambia,
for her inspirational spirit.and for being endless source of information;
Jenny, Wilma and Loisfor being there for me during difficult times during my stay Zambia
All my Zambian friends for creating beautiful memories
Bharatfor keeping stress level low during writing the dissertation,
valuable comments on my work and going through the editing struggle with me
Katka, Palko and Pashafor their long-term friendship and support
Many Thanks to All!
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AcronymsAIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
BESSIP Basic Education Sub-Sector Investment Programme
CBOs Community –Based Organisations
CSEN Children with Special Educational Needs
CSO Central Statistical Office (Zambia)
DEB District Education Board
DEBS District Education Board Secretariat/Secretary
DFID Department for International Development
EFA Education for All
FAWEZA Forum of African Women Educationalists Zambia
FBE Free Basic Education
FBOs Faith-Based Organisations
FTI Fast-Track Initiative
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GPE Global Partnership for Education
GER Gross Enrolment Ratio
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
IMF International Monetary Fund
IOB Policy and Operations Evaluation Department
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MoE Ministry of Education
MoESP Ministry of Education Strategic Plan
NGOs Non-governmental organisations
NIF National Implementation Framework
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OVC Orphans and Vulnerable Children
PTR Pupil-teacher Ratio
SEN Special Educational Needs
UN United Nations
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNDP United Nations Development Program
ZMK Zambian Kwacha, currency of Zambia (10,000 ZMK = 1.246 GBP)
ZOSC Zambian Open Community Schools
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Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
1. Introduction 11.1 Aims
1.2 Objectives
1.3 Organization of the Study
2. Research Methods 52.1 Methodology
2.2 Limitations
3. State of the Education Sector – Global Level 83.1 MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
3.2 Education for All
3.3 Implementation Strategy
3.4 How Far Are We at the Present?
3.5 Criticisms and Problems
3.5.1 Financing
3.5.2 Feasibility
3.5.3 Measurement of Progress
3.5.4 Cultural Indicator
3.5.5 Unfairness
3.6 Possibilities for Improvement
4. State of the Education Sector in Zambia 234.1 Zambia Outline
4.2 Zambian Education Sector Overview
4.3 Evaluation of the Key Strategic Plans and Policies for Education Reforms
5. Introduction to the Case Study 335.1 Matrix
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5.2 Access
5.3 Quality
5.4 Efficiency and Effectiveness
5.5 Equity
5.6 Dambwa Township – Location of the Primary Research
6. Findings and Discussion 386.1 Summary of Findings
6.2 Incomes of Schools
6.3 Access 44
6.3.1 Free Basic Education
6.3.2 Infrastructure
6.3.3 Access and Enrolment Rate
6.4 Quality 52
6.4.1 Development of Curriculum
6.4.2 Provision of Learning Materials and Books
6.4.3 Teacher Training
6.5 Effectiveness and Efficiency 59
6.5.1 School Performance
6.5.2 Teacher Management and Motivation
6.5.3 Pupils’ Performance
6.6 Equity 66
6.6.1 Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
6.6.2 Children Infected or Affected with HIV and AIDS
6.6.3 Girls
6.6.4 Children with Special Education Needs
7. Conclusion 72
References and Bibliography
Appendices: Appendix 1: Interview Questions (Teachers)
Appendix 2: Interview Questions (Head Teachers)
Appendix 3: Interview Questions (DEBs)
Appendix 4: Statistical Data on Primary Education
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List of BoxesBox 1: Millennium Development Goals
Box 2: Education For All Goals
Box 3: BESSIP
Box 4: MoESP Sub-Sector Goals
Box 5: Pupil-book ratio calculation on the basis of funding provided by the MoE
List of TablesTable 1: Incomes of schools
Table 2: Enrolment rate
Table 3: Costs of schooling at Dambwa schools
Table 4: Support for OVC at selected schools
Table 5: Classroom-pupil and classroom-class ratios
Table 6: Infrastructure projects at selected schools
Table 7: Textbook-pupil ratio
Table 8: Teacher-pupil ratio
Table 9: Grade 7 final exams results
Table 10: PTA funding contributions compared to grade 7 final exams
List of DiagramsDiagram 1: Implementation Strategy
Diagram 2: Enrolment rates in grades 1- 7 by gender (1996 – 2006)
Diagram 3: Out of school children (2000 – 2005)
Diagram 4: Dropout rates grades 1 – 7 (2000 – 2006)
Diagram 5: Allocation of funding according to the MoE requirements
List of matrixesMatrix 1: Summary of Targets Set by the MoE According to the Strategic Priorities
Matrix 2: Summary of the Results from Primary Research, Comparison with Set Targets
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“When I go out in the community I see children that don’t go to school. Now when you see that children who are not learning, they are sitting home, can we say we are achieving? Are we achieving the MDGs? Maybe we are yet to improve.”
(Head Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School)
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1. Introduction
Education is currently recognized as one of the main factors which influence the future
life of individuals. Education is one of the most important providers of coping capacity
and it is considered to be the primary vehicle for children and adults to be lifted out of
poverty (UNESCO, 2011). Creating opportunities for education means handing over the
power and giving responsibility to the individuals so they can fulfill their ideas and visions
about their own lives.
For these reasons education is recognized by the global community as a human right.
According to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), everyone has the right
to acquire free primary education. The global community recognizes the importance of
education and aims to provide opportunities for education to all through projects,
programs and various initiatives at global, national and community levels.
Access to free primary education for all children is one of the eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDG); specifically the second goal focused on provision of
universal primary education (UPE). This, combined with the Education for All (EFA)
movement lead by UNESCO are the initiatives operating at the global level which aim to
improve the provision of education worldwide.
At the national level the governments committing to the global goals attempt to
implement the objectives within the countries by national plans. International and
national non-governmental organizations provide assistance to the governments in
fulfilling national obligations towards the international community to fulfill the objectives
of UPE and EFA.
Despite the amount of initiatives worldwide in providing access and opportunities for
education the gaps are persistent. It is estimated that in year 2009 more than 67 million
children were out of schooling (UNESCO 2011) the discrimination on the basis of sex,
health and economic status endure and there is a great gap in provision of education
between the developing and developed world.
Almost half of the children (30 million) out of schooling in 2009 were in Sub-Saharan
Africa. In order to fulfill the global objectives countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have the
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most work to do but at the same time the opportunity for the highest improvements in
terms of progress. Although even today Sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind other
regions in terms of provision of education, the great successes in these countries are
already being recognized by the international community.
Despite the good intention and effort it is now clear that goals and objectives of MDG
and EFA will not be fulfilled by the deadline which is the end of 2015. In order to
understand why these goals will fail to be achieved it is equally important to analyze the
failures at the macro as well as the micro level. Within this paper the macro level
analysis shall be focused on the global influences of the failures such as the global
economic inequalities or unrealistic objectives set by the global leaders. However,
without the micro level the picture will never be complete and we will never fully
understand why the MDG and EFA are failing.
One of the countries recognized as successful in fulfilling education initiatives at the
state level is Zambia. There has been more than 15 years of governmental focus on the
education sector which is according to the reports coming to fruition. The IOB Impact
evaluation report (2008) concluded that “In no more than six years, Zambia has made
enormous progress in improving access to primary education” (IOB, 2008, p 13), the
development plans have been successfully implemented, and the Zambian government
has successfully introduced the pro-poor policies in education (IOB, 2008). However,
some of the challenges still remain, such as improving the quality of education provided,
reforming the education sector to be more efficient and effective and increasing
investments into the sector (IOB, 2008).
My personal experience as a teacher at one of the community schools in Zambia makes
me realize that the official reports seem to be different from the reality. An initial
impression revealed great discrepancies between the government’s presentation of the
education sector towards the public and the international community and the daily
struggles of head teachers, teachers, parents and pupils at the school level.
At first I considered that I might be unfortunate in teaching at a school which is facing
lots of difficulties and daily struggles. This lead me to explore how other schools were
doing and if they face the same difficulties and struggles as my school. Over time I found
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that other schools in the area were having similar problems. As these findings concerned
me, the decision to do my dissertation research in this area appeared logical. The
objective of my primary research was to investigate whether the implementation of the
Zambian education plans are as it is advertised in official reports. This might shift the
attention from the government’s success stories to individual school difficulties and
provide adequate intervention to improve the status quo.
This paper will look at the five selected primary schools in Livingstone in Zambia to
understand the problems and issues these five geographically, culturally and
economically close schools have in fulfilling the UPE and EFA objectives. This research
will reveal the observed situation at these schools, the state of fulfilling the national and
international goals and the main obstacles for these schools which hinders the
implementation of the goals. The aim of the study is not to generalize the findings to the
worldwide scale but to give an idea of the conditions in which the schools operate and to
understand some of the reasons why the schools struggle in implementing the goals.
The research also reveals the importance of school-level qualitative studies rather than
national statistics when evaluating the progress of the global and national initiatives to
provide a more comprehensive understanding of the situation.
1.1 Aim
To assess the measures adopted by the education sector for the progress of schools in
Dambwa township in Zambia
1.2 Objectives
To outline and evaluate the global initiatives adopted for the growth of the education
sector.
To outline and evaluate the Zambian initiatives adopted for the growth of the
education sector.
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To assess the progress of implementation of global and national plans at five schools
within Dambwa township.
To explore the shortcomings in implementation of global and national plans at a
school level in Zambia.
1.3 Organization of the study
The first part of the study outlines and evaluates the global initiatives which aim to
improve the provision of education worldwide. The prime attention in this study is
focused on the two major global initiatives, the second MDG – provision of the UPE and
on the EFA. These initiatives are evaluated in order to understand the strengths and
weaknesses.
The second part of the study outlines and evaluates the state level implementation of the
global initiatives. To implement the global initiatives at the micro-level the role of states
and governments is crucial as they transform the global goals to national policies and
strategic plans. This case study was undertaken in Zambia; therefore the Zambian
strategic plans for education will be outlined and evaluated. This part of the study will
also provide background information on Zambia as well as the overview of the education
sector in this country to understand the context of the study.
The third part of the study will present the summary matrix of the targets set by the
Zambian MoE to serve as indicators of fulfillment of the national and global goals. The
matrix serves as the guideline for the primary research.
The fourth and final part of the study deals with the results from the primary research as
well as analysis of the data and information gathered from the interviews. The
presentation and analysis of the information are delivered together according to the
thematic areas as it is easier to follow the argument when presented in this manner.
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2. Research Methods
2.1 Methodology
The research started with direct observation of conditions and teaching practice at
Indeco Community School as well as informal discussions with teachers and the head
teacher at the school. This process aided in identifying the challenges faced by the
school.
This was followed by looking at the key documents on education policies in Zambia
published by the Zambian government and the MoE. The documents were accessed at
the DEBS office and the Education Resource Centre in Livingstone, Zambia. The
secondary research involved studying documents published on-line by various
government and non-government organizations, journal articles, reports and other
documents in order to understand the global and national context in which the provision
of primary education is provided. The literature review was also focused on the issues of
MDGs and EFA, such as identification of aims, objectives, policies, implementation
strategies, progress reports and on the criticisms of the weak points of these global
initiatives.
Information from primary (observation, informal discussions) and secondary (reports,
articles) research were analyzed and the focus of the study narrowed down to the four
key topics. The findings were transformed into a matrix in order to organize them in a
clear and simple to follow manner and to present the criteria for quantitative data
measurement.
This has been followed by designing an interview questionnaire organizing the questions
into four main categories according to the subject matter the questions relate to. The
researcher decided to use the semi-structured type of interview to be able to compare
and contrast the findings but at the same time remain flexible to other possible findings
which might be revealed during the discussion.
The interviews were conducted by the researcher. They took place at five primary
schools selected through geographical convenience. The schools were located at
Dambwa Township which is part of Livingstone city. Doing research at schools in
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Dambwa Township provided a sample of both middle and lower classes living together
and excluded the poorest and the richest parts of Livingstone. Therefore the research is
more balanced in terms of the economic background of the families whose children are
studying at these schools.
The interviews involved five head teachers (four females and one male) and eith
teachers (six females and two males) teaching at various grades between one and
seven. The teachers were selected by the researcher according to their availability at the
school premises during the school visit.
The interviews were conducted privately on one-to-one basis with both head teachers
and teachers. All interviews were recorded on an audio recording device to make all the
primary data provided accessible and undistorted for the process of analysis. The head
teachers agreed to disclose the name of the schools in the study; however the
anonymity in front of the DEBS and other MoE authorities was assured. The teachers
were assured the information revealed would remain anonymous in the study and would
not be disclosed to their supervisors.
The quantitative and qualitative data acquired from the interviews were analyzed. From
this data the interview questions for the DEBs Secretary were outlined and a semi-
structured interview conducted. The purpose of the interview with DEBs Secretary was
to verify the information from the interviews at the schools, retrieve more information on
the topic and to gain a statement from the representative of the education authority.
The quantitative data from all the interviews was summarized into tables presented in
this study as well as being integrated into the matrix and together with the qualitative
data provide the findings for the study and a baseline for the discussions and
conclusions.
2.2 Limitations
The research has been challenged by several limitations which will be outlined in the
following paragraphs.
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Reviewing the literature. The large amount of literature such as journal articles,
reports, and other printed or on-line documents on the MDGs and EFA topics challenged
the author to narrow down the information for the purpose of this study. The literature
review of the documents regarding the Zambian education system, such as reports,
statistical data, strategic plans and other documents related to the topic were difficult to
obtain from the Zambian authorities.
Limited geographical location of the primary research. The study took place at
schools whose location were geographically close and in urban areas only. Extending
the research into a geographically broader location, including rural areas, or in other
countries and comparing this data would bring more information on the issue. However,
close geographical location ensure homogeneity of the studied subjects which can be
considered as beneficial during comparison of the data and information obtained.
The human factors within the study may have had a distorting effect on the results.
Deliberate or subconscious personal biases, wishful thinking and emotions during
interviews with the head teachers, teachers and government representatives could play
a role in formulating the answers leading to partial or distorted information provided.
The official data. The Zambian government follows policies which were formulated
several years ago (eg. Strategic Plan 2003 – 2007, Educating our Future, 1991). The
Zambian MoE follows these policies up to the present as the targets set for the given
years have not been met. Therefore, the deadlines for fulfilling the strategic plans have
been postponed. However, these policies might not reflect the present reality in Zambian
education and development sectors which might have negative effect on the study.
Formulating new and updated strategies would be beneficial not only for the education
sector itself but would provide researchers with actual and up to date information.
3. State of Education Sector – Global Level
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The recognition regarding the importance of education and its relation to development is
apparent as it benefits not only individuals, but communities, countries and the whole
global society (Levine and Birdsall, 2005). The role of education in enhancing
development is inarguable as it creates opportunities for economic growth, has a
positive effect on health and the wellbeing of individuals, it directly helps individuals to
overcomes poverty, accelerates political and social change towards democratization,
reduce inequalities within the societies, improves status of women, reduces women’s
fertility rates, promotes concerns for the environment and has other innumerable positive
effects on individuals and societies (World Bank, 2011; Colclough, 2006; UNESCO
2009, 2010 ).
However the education sector is facing challenges and difficulties which need to be
addressed. Some of the most significant concerns are:
- There are 69 million school-aged children out of school, out of which more than
half are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- More than 53% of all school-aged children are girls, in some regions it is more
than 66%.
- Poverty remains the main obstacle in education where it is three times more
likely for a poor child to be out of school in comparison with a child from
economically stable family.
- Primary education is short of at least 1.9 million teachers worldwide to provide
good quality education to all primary school-aged children. (UN Summit, 2010, MDGs Report 2010, EFA report, 2010)
These and other issues need to be addressed in order to make education effective and
enabling positive change within societies.
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The global community is aware of the benefits of education as well as challenges the
education sector is facing; therefore several global initiatives have been launched in
order to address the issues and see the benefits of education at its full capacity.
The most significant global initiatives are MDGs and EFA.
3.1 MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
The United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted in year 2000 following the
Millennium Summit where all UN member states and other stakeholders agreed on a set
of eight international development goals (with 18 targets and 48 specific indicators)
known as the Millennium Development Goals. The aim is to enhance development at the
global level involving all countries and stakeholders creating partnerships for
development. The series of eight time-bound targets – with the deadline of 2015 – are
summarized in Box 1 below.
Box 1: Millennium Development Goals
All 193 United Nation member states together with international organizations have
agreed to achieve the MDGs.
The action plan for implementation of the MDGs was developed in 2002 with concrete
recommendations. It is up to each individual country to find the best possible way of
implementing the MDGs within their country. With the help of the international
community, local and global NGOs, academics and intellectuals the governments set up
the strategic plans that aim to fulfill the MDGs. This should be followed by monitoring
Millennium Development Goals
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
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and evaluation of progress in order to identify weak points and adjusted in order to fulfill
the global commitment.
The MDG movement benefits from a great popularity within the global society. It is
reflected by recognition from individuals and organizations from all around the world
which reference their actions and projects to the MDGs, including the education goal.
The major focus of this study is on the second MDG which is to achieve universal
primary education (UPE). This goal aims to improve the provision of education
worldwide in terms of access as well as quality. The main education goal is to ensure
that
“by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.”
In order to measure the goal the following indicators are to be monitored:
- Net enrolment ratio in primary education
- Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5
- Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds
Including education into MDGs can be considered as a positive step towards improving
the global education sector and together with other MDGs creates the first important
step and guidance for action. However, there are controversies concerning the tactics
adopted since the implementation of MDGs at the Millennium Summit in 2000, which are
discussed later in this chapter.
3.2 Education for All
Another global initiative focusing on improvements in education taking place at the
present time is Education for All. It is a joint commitment of UNESCO, UNDP, UNFPA,
UNICEF and The World Bank to provide quality basic education to all. The EFA is
closely linked to MDG 2, by complementing it and providing the detailed plan and
strategy of fulfillment, known as the UPE. The movement was launched in 1990 at the
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World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien and the commitments were reaffirmed
in 2000 at second conference in Dakar, Senegal (UNESCO, 2000). At this meeting the
six education goals (see Box 2) aiming to improve education provision worldwide by
2015 were formulated. The world education forum in Dakar in 2000 brought together 164
governments, 35 international institutions and 127 NGOs which committed their
resources and effort to achieve the goals. (UNESCO, 2009) UNESCO has been
mandated to coordinate and lead the stakeholders in this effort.
Box 2: Education for All Goals
Education for All Goals established in the Dakar Framework for Action:
Goal 1 Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
Goal 2Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
Goal 3 Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
Goal 4 Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
Goal 5 Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
Goal 6 Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
Although the first EFA initiative was launched in 1990 at the Jomtien World Conference
on Education for All, in 2000 it became an inseparable part of the MDGs initiative. The
MDGs adopted the EFA policies, strategies, plans and objectives in order to fulfill the
goal of achieving the UPE. The Dakar Framework for Action in 2000 served as
reaffirmation of commitments towards the EFA as well as the newly launched MDGs
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(UNESCO, 2000). The UPE goal of the MDGs is now implemented through the EFA
policies.
Two years after the Dakar Framework for Action, the EFA movement introduced a new
policy, the Fast Track Initiative (FTI), changing its name to Global Partnership for
Education (GPE) in 2011. It is considered to be a unique partnership strategy between
donor and developing countries and other stakeholders to accelerate the progress
towards reaching the UPE goal (Buse, 2005).
According to Levine and Birdsall (2005),
“The initiative seeks to achieve universal completion of primary schooling in a
selected set of countries in which leadership and commitment to education have
already produced visible progress” (Levine and Birdsall, 2005:2).
The program aims to implement and support sustainable educational policies and
mobilize resources required for fulfillment of the project. All countries which express
serious commitment to achieve the UPE can join the EFA-FTI / GPE. At the present
time, 44 developing countries are involved in the initiative.
The program is based on the mutual accountability between donors who provide
resources and support for developing countries to implement policies by reforms, sound
national education plans, and strategies for improving the provision of education. The
main aim is to ensure that no country with a willingness and commitment to reform will
be left without financial resources necessary for the implementation of the policies
(Global Partnership for Education, 2011). Moreover, Levine and Birdsall (2005) perceive
the FTI/GPE to be a new opportunity to introduce a new approach to donor financing by
introducing greater coordination between donors; making financing more predictable,
more transparent and visible. Although the initiative has already showed some
successes there are shortcomings and criticisms of the initiative which will be discussed
further in the paper.
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3.3 Implementation Strategy
Implementing the global goals into practice require high levels of commitment from all
parties involved to achieve the results aimed for.
Donors, who include governments of developed countries, international governmental
organizations and international NGOs, committed themselves to providing financial
resources to low-income countries and NGOs. The countries and NGOs then
elaborated national strategic plans and projects aimed to improve the status of the
education sector within the country.
Diagram 1: Implementation strategy
Governments of low-income countries have to demonstrate willingness and efforts to
improve the education sector within the country by providing sound national plans to
carry on reforms and build infrastructure. These strategic plans and reforms are imposed
at a school level together with financial support to implement the state aims and
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objectives. Schools are required to produce tangible results in terms of quantitative as
well as qualitative improvements in provision of education.
NGOs and CBOs play a supportive role through projects that help schools implement the
strategic plans into practice. NGOs and CBOs also provide support to individual
beneficiaries. There is a mutual accountability between beneficiaries and NGOs and
CBOs as well as accountability towards the donors
3.4 How Far Are We at the Present?
The deadline for reaching the UPE and EFA targets has been set by the end of year
2015. At the present time, there is only four years left to this deadline. It has been 12
years since MDGs and 22 years since the first EFA have been launched. The progress
towards these goals is slow and it is estimated that they are at risk of not being achieved
by the deadline (Levine and Birdsall, 2005). The reasons for this will be explained later in
this paper as part of the topic on criticizing the MDG and EFA.
However these global initiatives have brought a positive change to education worldwide.
There are numerous significant successes reported in terms of improving provision of
education. These successes apply mainly to the developing countries which can be
considered as a significant achievement of the global initiatives. According to Clemens
(2004) African countries have experienced an enormous increase in enrolment rates in
the last few decades; this is considered a more rapid expansion of primary education
enrolment than the Western countries achieved during their development.
The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 has published statistics on progress in EFA and
UPE fulfillment to evaluate the successes and failures in the education sector. Some of
the data is summarized in tables (See Appendix 4) and paragraphs below to outline the
global situation in the education sector and to present the progress towards fulfilling the
global targets. The data outlined below focuses mainly on the primary education as this
is the main concern of this study.
The reasons behind including data from Sub-Saharan Africa in the tables are firstly; this
region is recognised as having poor provision of education, according to EFA Reports,
MDGs Reports as well as some other authors, (eg. Easterley, 2009). Secondly, the case
study is focused on Zambia which belongs to the Sub-Saharan region and the regional
data serve as an entry point to the case study.
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The data presented in the tables in Appendix 4 can be summarized as follows:
- The enrolment rate has increased at the global level
- Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a significant increase in enrolment rate
- The number of out-of-school children has dropped at the global level as well as in
Sub-Saharan Africa
- The number of out-of-school girls dropped at the global level, however there was
no corresponding changes in Sub-Saharan Africa, making the girls the majority of
out-of-school children
- The pupil-teacher ratio remains stable at the global level, however in Sub-
Saharan Africa the ratio has worsened
- Expenditures of the national governments towards the education sector
increased globally as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, despite some of the successes in provision of education, EFA Report
(UNESCO, 2010) brings into attention several problems and difficulties:
- “Millions of children are still out of school” (p 54)
- “Countless millions more children start school, but drop out before completing
primary education” (p 54)
- “As many children will drop out from school before completing primary education
as are currently out of school” (p 55)
- “More needs to be done to address the problem of drop-out and late entry” (p 55)
- “Out-of-school girls are far more likely never to go to school than boys” (p 54)
- “12 million girls in Sub-Saharan Africa are expected never to enroll at primary
school compared with seven million boys” (p 62)
- “45% of out-of-school children are in Sub-Saharan Africa” (p 56)
- “Living in a rural area often puts children at greater risk of being out-of-school”
(pp 59)
- “Numbers are probably underestimated” (p 57)
24
- “More integrated approaches to monitoring are required to measure the real state
of progress towards UPE (p 55)
- On a global scale it is not expected that the Dakar commitments will be achieved
(p 56)
The statements made above give a mixed picture. On one side, we can see great
improvements especially in terms of enrolment rates, on the other side the challenges
and problems remain hindering the fulfillment of the Dakar commitments. Moreover, the
actual situation could be even worse than presented by the official statistics due to
inappropriate approaches to the monitoring.
3.5 Criticisms and Problems
The following paragraphs will outline the major and most heated criticisms, problems
and issues of the EFA and UPE. The review of literature revealed more problems and
challenges in this area, however only the most discussed and the most relevant to the
study are presented.
3.5.1 FinancingThe first and major challenge in implementation of the global initiatives focused on
improvements in education funding. The Global Monitoring Report (2010) estimates that
to reach the EFA and UPE goals by 2015 an additional 24 billion USD is required for the
low-income countries. This is double the costs estimated in 2007. Moreover, according
to the World Bank (2011), these additional resources need to be accompanied by the
reforms. Individual governments of countries need to reform their financing systems,
policies and service delivery in order to make the resources effective and the goals
remain sustainable in the long term.
The first question that comes up is Do we have enough resources to cover these costs?
According to Jahan (2003), the world has the resources to cover the costs of achieving
not only the UPE and EFA goals but for all the MDGs. According to the above research,
less than 0.5% of global GDP is needed to achieve all the MDGs. Moreover, Jahan
(2003) argues that the dilemma doesn’t concern resources, but the problem of
25
commitment and motivation. Therefore, financing global initiatives requires a political will
to achieve the goals. According to Jahan (2003) neither developing nor donor countries
channel enough resources to achieve the global goals.
The UPE and EFA are financed as a combination of domestic resources such as
governmental budgets and finances from the private sector, and donations from the
international community. The international donations can be channeled through the state
governments towards either specific programs or as part of a wider cross-sector
development; with direct impact on improvement of education sector as well as through
NGOs, CBOs and other non-governmental organizations. This model of financing is
therefore highly complex, non-transparent and difficult to track on the donor as well as
the recipient side. (Foster, 2004)
Despite the fact that some of the poorest countries have increased financing of the
education sector from their own resources after the Dakar Framework for Action, the
differences between countries and regions greatly varies. (EFA report, 2011). Some
governments, for example in Central Asia still put education on the margins with
insufficient allocation of state resources to the sector.
The donor countries have been greatly criticized as well for their lack of commitment to
financing the global education initiatives which they promised in Dakar. According to
Levine and Birdsall (2005), out of the 170 million USD committed by donor agencies,
only 6 million USD were provided in reality. According to Oxfam “…donors have failed to
deliver convincing backing for these plans… and insisted on drastic cutbacks… Rich
countries have also refused to extend the FTI partnerships to any of the additional
countries that have met the entry requirements” (Oxfam, 2003, pp.1). The EFA
Monitoring Report (2011) also criticizes the donors for not keeping their commitments
towards the Dakar Framework and for providing fewer resources than previously agreed.
Therefore, lack of commitment towards financing the EFA and UPE initiatives from
donors and governments negatively affects the progress towards fulfillment of the global
education goals.
3.5.2 Feasibility
26
Another major criticism of UPE and EFA goals is that they are unrealistic, unattainable
and too ambitious.
According to Colclough (2004), Clemens et al (2004) the set target of 100% enrolment
rate is impossible to reach as not all children in the world are able to get to school.
Colclough (2004) states that these children are not enrolled at schools due to illnesses
or are educated at home, therefore 100% enrolment rate is not a realistic goal and the
target is not set correctly. Moreover, according to the statistics (Colclough 2004) even in
European and Northern American countries the primary enrolment rate is between 96%
and 98% and the set target of 100% enrolment rate worldwide is highly ambitious.
Therefore, it is not realistic to demand from developing countries to reach the target
while the developed countries fail to do so. Clemens et al (2004) also highlight that the
unrealistic targets are to be achieved in a relatively short period of time.
From one perspective, setting unrealistic goals can have a negative influence on the
issue. According to Clemens et al (2004) aiming for fictitious targets may cause a
perception of failure with long-term negative consequences on reforms and aid provision
initiatives. As Clemens and Moss (2005) point out “The MDGs could turn real
development success into imaginary failures”. On the other perspective, setting
ambitious targets might result in greater involvement and have a motivational effect to fill
the gap between the baseline and the aspiration. It would be very interesting to study if
the global effort, activism and agility would be at the same level as it is at the present
time with targets set on lower rate. The motivational influence of the high expectations
could stand behind the rapid unprecedented positive changes in countries of Sub-
Saharan Africa, however further studies on this statement are needed to provide
supportive evidence.
However, as Clemens et al (2004) point out, although the set targets are destined to fail
they serve as a constant reminder of the world we want to have.
3.5.3 Measurement of Progress
Another issue regarding the global education initiatives is in the measurement of
progress. Maligalig in his report on Measuring the MDGs Indicators (2003) points out
several issues with measurement of the progress; such as unavailability of baseline
data, incomparability of data across countries and across time and lack of sub-national
data.
27
Vandemoortele (2002) suggests that the tracking of progress of the global initiatives is
set on the basis of global trends overlooking the region or country specific trends from
the past. Therefore, concluding that achieving the goal of particular region or country is
failing is considered as misleading due to fallacious application of the global data on
regions and countries and unfair to the developing world.
Another problem with measuring the progress is according to Filmer et al (2006) the
measurement of output rather than outcomes. In education this means giving the main
focus on the number of schools, textbooks provided, enrolment rates and other
quantifiable data rather than on the quality of education provided and skills and abilities
and competencies learned during the schooling period. By ignoring the quality of
education and outcomes of education we risk missing the point; as the poor quality
education has a poor effect on development. Therefore the focus on qualitative aspects
is equally important as focus on quantitative ones.
The World Bank (2005), Alexander (2008) also notice the problem of ignoring the
outcomes and results of EFA implementation and suggest more result-oriented
interventions, indicators and criteria for measurement.
3.5.4 Cultural Indicator
Another criticism of the global education initiatives is its ignorance of the local context
and its strong top-down implementation. Vandemoortele’s (2002) exploration has
already been discussed in the previous paragraph dealing with lack of regional and
country context in setting indicators and measurements. Alexander (2008) also views
the cultural differences as a great obstacle to measurement of quality. He points out that
EFA is using term quality without a clear idea of what this entails. Moreover, he argues
that EFA indicators and measures are highly insensitive to cultural context. Therefore
EFA indicators and measures can not be generalized and implemented to all societies
without bringing cultural bias and unfairness.
Another criticism of the EFA and UPE objectives connected to cultural differences is an
interesting viewpoint on the necessity and process of reforms taking place all around the
world. Farrell and Hartwell (2008) argue that the western style formal schooling familiar
to us is inappropriate and inconsistent with the process of learning in humans.
Implementing this style of formal schooling in other parts of the world by enforcing
28
reforms can be considered as repeating the mistakes of western education system.
Moreover, according to Farrel and Hartwell’s (2008) research, the attempts to implement
and integrate the formal style schooling in African countries were unsuccessful.
According to their research from previous studies the reformed schooling systems have
a tendency to be rejected and the system slowly moves back to the previous styles of
teaching and learning. They argue that some of the alternative schooling systems which
stem from communities at a local level are more successful in provision of skills and
abilities than the formal schooling. Therefore, it remains questionable whether the EFA
and UPE visions and goals in reforming the education system worldwide are the most
appropriate and the best for all anywhere in the world as they might not be the most
suitable for the west either.
3.5.5 Unfairness
Mentioning fairness, one of the strong criticisms of the MDGs including the UPE is its
unfairness to Africa. Easterly (2009) argues that regional differences at the starting point
of implementing MDGs and UPE are enormous in terms of finances, infrastructure,
provision of social services, etc. Easterly (2009) argues that the manner in which the
targets are set and measured are highly biased against Sub-Saharan Africa resulting in
perception of failure in achieving the global goals. The goals are considered to be target-
oriented rather than progress-oriented (Easterley, 2009; Clemens et al, 2004). The first
interprets Sub-Saharan Africa to be a failure at reaching the global goals; the latter
makes this region one of the greatest successes as the progress and positive changes
are incomparably higher and faster than in other regions (Clemens et al, 2004). For this
reason considering Sub-Saharan Africa as a failure in this global initiative is unfair and
incorrect.
3.6 Possibilities for Improvement
29
In order to improve the status of the education sector worldwide and to move forward in
fulfilling the global education goals, the global community needs to evaluate the past
successes and identify the weak points. Looking at the previous chapters focused on the
critiques of the EFA and UPE goals, the following points can be identified in order to
achieve the global goals:
The commitment towards achieving the global education goals needs to be strengthened
at the national level. This requires strong leadership from the state, its willingness and
effort to reform the legal and institutional framework and infrastructures supporting the
provision of education (Levine and Birdsall, 2005),
The education needs to be integrated into a countrywide perspective by giving attention
to education in all country development strategies (World Bank, 2005). The benefits of
development of other sectors and the positive impact on the education sector needs to
be identified and strengthened. This would supplement the direct interventions within the
education sector and help to accelerate the progress.
Decentralization of the decision making process within the education sector at global as
well as state level is one of the crucial points (Levine and Birdsall, 2005). Parental and
community involvement, decision-making at the local level, understanding the
importance of local context and understanding the notion one size does not fit all bring
improvements in learning outcomes as well as better school and community
management within the education sector.
Development of a better monitoring and evaluation framework for measuring the
progress of the global initiatives should be one of the top priorities. Without having
access to trustworthy and accurate data regarding the real state within the education
sector, the adequate intervention cannot be identified (World Bank, 2005)
Focus on quality and learning outcomes should be one of the highest priorities in the
global as well as national level. The secondary research indicates that the abilities and
competencies of pupils after completion of a full cycle of primary education remain low
and inapplicable to practical life (World Bank, 2006, Filmer et al, 2006, Farrell and
Hartwell, 2008).
30
The finances in the global education efforts play a major role. Therefore, the
commitment to adequate financing from the donors side has to be fulfilled and delivered
(Oxfam, 2003). Donors have to be aware of the consequences of breaking their
commitments and have to take responsibility for this.
4. State of the Education Sector in Zambia
31
In order to implement the global initiatives, the governments of states formulate policies
and strategic plans for their own education sector. Governments in cooperation with
development agencies and NGOs assess and evaluate the status or baseline of the
education sector within the country, identify weaknesses and opportunities which need
to be addressed and formulate procedures and actions which aim to fulfill the state
targets and global goals for improvements in the education sector in order to achieve the
MDG and EFA goals.
This chapter focuses on the Zambian policies and strategic plans in education as this
country has been selected as a case study for the research.
4.1 Zambia Outline
Zambia is a landlocked country situated
in southern part of Africa with a population
of almost 13 million. The population
consists of approximately 72 ethnic groups.
The official language is English and the
main local language used as a means of
communication is Nyanja.
Almost half of the population lives in urban areas. The urbanization has increased in last
few decades due to employment opportunities which the major urban centers offer. The
main source of livelihood in the rural areas is agriculture, in the urban areas it is mining
and food production.
It is estimated that almost 60% of the total population lives below the poverty line, in
rural areas it is almost 78% (UN Statistics Commission, 2006), which makes the country
one of the poorest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 75 000 children are living on
the streets (OECD, 2008).
Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia during British colonial rule. Zambia achieved
its independence in 1964 and became a republic. Since independence the country has
32
been ruled by the socialist party for almost 30 years of which almost 20 years has been
under the single-party government rule.
During this period the country has struggled with economic difficulties due to its
dependence on copper exporting. As the prices of copper on the global markets rapidly
declined in the mid-1970s, Zambia inevitably fell into economic crisis. Loans provided
from the international community were perceived as the solution to the country’s
economic problems, however the negative consequences of the loans are tangible even
today as it is in other African countries.
The Zambian economy stagnated until the late 1990s when economic and social reforms
have been introduced by the government. The reforms brought economic growth, a
significant drop in the inflation rate, improvements in the social sector, decentralization,
economic diversification and privatization. Although Zambia has experienced a
significant economic progress, there are still problems with widespread corruption, poor
social protection, health issues such as high HIV and AIDS prevalence (approximately
17% of the population infected), the gap between rural-urban development, gender
inequalities and many other factors which undermine Zambian development. According
to ZOSC (2008) “Almost 50% of the Zambian population is under 15 years of age, 71%
of children live in poverty and one in four children are orphaned” (ZOSC, 2008, p 2).
At the present time, Zambia is ranked as 164th out of 193 countries on the Human
Development Index (UNDP, 2011) putting the country among countries with low human
development.
In terms of GDP growth rate, Zambia is ranked as 40th out of 182 countries which puts it
in front of Switzerland or Norway (IMF, 2011). This means that Zambian economic
growth is fast, however in absolute terms Zambia is still remaining at the lower positions
in the world rankings of GDP per capita. This shows that although Zambia is doing well
in terms of growth there is still a long journey to economic and social stability.
4.2 Zambian Education Sector Overview
33
The economic crisis that hit Zambia during 1980s had a negative effect on the education
sector as the Zambian government had to cut spending and investments to education.
The expenditure on education dramatically declined in 1980s and 1990s (IOB, 2008).
According to the statistics, in 1998 the per capita expenditure on education for pupils at
the primary schools was 17 USD, which was half of the amount of 1985 (MoE, 2007). In
1999 the government expenditure on education was 2% of GDP which is lower than
other Sub-Saharan countries where expenditures on education varies between 4 – 5%
of GDP (IOB, 2008).
A lack of resources in education resulted in the deterioration of the school infrastructure,
lack of education materials, textbooks, furniture and dilapidation of school buildings. In
the rural areas, the schools were often at a long-walking distance from the pupils’
homes; in the urban areas the classrooms were overcrowded.
The HIV and AIDS prevalence in the country resulted in high absenteeism and mortality
rates of teachers as well as increase of orphaned and vulnerable children (IOB, 2008).
According to an estimation by ZOSC (2008), in 2010 there were approximately 1.3
million orphaned children due to AIDS.
All these factors inevitably had a negative effect on the quality of education provided as
well. The literacy rate significantly dropped and according to the World Bank (2001) 71%
of children left primary school illiterate. According to analysis of the census data (IOB,
2008), in year 2003 the literacy rate of the Zambian population in their 40s was higher
than literacy rate of young population in the 15 – 24 age group. Comparing the data from
Central Statistics Office (CSO) (2000) the youth literacy rate dropped from 74.9% in
1990 to 70.1% in 2000.
One of the most significant interventions in improving the provision of education was the
President’s announcement of Free Basic Education for Grades one – seven (FBE) in
2002. The tuition fees at these grades were abolished and school uniforms were no
longer compulsory. As a result of this policy, the enrolment rate in basic education
rapidly increased from 1.8 million in 2000 to 2.9 million in 2005 (Hooper et al, 2008). The
Diagrams 2 and 3 below illustrate the increase in enrolment rates between 1996 and
2006 and the decrease in the out-of-school children in period between 2000 and 2005.
34
The FBE policy has an impact on increased number of poor and vulnerable children
enrolment and the enrolment rate of girls has increased as well.
Diagram 2: Enrolment rates in grades 1- 7 by gender (1996 – 2006)
Source: IOB (2008)
Diagram 3: Out of school children (2000 – 2005)
Source: IOB (2008)
35
On the other hand, the quality of education suffered due to overcrowded classrooms,
insufficient learning materials and textbooks, lack of teaching staff and insufficient
infrastructure to accommodate the rapid influx of pupils. (Hooper et al, 2008, IOB, 2008).
The quality of education remains a problem in Zambia up to the present day, which is
demonstrated by the poor literacy and numeracy skills of pupils. According to Hooper et
al (2008), “70% of pupils at grade five do not attain the minimum level of performance for
English” (Hooper et al, 2008, pp 83). Improving quality of education at all levels therefore
has become the main goal for the education sector in the Sixth National Development
Plan 2011- 2015.
Even though the improvements in the enrolment rate at primary level is considered to be
one of the greatest successes in Zambian education, the problem with the drop out rate
persists, especially the female drop out rate (Hooper et al 2008, IOB 2008, MoE - NIF
2007). The drop out rate has decreased as the Diagram 4 below illustrates, however it
still remains one of the challenges for the education sector today. Pregnancies and early
marriages are according to IOB (2008) the two major reasons for early drop out for girls.
Diagram 4: Dropout rates grades 1 – 7 (2000 – 2006)
Source: IOB (2008)
Institutional capacity and high level of bureaucracy within the education sector are other
problems of education in Zambia that need to be addressed. According to IOB (2008),
the organization of the education sector result in a lack of coordination, inefficiencies,
36
time-consuming procedures and delays in service-delivery which altogether have a
negative effect on education.
HIV and AIDS prevalence in Zambia is negatively affecting the education as well.
Absenteeism of pupils and teachers due to their medical condition remains high and
affect the learning and teaching process. The education sector gives a significant
attention to this problem by giving support to infected and affected pupils and by
mainstreaming the issue into all education programs (MoE - NIF, 2007). However,
according to the field study, the stigmatization and fear of exclusion prevent pupils,
parents and teachers from openly disclosing their medical condition which prevent the
initiatives aimed to mitigate the impact of the disease from being fully implemented. This
issue will be discussed later in the paper.
One of the major challenges for the Zambian government in terms of improvements to
the education sector is closing the gap between rural and urban differences in schooling.
In the last few years the government introduced several projects and policies to improve
the provision of education in the rural areas, such as high investments into school
building projects and infrastructure to provide access to children in rural areas and
attracting more teachers to teach at rural schools by providing incentives and grants, etc.
This effort resulted in increased number of schools in rural areas, improved pupil-
textbook and teacher-pupil ratios (Hooper et al, 2008). However, the differences
between rural and urban schools still remain. The location of schools has also impacted
on the performance of pupils. According to IOB (2008), the learning outcomes and test
scores differ between rural and urban pupils with pupils at urban schools tending to
perform better at tests than pupils from rural areas. Therefore, focusing the attention on
rural areas in improving the education sector is crucial.
4.3 Evaluation of the Key Strategic Plans and Policies for Education Reforms
In order to improve the status of education in Zambia, the government is attempting to
introduce several projects and plans based on the EFA and later on MDGs initiatives.
The first significant boost to the Zambian education system came in 1996 with the
launching of the document Educating our Future; the first comprehensive strategic policy
on improving the condition of education within the country. This document addresses the
37
whole formal education system. It emphasized the importance of reforms such as
decentralization and management and cost effectiveness, improving the quality of
education provided at all levels and focuses on the importance of revision of curriculum,
capacity building and partnerships. The following year, the MoE in cooperation with The
Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training
developed three strategic plans for implementation of Educating our Future.
For the purpose of this research the most important of the plans is the Basic Education
Sub-Sector Investment Plan 1999 – 2002 (BESSIP). This strategy is focused on the
improvements in basic education provision and managed to synergize several national
policies under a single comprehensive plan focused on the basic education. The main
aims are to increase the enrolment rate at the primary level by providing access to all
eligible children and to improve the learning achievements. The BESSIP improvement
plans are summarized in the Box 3 below.
Despite the best intention, the BESSIP has been successful only partially due to lack of
financial resources. The BESSIP was financed from the government budget as well as
bilateral and multilateral loans (Musonda, 2003). However the resources did not cover
the full costs of the plan. Insufficient finances resulted in very limited improvements at
the school level. The small schools benefited from the project the most as the finances
were allocated equally, the same amount of money for each school without taking into
account the size of the schools.
Box 3: BESSIP
BESSIP improvements in access to education:
- constructing new schools to reduce walking distance for children in rural areas- providing grants to schools in order to reduce the school costs for parents- enrolling all eligible children- offering financial support to OVC, girls and children in rural areas
BESSIP improvements in quality of education:
- provision of textbooks- decentralization of training- implementing the national assessment of education system- revision of curriculum- teaching literacy through familiar language
Source: IOB (2008)
38
Hooper et al (2008) in its report criticize the BESSIP program for its excessive focus on
the basic education system ignoring the rest of the education sector in Zambia and for its
focus on quantitative aspects of provision of education (such as number of textbooks,
enrolment rates etc) at the expense of quality (educational attainment, completion rates
etc).
Another shortcoming of the BESSIP plan is in a lack of coordination, institutions and
communication between implementing bodies of the BESSIP (Musonda, 2003). This
results in inefficiencies in implementation of the plan.
The BESSIP has been followed by the Ministry of Education Strategic Plan (MoESP)
2003 – 2007. This strategic plan is also based on the Educating our Future policy with
the commitments towards the EFA from Jomtien 1990 and reaffirmed in Dakar 2000.
Unlike the BESSIP, the MoESP takes a holistic approach to the education sector
reforms focusing not only on provision of basic education, but on the secondary and
tertiary levels as well. Moreover, the decentralization and improvements in the efficiency
of administration of the whole education sector are being addressed as well in order to
create a quality administrative back-up to schools, teachers and pupils.
For the purpose of this study the sub-sector goals from the MoESP 2003 - 2007 for basic
education level are summarized in the Box 4.
The aspiration to improve the Zambian education sector by implementing the MoESP
was high, the achievements depicted less success. The NIF identifies as the main cause
for the failure to be the unrealistic plans and objectives set to be achieved in a short
period of time. Insufficient finances, lack of human resources, institutional capacity
limitations as well as false estimate of timeframe resulted in a failure of the Plan.
However, during the MoESP 2003 – 2007 the enrolment rate rapidly increased and more
boys and girls were enrolled at a primary education. This is partially a result of the rapid
increase in number of community schools established during this period. According to
IOB (2008) the number of community schools increased from 55 in 1996 to 900 in 2000
and further up to 2700 in 2006. The MoE recognized the potential of community schools
in assisting to fulfill the plans and targets especially in providing the access, and
therefore the resources and support for community schools during this period increased.
39
(IOB, 2008). Community schools also contributed to the increased enrolment rates of
vulnerable and orphaned children, as the costs of schooling at the community schools
are generally lower. Therefore schooling is more accessible to the poor and vulnerable
at these schools. (IOB 2008, MoE - NIF, 2007).
Box 4: MoESP Sub-Sector goals
Theme Work programs Sub-sector goalAccess/Equity Policy and Planning
Financial Management
Procurement
Infrastructure
Distance Education
Pr 1, Provide free basic education to all children that is responsive to girls, rural children, children with special educational needs, orphans and other vulnerable groups
Quality Teacher Education
Curriculum and
Assessment
Standards and Evaluation
2, Increase learning achievement in literacy and numeracy
3, Co-ordinate the provision of early childhood education and adult literacy in collaboration with other key stakeholders
Administration, Financing and Management
Policy and Planning
Human Resources and Administration
Institutional Development
4, Strengthen the capacity of the District Education Boards and Schools to plan, cost, manage and monitor the delivery of education services.
HIV / AIDS Policy and Planning
Special Issues
5, Develop and support actions aimed at mitigating and reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on Basic Schools
Source: MoESP 2002, p. 23
The following national strategic plan for the education sector was included within the
multi-sector development plan for Zambia, the Fifth National Development Plan. (FNDP)
For the education sector, the National Implementation Framework 2008- 2010 was
launched separately in order to expand on the education sector aims, objectives and
goals in details. As it was mentioned earlier, the MoESP 2003 – 2007 set highly
unrealistic targets to be met in short period of time. Therefore, the NIF adjusted the
specific targets to be attainable by the end of 2010. Some of the previous targets from
the MoESP 2003 – 2007 was forwarded and the deadline for their achievements
postponed by the end of 2010.
40
During the implementation period for FNDP and NIF, the education sector experienced
significant improvements, especially in the enrolment rates, construction and
rehabilitation of the education infrastructure and in the increased number of teachers
trained. On the other hand, the learning achievements remained one of the major
challenges for the upcoming years.
At present time, the Sixth National Development Plan 2011 – 2015 (SNDP) is being
implemented. The priorities for improvements of the education sector at the primary level
are as follows:
- strengthening the teacher support system, upgrading teacher qualification,
improving the status of teachers within society
- improve school governance
- increase production of learning and teaching materials
- introduce ITC to learning and teaching process
- increase support to community schools
- create gender responsive school environment
- increase accountability between schools and communities
- improve school management Source: SNDP, 2011 – 2015
41
5. Introduction to the Case Study
5.1 Matrix
For the purpose of organizing and presenting the results from the field research, the
matrix was created by the researcher. The data presented in the matrix are the summary
data and indicators from the MoESP 2003 – 2007 and the NIF 2008 – 2010 to clearly
outline the strategic priorities of the Zambian government for the primary education level.
The table summarizes the main goals, objectives and indicators assigned by the
Zambian government and the MoE for the given period. The field research followed the
matrix in order to obtain the information on the progress and the current status at
schools. The data obtained at the primary research were compared with the targets set
by the government and the MoE.
The goals are outlined in four categories: Access, Quality, Equity and Efficiency and
Effectiveness, according to the MoE priorities for the intervention.
5.2 AccessOne of the main targets of the global as well as Zambian policies on development of the
education sector is a provision of access to full primary education for all children.
Ensuring that children from urban as well as rural areas have access to school within
reasonable walking distance, and elimination of education costs to prevent the education
being an economic burden for poor and deprived families are the main goals for
improving the access.
The aim is to provide additional educational facilities by building new school houses in
rural areas and expansion and rehabilitation of existing schools and overall
improvements in infrastructure in order ensure sufficient amount of schools and
classrooms to accommodate all children.
Making the primary education accessible to all children disregarding their economic
background, the cost of primary education needs to be addressed as well. For this
reason, in 2002 the Zambian government introduced the Free Basic Education policy at
Grades one – seven, by which all schooling fees at these grades are abolished and
school uniforms are not compulsory. This policy was supported by the provision of
additional grants and funds for all government and community schools as well as by
provision of bursaries for the orphaned and vulnerable children towards basic essentials
42
as clothes. This resulted in the increased enrolment rate, however, as it will be
discussed later in the paper, the significant difficulties in fulfilling these objectives are
persistent.
5.3 Quality
The quality of education provided has become one of the main priorities of the global as
well as the Zambian education initiatives. The improvements of education in quantitative
aspects are insufficient in the educational context. The learning outcomes, skills and
abilities of pupils after completing the full cycle of schooling are having the real impact
on life of individuals.
The Zambian government gives a significant attention to the improvements in the quality
of education provided. This is proved by the amount of resources channeled to efforts
linked to the quality of education in the past few years. However, the success of these
efforts will be discussed later in the study.
5.4 Efficiency and Effectiveness
The good-quality education for all children can not be successfully implemented without
the efficient and effective education system of institutions and policies built within the
education sector. The efficiency, effectiveness and good-working mechanisms built
within the system are the guarantors of sustainability. The global initiatives therefore
emphasize and support the reforms within the countries towards the better efficiency and
effectiveness within their education sector. Zambia has gone through major reforms in
this area. The successes and failures in terms of impact of the reforms at school level
will be revealed in the following chapter.
5.5 Equity
In terms of the equity, the global as well as Zambian initiatives aim to improve the
provision of education opportunities for all children giving a special attention to girls,
orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC), children with special educational needs
(CSEN) and children affected by HIV and AIDS. The effective targeting mechanisms
needs to be developed in order identify these children and to provide the support in
43
monetary and other forms such as trained and sensitized teachers who understand the
needs of these children.
According to the secondary research, Zambia made significant improvements in terms of
providing access to girls and OVC which resulted in the increased enrolment rate of
these children. However, the primary research revealed persistent problems and issues
which need to be addressed before a success can be celebrated.
Each of the categories outlined are be discussed separately in the result and analysis
part of the study bringing in-depth information and analysis of the status at schools,
comparisons of the data with the goals and objectives of the MoE and referring back to
the EFA and UPE goals. The complexity of the issue will be revealed as well as the
challenges and problems of schools at local level. The misconceptions and
disconnections of the EFA and UPE goals from the local level will be presented.
44
Strategic priority
Program Objective Indicator MoE targets by the end of 2010*
Access
Free basic education for all at grade 1 – 7
Provision of sufficient funding for schools
School fees paid by pupils, schools incomes and expenses
Free education provided, no additional costs required
Increased enrolment rate Provision of educational facilities,, building infrastructure
Pupil-classroom ratio, enrolment rates, funding from the MoE
80% enrolment rate, classroom-pupil ratio: 1:90 classroom-class ratio: 1:1
Quality
Improvements in curriculum Revision of the existing curriculum Revisited curriculum in use New revised curriculum in accordance with pupils and teachers needs in use
Provision of educational materials
Provision of books and other learning materials, revision and improvement of educational materials
Pupil-book ratio, funding for additional learning materials
Pupil – textbook ratio: 2:1
Teacher training Increased number of teachers available
Pupil-teacher ratio Pupil – teacher ratio 55:1
Effectiveness and Efficiency
School management Regular inspections from the MoE Number of inspections in given period Regular inspections taking place
Teacher management Teachers performance monitoring, teachers assessment and feedback, increased motivation, career progress opportunities
Clear guidance on performance monitoring established, regular monitoring on teachers performance, clear career structure for teachers created
Regular teacher monitoring taking place, clear career opportunities and support taking place
Pupils management Pupils performance monitoring, increased progression rate, improvements in grade 7 exam results
Regular monitoring on pupils performance, increased progression rate, lower dropout rates
Regular pupils monitoring taking place,Repetition rate: 4%Grade 7 completion rate: 92%
Equity
Increased enrolment and special attention to OVC, CSEN, HIV/AIDS and girls
Providing extra support in funding and qualified teachers, teacher training provided, girls enrolment and performance increased, HIV and AIDS policies followed
Increased number of children enrolled, funding from MoE provided, teachers trained to approach CSENSpecial attention given to OVC and girls
CSEN children enrolled: 5%HIV/AIDS policies in place and followedBursaries provided for OVC and girls: 20% of fundingTeachers trained to approach CSEN
*Source: MoESP 2003 -2007, NIF 2008 – 2010 Targets in this matrix are combined from two sources as some targets were forwarded from the previous plan (MoESP 2003 – 2007) to the later strategic plan (NIF 2008 – 2010) due to the failures in fulfillment in the previous plan.
45
MATRIX 1: Summary of Targets Set by the MoE According to the Strategic Priorities
46
5.6 Dambwa Township – Location of the Primary Research
The primary research was conducted at Dambwa Township schools in Livingstone,
Zambia. Livingstone is a Zambian tourism centre for the nearby Victoria Falls and close
borders with Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
Dambwa Township is a part of Livingstone and it consists of four zones: Dambwa North,
Dambwa Site, Dambwa South and Dambwa Central. According to the City Council, there
are approximately 45 – 50 000 households in township. The population in this area is
difficult to estimate due to a high level of migration of population within the families. The
number of school-aged children is also difficult to estimate as it is common for children in
Zambia to live with other relatives than their biological parents and the fluctuation of
children between households is high.
The neighborhoods in Dambwa are according to observation and discussions with local
people heterogeneous with poor as well as better-off neighborhoods which balance the
township to be average in terms of the economy and the wellbeing at Zambian scale.
The exact data on the size of population as well as economic indicators were difficult to
access for the researcher as the CSO has not provided the information required up to
today.
Dambwa Township, an urban area with average economic wellbeing of its inhabitants is
considered by the researcher to be a suitable location for the study. The problem of
distance in accessing the school is by the urban location eliminated and the study could
focus on the other issues regarding access such as the capacity of schools in the area.
The influences of the extreme poverty or the extreme wellbeing in Zambian scale were
eliminated and the schooling difficulties of an average Zambian township were revealed.
According to the results from this study, the problems and difficulties the schools have to
deal with on a daily basis are for this kind of location no less than surprising.
47
6. Findings and discussion
The following chapter is presenting the results and findings from the primary research at
schools as well as the analysis of the quantitative data revealed during the interviews.
Firstly, the key findings are summarized and presented in form of a matrix
This part of the study continues with outlining the funding of schools from the MoE as
well as from the other sources with the evaluation of their sufficiency to cover school
expenses.
The chapter is divided into the four thematic areas: Access, Quality, Efficiency and
Effectiveness and Equity. Each part is presented with the detailed quantitative and
qualitative findings relevant to the theme in form of tables and brings the analysis of the
findings.
Keeping the focus on the thematic areas the discussion part is integrated into this
chapter as well. Organizing the study in this manner gives an opportunity to present the
findings in more focused, clearer and easier to follow way.
The information and data presented in this part of the study were gathered from the
interviews at schools unless it is stated otherwise.
The narratives from interviews are presented in a form of text boxes and integrated to
the text in order to support the primary research findings with vivid illustration of the
situation at schools.
6.1 Summary of findings
The key findings from the primary research are summarized in the Matrix 2 below. The
primary research revealed the following:
The MoE strategic plans with the 2010 deadline has been fulfilled only partially
Schools are constantly struggling with lack of finances which had a direct impact
on fulfilling the MoE strategic plans and global targets
Majority of incomes of schools is still coming from parents and families of pupils
Approximate enrolment rate at primary schools in Dambwa Township is between
50 and 60%, which is below the MoE target set at 80%
48
There is not enough schools and classrooms at Dambwa Township to enroll all
children in the area
Classroom-pupil ratio target for 2010 has been reached, however the classrooms
remain overcrowded
The system of financing the infrastructure projects is noticeable which makes
difficult for the community schools to introduce the projects
Majority of OVC children are enrolled at community schools
Completion rate has improved in the past few years at all researched schools
The new curriculum is implemented and used, however, some weaknesses of
the curriculum has been identified by teachers and head teachers
The pupil-textbook ratio target set by the MoE with the deadline in 2010 has not
been achieved
The pupil-teacher ratio target has been met at 3 schools. On average, the target
has been met at researched schools, however, according the teachers and head
teachers the classes are still overcrowded
The school inspections are taking place on regular basis
Teachers have limited career progression opportunities
Teachers feel lack of support from the MoE
OVC, CSEN and children affected with HIV and AIDS receive very limited
support from the MoE
49
Girls enrolment rate at Dambwa schools has increased, however the support of
girls by the MoE remains minimal.
50
Strategic priority
Program MoE targets by the end of 2010 Present status at Dambwa schools Target met
Access
Free basic education for all at grade 1 – 7
Free education provided, no additional costs required
PTA contribution from 25 000 to 75 000 ZAK per termSchool uniforms used upon request of PTA
No
Increased enrolment rate 80% enrolment rate, 92% completion rate, 1:90 classroom-pupil ratio, 1:1 classroom-class ratio
Approximately 40 – 50% of children in Dambwa out of schoolCompletion rate approximately 70%Average classroom-pupil ratio: 1:83,6Average classroom-class ratio: 1 : 1,9
Partially
Quality
Improvements in curriculum New revised curriculum in accordance with pupils and teachers needs in use
New curriculum followed, however some criticisms from teachers and head teachers
Partially
Provision of educational materials
Textbook - pupil ratio 1:2 Average textbook – pupil ratio: 1:4,6 No
Teacher training Teacher – pupil ratio 1:55 Average teacher – pupil ratio: 1:53,2 Yes
Effectiveness and Efficiency
School management Regular inspections taking place Regular inspections taking place YesTeacher management Regular teacher monitoring taking
place, clear career progression opportunities created
Regular teacher monitoring taking place, career progression opportunities low, lack of support for teachers
Partially
Pupils management Pupils monitoring taking place,4% repetition rateGrade 7 completion rate: 86%
Pupils regularly monitored,Approximate repetition rate: difficult to estimateAverage grade 7 completion rate: 81,15%
Partially
Equity
Increased enrolment and special attention to OVC, CSEN, HIV/AIDS and girls
5% of CSEN children enrolledHIV/AIDS policies in place and followed20% of bursaries provided for OVC and girls,Teachers trained to approach CSEN
Average percentage CSEN children enrolled at schools in Dambwa: not estimated more than 5%HIV and AIDS policies in place, partially followed15% of bursaries provided for OVC and girlsTeachers not sufficiently trained to approach CSEN
No
MATRIX 2: Summary of the Results from Primary Research, Comparison with Set Targets
51
6.2 Incomes of Schools
The issue of financing of schools is discussed at first,
before presenting the findings in live with the matrix.
The financing of education is one of the most important
determinants of successful provision of education and for
this reason the funding and financial situation at schools
are presented at the first place.
According to the secondary research, one of the reasons of failure of the global
initiatives implementation at the school level is due to insufficient finances channeled to
the development, including the educational sector. Analyzing the situation at the
Zambian schools, the finances issue seems to be playing an important role as well.
Schools in Zambia fail to implement the development strategies and fail to reach the
national and global development goals due to the lack of funding provided to schools
from the government and the MoE. The Table 1 shows the funding provided to the
researched schools by the MoE and the approximate incomes from the PTA funds:
Table 1: Incomes of SchoolsSchool Average approximate
funding provided by the MoE (per term)
PTA funds (approximate amount per term)*
Indeco Community School 2 500 000 5 200 000Livingstone Basic School 3 000 000** 33 000 000Mulwani Basic School 3 333 000** 43 728 000Mujala Demonstration School
3 333 000** 45 000 000
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
3 000 000 9 500 000
*The figure indicated are approximate and may vary from term to term as there are reported issues with late payments or no payments from parents towards the fund. The aim is to demonstrate the difference between MoE funding and the amount the PTA contribute to school.**These three schools provide education at grades 1 – 9, Mulwani up to grade 12. The funding is calculated for the whole school, not only grades 1 – 7. It would be difficult to estimate the funding provided for grades 1 – 7 only, therefore researcher works with this numbers which results in advantaging the government. However this inconvenience has not affected the findings and conclusions to this research.
Moreover, the schools divide the funding provided according to the prescribed purpose
by the MoE as follows:
“… [The funding] varies, we don’t know how much money we
receive in next, it depends on how much
money is available”
(Head Teacher, Mujala Demonstration School)
52
Diagram 5: Allocation of funding according to the MoE requirements
According to the head teachers interviewed, the funding provided by the MoE is not
sufficient enough to cover the school expenses. The head
teachers also revealed other problems, such as the amount
provided is variable from term to term depending on the amount
available at the MoE and with delays in the provision of the funds.
The prescribed allocation of the funding is also viewed as a
problem as it limits flexibility of schools to spend the funds towards
the most important priorities schools are having in a given period
of time as well as it hinders the decentralization process by taking
away the decision power from the schools.
The funding from the MoE are insufficient and unreliable, therefore the schools
established a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) funds where the parents and families of
children contribute in order to cover the school expenses and the school projects. These
projects include building infrastructure, rehabilitation, school bus purchase, and support
for OVCs as well as paying the utility bills.
The Table 1 shows, the PTA contributions are significantly higher than the funds
provided by the MoE. This indicates that most of the funding for schools come from
parents and families instead of the MoE and the government.
“It’s peanuts!“ (laugh)
Head Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School answering question if the MoE funding is
sufficient for the running of the school
53
The controversy in the PTA fund is in the context of free education policy obvious. This
will be discussed in depth later in the paper.
The education sector in Zambia seems to be according to the research highly
underfinanced. This has a negative impact on the provision of education in all respects
which will be discussed in the following paragraphs as well. According to the secondary
research and literature review, one of the reasons could be lack of money provided by
the donor countries towards global education goals. The financial gap is covered by the
households, parents and care takers of the pupils which make the policy on free basic
education questionable. Moreover, the financing remains centralized with little decision-
making power at school levels. Transparency of the expenses remains questionable as
well. The progress of the global education goals are due to these problems with
financing undermined.
6.3 Access
In order to improve the access to education for children in Zambia and increase the
enrolment rate, the previous and current governments introduced the policy of free
education, and invest in the infrastructure projects which were outlined in previous
chapters.
The findings from the primary research indicated that these policies have not met the
targets they aimed for. The main indicator in terms of access is the enrolment rate. The
Table 2 below summarizes the targets and the actual status at Dambwa schools
Table 2: Enrolment Rate
Target Enrolment rateGlobal MDG target by 2015 100%Global MDG achievement at 2008 90% (MDG Report 2010)MoE target by the end of 2010 80%MoE target by the end of 2015 100%Dambwa Township enrolment rate according to the DEBs
50 – 60%
The research was challenged in estimating the actual number or percentage of
enrolment rate due to the lack of accurate data on number of school-aged children in
54
given area in Zambia.. Accessing the data is difficult especially in high-density areas
such as Dambwa due to the high migration rate of pupils. Therefore the percentage on
the Dambwa enrolment rate is and estimation from the DEBs The estimation indicates
that almost half of the children in the area are not going to school; however the number
could be even higher. Even four years after the first deadline on the enrolment rates set
by the MoE the target still has not been met at researched schools. It can be assumed
that similar urban areas in Zambia face the same difficulties in fulfilling the national and
global targets in the primary education enrolment rates.
The reasons for the significant number of children out of schools are the costs of
education and insufficient amount of schools and infrastructure. Schools has to look for
alternative financing besides the government grants to cover the expenses of schooling
as well as infrastructure projects. The lack of finances in the education sector can be
attributed to low expenditures of the government which in 2008 were only 1,3% of GDP
(CIA World Factbook) as well as lack of commitment from donor countries to provide
finances towards the EFA goals as agreed in Dakar 2000 which was discussed earlier in
this paper.
Another problem with the enrolment rate refers back to the issue of setting unattainable
goals at the global level. The 100% enrolment rate aspiration has been transformed into
Zambian goals and objectives as well which pre-condition the plans to fail. The 100%
enrolment rate is unachievable and therefore, if Zambia as well as global initiatives
wishe to succeed, the goals needs to be reevaluated.
6.3.1 Free Basic Education
Although the Zambian government abolished school fees at the grade 1 – 7 and the
obligation of wearing school uniforms by the pupils, the issue of costs for schooling
remains controversial according to the results from the research. Observations and
interviews revealed that fees paid by parents and families are in place in order to enroll a
child into the primary school.
The table below summarizes the costs and school uniforms required at selected schools
in Dambwa.
55
Table 3: Costs of schooling at Dambwa schools
School Grade PTA Contribution per term (ZMK)
School uniforms
Indeco Community School
1 - 7 25 000 Not required, encouraged
Livingstone Basic School 12 – 7
75 00060 000
Required
Mulwani Basic School 1 – 7 40 000 RequiredMujala Demonstration School
1 - 7 45 000 Required
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
1 - 7 25 000 Not required, encouraged
According to the information revealed by interviews at schools and with the DEBs
representative, the PTA contribution is an amount of money parents agreed to pay on a
voluntary basis towards school expenses as well as various projects such as
improvements in infrastructure or purchase of learning materials. However, the voluntary
factor in this case is questionable.
Firstly, with respect to the secondary research, the MoE financing strategy still includes
partnerships with community and parents (Educating our Future, 1996) which subjects
the parents to contribute certain remuneration towards the school expenses. Therefore,
the PTA contributions can be considered as imposed on parents by the MoE policy
rather than voluntary contributions by parents and care takers.
Secondly, the interviews revealed that the contribution is compulsory and the admission
of children at schools is conditioned by the promise from parents to pay the amount
agreed by the PTA.
Thirdly, in cases when parents do not have enough money to pay towards the PTA
funds for various reasons, there are other options of contributing to the PTA. In most
cases parents and care takers provide their time in a voluntary work at school projects.
However, such provisions only reinforce the impression of obligation to pay the PTA
contribution in any form and contradict the free education for all policy.
56
Fourthly, the research revealed that the significant financial contributions towards PTA
improve the quality of education provided by schools. Therefore, the discrimination of the
poor and vulnerable in accessing higher quality education is noticeable.
And finally, the Table 1 shows the PTA funds are major source of income for schools
without which the schools would not be able to operate. According to the findings, the
PTA operates at all schools around Zambia and it can be assumed that the share of
costs would be similar elsewhere as the gap between MoE and PTA funding is
enormous. Therefore, the free basic education as it has been proclaimed by the
government is not taking place in reality at all.
“[PTA] It is very controversial, the education is not free”
DEBs
Moreover, the Zambian government presents its primary education as free from school
fees in front of the global community. It gives an impression to the global partners that
the education sector in the country is heading the right direction to fulfill the UPE and
EFA objectives. From this, the two damaging consequences could be identified.
Firstly, providing false information on the costs of primary education could result in
distorting the UPE and EFA statistics on the fulfillment of the goals. If the similar issue is
assumed to take place in other countries, the UPE and EFA statistics on the
achievements could be considered as unreliable. The conclusion on success or failure of
the goals would be therefore difficult to make and the real impact of the initiatives would
be questionable.
Secondly, the impression of free primary education diverts the attention of global
community from the issue instead of finding solutions and
perhaps providing more resources and attention to the
Zambian education from the global partners. The issue
with non-free primary education in Zambia therefore
persists, remains under cover in front of global partners
and is ignored.
“We encourage the parents to ensure the
children are in uniform… In case they
don’t have the uniform, we can’t send
them away but we need to appeal to
parents so at least they struggle to find
uniform”
(Head Teacher, Mujala Demonstration School)
57
The controversy is revealed in the case of the school uniforms as well. The interviews
revealed that the decision if children are having or not having uniforms at particular
school is upon the PTA. In most cases the parents agreed on having uniforms at school
for reasons such as equity among pupils, identity and the sense of belonging to a
particular school and community. At the first sight these reasons seems to be rationale
and understandable, however, there is a major criticism.
The costs of school uniforms could be a discouraging factor for parents to enroll a child
to school due to lack of finances to provide an uniform for the child. This could be a case
especially with poor and vulnerable families. There is an opportunity of support from the
schools and other school partners in provision of free uniforms to these children,
however as the Table 4 shows, the help is only minimal.
Table 4: Support for OVC at selected schools
Schools with uniform policy
Number of pupils grade 1 - 7
Number of poor and OVC
Number of children provided with uniforms *
Livingstone Basic School
520 100 10
Mulwani Basic School 1857 1300 120Mujala Demonstration School
840 Over 200 20
* Uniforms provided from various sources such as NGOs, FBOs, or provided by schools free
According to my observation and further research, the poor and vulnerable children
whose parents and care takers can not afford to pay high PTA contributions and cover
uniform costs are in most cases enrolled in community schools. However, with the lower
PTA funds contributions in the community schools the quality of education is
compromised as well. The linkage between school achievement and school incomes will
be discussed in the Efficiency and Effectiveness part of this chapter. Moreover, the
children from poor and vulnerable families are separated from the children with better
economic background. Consequently, the poor and vulnerable are discriminated and
deprived from good quality education and the poverty and vulnerability are reinforced.
58
6.3.2 Infrastructure
In order to increase the enrolment rate, the Zambian government focuses its attention
into building new infrastructure and restoring the existing ones. The aim is to provide
more schools and classrooms for pupils as there is insufficient
amount of schools and classrooms for all school- aged children.
The MoE enrolment target for year 2007 was set at 80% of all
school-aged children to be enrolled at schools.
However, the interview with DEBs revealed that in the Dambwa
Township area, only 50 – 60% of children are enrolled
(see Table 2).
According to the research at schools the amount of classrooms in the area is not
sufficient to the amount of school aged children living here. The schools in Dambwa are
already overcrowded; the infrastructure is insufficient to admit all the children within the
area.
The Table 5 below summarizes the indicators, set targets and the actual status at
Dambwa schools in terms of pupils, classes and classroom ratios.
Table 5: Classroom-pupil and classroom-class ratios
School Classroom-pupil ratio Classroom-Class ratio
Indeco Community School
1 : 70 1 : 2.3
Livingstone Basic School
1 : 65 1 : 1.3
Mulwani Basic School 1 : 92 1 : 2Mujala Demonstration School
1 : 65 1 : 1.6
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
1 : 126 1 : 2.3
Average 1 : 83.6 1 : 1.9
MoE target by 2010 1 : 90 1 : 1
Teachers and head teachers revealed that there is no possibility for schools to increase
enrolment at present time due to insufficient infrastructure. Even at present time the
schools are already operating beyond the capacity of the infrastructure in order to
“Currently school is not
able to take more children”
Head Teacher, Mujala
Demonstraton School
59
provide education to as many children as possible. All schools operates in double
(morning – afternoon) or sometimes even triple (morning – midday – afternoon) sessions
in order to accommodate all pupils enrolled.
One of the MoE priorities is to improve the infrastructure and build new school buildings
in order to accommodate more children and increase enrolment rate. However, the
research in Dambwa shows that not much has been done in this case. Only three
schools out of five have been involved in classroom-building projects in the last 3 years.
However, the issue of funding and overall success in the project is questionable as the
Table 6 demonstrates.
Table 6: Infrastructure projects at selected schools
School Project Funding Completion stage
Notes
Livingstone Basic
New block with 3 classrooms
100% Italian NGO
Unfinished Will be completed in 2012
Mujala Demonstration
New block with 5 classrooms
20% PTA, 85% MoE
Finished, in full use
The only successful project
Zambezi Sawmills
New block with 2 classrooms
15% PTA, 85% MoE
Unfinished Completion deadline unknown, all the funding already spent
Out of three projects, two has been funded by the MoE and only one has been
successfully completed to the present time. In case of Livingstone Basic School, the
completion of the new building block is almost certain, however, without any support
from the MoE, and in case of Zambezi Sawmills Community School, the funding
provided has been insufficient and the project at present time runs out of finances to be
finalized. In terms of Mujala Demonstration School, the five new classrooms were
successfully completed; however the school extended the provision of education up to
grade 9. Therefore, only three of the new classrooms are used by grade 1 – 7 at present
time.
The PTA funds play a vital role in financing the school in developing the infrastructure. In
order for the school to receive funding for infrastructure from the MoE, the schools have
to come upfront with amount agreed between the school and the MoE. Only after raising
60
the amount the MoE matches the project with its funding. The upfront amount varies
between 15 – 25% of the total costs of the building project. The PTA funds are either
saved for the purpose of the infrastructure project or for the daily running of the school.
This results in schools either to run with lower daily budget or increase the PTA funds
contributions by the parents and care takers. As a consequence, the burden is again
carried either by schools or by the parents and care takers.
The successful project at the Mujala Basic School, arise dilemma concerning similar
issue. The PTA fund is having the highest income from parents and care takers which is
in total 45 million ZMK per term. The schools with higher PTA funds contribution are able
to raise their funds towards infrastructure projects while the community schools such as
Indeco Community School, which accommodates poor and vulnerable children, struggle
to meet the conditions of the MoE. Therefore the issue with building new infrastructure
as a combination of the PTA funds and the MoE contribution remains controversial.
According to the DEBs, there has been only one more project within the Dambwa
Township finalized at one of the schools in last three years with the financial assistance
from MoE. The details of the projects and funding are unknown as the school
representatives have not been interviewed for this research. These projects together
with the Mujala Demonstration School are however the only two successes in the
infrastructure project targeting increase in the enrolment in Dambwa Township. Taking
into account the need for the new schools and classrooms in this area, the MoE plans
and commitments towards the community and the UPE and EFA goals, these two
projects can be hardly called a successful fulfillment of the goals and objectives set by
the government and global initiatives.
6.3.3 Access and Enrolment Rate
The main reasons for abolishing the tuition fees at primary schools, abolishing the
uniforms and investing in infrastructure is to increase the enrolment rate and provide
access for all children to the primary education.
With respect to the findings from the primary research, Dambwa Township was
unsuccessful in achieving the estimated target. The interviews with the head teachers
61
revealed that the enrolment rate at their schools remain steady in last five years due to
the insufficient infrastructure at the schools.
The only exception has been Mujala Demonstration School, where the enrolment rate at
grade 1 – 7 has slightly increased due to the five new classrooms build in year 2009.
In terms of free education provision policy the MoE has instead of giving an effort to
apply the policy into the practice, seems only cover the problem by calling tuition fees
PTA funds. These controversial voluntary contributions have a discouraging effect for
parents and care takers to enroll their children at school. This applies mainly to the poor
and vulnerable families who are the most needed for education as education is one of
the most efficient ways of coming out from poverty and vulnerability.
The implementation of the government plans to improve the condition of provision of
education has not been successful at Dambwa Township due to the lack of funding
provided by the MoE to schools. The research show that most of the school incomes are
coming from parents and families of children. The funding provided by the government
on projects which aim to increase enrolment rate is considerably smaller than the
amount the schools get from other sources. However, even with the other sources and
MoE funding together the schools struggle to implement the government plans into
practice. If the enrolment targets are to be successfully met, the MoE needs to provide
schools with more resources.
Referring back to the global level the need of reevaluation of monitoring and evaluation
of the progress in field is necessary, as in-depth field research revealed discrepancies
between the official government and NGOs reports and the daily experience at schools.
Conducting such research may also reveal opportunities for deeper understanding of the
situation on the ground and create opportunities for more focused intervention.
Moreover, such research may lead to reevaluation of the global goals, objectives and
targets in order to increase efficiency of intervention and accelerate the progress
towards the global goals.
6.4 Quality
In this part of the study the results regarding improvements in terms of the quality of
education in Dambwa Township are presented. As it was mentioned in previous
62
chapters, the Zambian government recognizes that not only quantity and number of
children enrolled at schools, but quality of the education provided are equally important
in order to enhance the development of the country. Therefore, the MoE gives a
significant attention in its strategic plans to improve the quality of education in the
country following the global initiatives aims.
This part of the study is divided into three thematic parts. Firstly the results regarding the
quality of curriculum are presented and discussed. This is followed by looking at the
issue of books and learning materials. And finally the data regarding the teachers at
Dambwa schools is presented and discussed.
6.4.1 Development of Curriculum
The new curriculum was implemented into practice at Zambian schools in 2007. The
teachers and head teachers presented their anxieties regarding the curriculum.
Firstly, according to teachers and head teachers, the curriculum and the topics are in
some cases too advanced and inappropriate for the age of pupils. This applies mainly for
lower grades. The teachers find English and the topics on sex and reproductive health to
be the main issues. In addition, the teachers share the notion that sexual education for
the pupils of age 7 – 8 years are significantly inappropriate.
The actual intention behind the insertion of this topic
into curriculum is to educate children about HIV and
AIDS as a preventative measure of spreading the
disease. However, the anecdotal notion suggests
otherwise. The teachers find this to be contra productive
and encouraging children in beginning their sexual lives at
a younger age.
Secondly, most of the teachers stated that some of the
subjects are integrated and taught as a single subject.
Therefore, some topics which teachers find important has
become too shallow and in some cases they do not have
enough time to go through all the topics prescribed by the
“The new curriculum is too
advanced. The information is
shallow but the content is too advanced. For
example with grade 1 there are topics
we can not explain to children because
they do not understand. For
example topics like transmission of
HIV”
Grade 2 Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School
63
curriculum. Discrepancies between the curriculum and observed needs of pupils to learn
by the teachers are noticeable.
In terms of content, teachers find the new curriculum to be more empirical. However, this
life-skills oriented curriculum demands more teaching and learning materials besides the
textbooks for the purpose of demonstration, practice and experiments. These learning
materials are according to teachers missing or are inappropriate, hence the teaching and
learning is compromised.
With respect to the above reasons, teachers and head teachers would welcome a
revision of the current curriculum to meet appropriate needs of teaching and learning
process and match to the needs of pupils.
The background of creating the curriculum is rather controversial. According to the
findings from interviews, the curriculum is considered to be rather donor-oriented than
focused on appropriateness for Zambian pupils. The curricula have been completely
changed three times in last 11 years, depending on the sponsoring countries who
provide funding for the Zambian MoE. The sponsorship is tied to the conditions of the
donor country that makes the decisions on the content of the curriculum. The donor
countries not always fully understand the Zambian reality and impose their own cultural
viewpoint, the curriculum therefore becomes inappropriate for the Zambian pupils.
The secondary research also indicates the problems with donor-oriented projects
inappropriate for the cultural context of the beneficiaries. (Vandemoortele 2002, Farrel
and Hartwell 2008). However, in order to get funding in education sector, the
requirements of donors have to be accepted and included. Therefore, the lack of
finances within the education sector and need to get funding has an impact on the
quality of curriculum.
6.4.2 Provision of Learning Materials and Books
In order to provide a good quality education, the books and learning materials play a vital
role. Having enough and good quality of educational materials is a struggle for most of
the schools in Zambia. There are the four main sources from which schools acquire their
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books and educational materials: funding from the MoE, donations of books from the
MoE, donations of books from other organizations and charities and the PTA fund. The
MoE set the target for pupil-textbook ratio at 1:2. However, research in Dambwa shows
that this target was not achieved.
Table 7: Textbook-pupil ratioSchool Average textbook -
pupil ratio*Indeco Community School
1: 7
Livingstone Basic School
1 : 3
Mulwani Basic School 1 : 4Mujala Demonstration School
1 : 5
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
1 : 4
Average 1 : 4.6
MoE target by 2010 1 : 2*The ratio is calculated as an average of data collected by head teacher and teachers at a given school
The main reason for insufficient amount of books is the lack of finances. The head
teachers and teachers reported that the finances provided by the MoE which is 30% of
the funding provided for schools are not enough to buy books for all pupils. This is
demonstrated by the calculation at Box 5.
Box 5: Pupil-book ratio calculation on the basis of funding provided by the MoE
The calculation indicates that the books purchased only from the funding are far from
reaching the pupil – book targets. Therefore, the MoE provide books and learning
MoE funding for requisites per term……………………………..909 960 ZMK*Approximate cost of one book…………………………. ………..30 000 ZMKAverage number of pupils at Dambwa schools……...…………761**
Number of books possible to buy for the funding: 909 960 / 30 000 = 30.3
Pupil – book ratio according to these calculations: 1:25
*Calculated as 30% from average income per term of all researched schools (see Table 1):30 % from (2 500 000 + 3 000 000 + 3 333 000 + 3 333 000 + 3 000 000) / 5 = 909 960**Calculated as average number of pupils at all researched schools in Dambwa (see Table 2)
65
materials directly to schools. However, there are some issues reported in regards this
donations.
Firstly, the books from the MoE
and the other sources are provided
irregularly, therefore schools can not
predict when the books are going to be received. This may result in inefficiency as
schools might purchase books and after a short period of time receive the same books
from the MoE. The schools therefore spent the funding on books they do not necessarily
need.
Secondly, the decision about which book is provided to which school is made centrally
by the MoE and not upon request of schools. If the MoE have available books they
provide them to schools irrespective to the school’s needs. This can be considered as
inefficiency within the Zambian education system and the MoE.
“Books procurement for the schools is centrally managed from the headquarters in Lusaka they decide what is to be bought. And with our needs on ground many
times it varies with what they supply…They simply say we brought you this”
Head Teacher, Mujala Demonstration School
Moreover, the supply of essential learning materials such as maps, posters, charts etc
are inadequate. In most cases, the schools buy these materials from the funding, PTA
funds or even are made by the teachers. Teachers also usually pay for the material to
make the learning materials from their own resources.
As it was mentioned before the quality of educational materials and books play equally
important role as quantity. The teachers at schools reported minor issues with quality of
educational materials. Most of the issues are similar to the findings regarding the quality
of curriculum, as the materials and curriculum are closely connected. Some textbooks
are too advanced for pupils at certain age, some are too shallow in content and it would
be welcomed if the topic is explored more in depth. Some of the learning materials
provided by the MoE are not appropriate for the age of the pupils in terms of language,
especially using English at first grade. In terms of gender sensitiveness, teachers
reported they find the books to be well gender balanced. Overall, besides minor
“Sometimes we have to buy learning materials using our own money”
Grade 4 teacher, Mulwani Basic School
66
imperfections the teachers are generally happy with the textbooks and learning
materials.
6.4.3 Teacher Training
Discussing the quality of the education the sufficient amount of well trained and
professional teachers has to be taken into account. The Zambian government
recognizes the need for teachers and therefore focused on this issue in its strategic
plans.
In terms of teachers, the first priority is provision of enough teachers to reach the teacher
– pupil ratio 1:55. Despite the process being very slow as it takes time for teachers to be
trained and deployed at schools, the research at Dambwa schools revealed that the
target of 1:55 teacher-pupils ratio was met. The results are presented in table below.
Table 8: Teacher-pupil ratioSchool Average teacher -
pupil ratio*Indeco Community School
1: 69
Livingstone Basic School
1 : 48
Mulwani Basic School 1 : 56Mujala Demonstration School
1 : 43
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
1 : 50
Average 1 : 53.2
MoE target by 2010 1 : 55*The ratio is calculated as an average of data collected by head teacher and teachers at a given school
However, according to the primary research, the ratio is still very high. Teachers
reported they have difficulties in providing attention to each child to extent a good-quality
teaching would require.
In Zambian education system it is not the schools choosing and hiring teachers,
teachers are sent by the MoE upon the request from schools and are directly paid by the
MoE. The process of hiring teachers takes long period of time as the MoE verifies the
school’s needs, make decision on weather the teacher is needed and select the teacher.
The schools do not have a choice over the teachers they have to accept the teachers
“The ratio 1:55 is normal for the MoE,
but it is still too much… The number
is not ok”
Grade 4 Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School
67
which are sent to them. This system could be considered as highly bureaucratic and
inefficient, taking the decision-making power from the schools and extending the time of
hiring.
This system of appointing teachers has a significant impact on schools in terms of
quantity of teachers provided by the MoE, but on the quality of education provided by
schools as the decision-making process takes place out of schools. The secondary
research suggest the importance of decentralization and handing-over the decision
making power to the lower levels (Levine and Birdsall, 2005).
“Whatever decision comes from the top we can not change here at the grassroots”
Head Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School
In terms of community schools, the process is even more complicated. The community
schools which are not fully incorporated to the structures of the MoE get fewer teachers
by the MoE in comparison with the government schools. Part of the teachers has to be
therefore hired and paid by the school which increases expenses of the schools. The
remuneration for these teachers is lower compared to the government teachers which
result in low motivation and affect the quality of teaching. By this, poor and vulnerable
children are disadvantaged which leads to their further marginalization as they do not get
quality of education equal to the government schools.
Considering the overall quality of education provided, the research revealed a lot of
opportunities for improvements. The Zambian government recognizes the importance of
the qualitative aspect of education and giving a significant effort to improve.
Some of the targets still has not been achieved by the past deadlines, some has.
However, the research revealed the meeting of the set targets is not an assurance of a
good quality education provided.
In order to advance the quality of education in the country, the government needs to
recognize the weakest points which in this case are the structures and procedures within
the education sector. Decentralization, less bureaucracy and simplifying the procedures
of procurement of books and hiring teachers would lead to higher efficiency, lower costs
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and more decision making power at the school level which directly affect the quality of
education provided.
6.5 Effectiveness and Efficiency
Targeting the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of Zambian education system,
the government identified three main areas of focusing the attention to: school
performance, teacher management and pupil’s performance. According to the research
school and pupil’s performance has improved in last few years; however the teacher
management is still facing difficulties at schools in Dambwa.
6.5.1 School Performance
For the improvement of overall school performance and the quality of education provided
the MoE has focused its attention to the monitoring of schools by the school inspections
in terms of regularity and depth. According to head teachers and DEBs, the school
inspections are taking place at least once a year. During these inspections all areas of
the running of schools are checked including finances, teachers and pupils performance,
condition of school’s assets etc. The feedback from the MoE is provided to schools. The
feedback includes highlighting of the shortcomings and suggested interventions for
improving the status as well as approvals and appreciation of successes.
Interviews revealed that in general there are no major issues regarding the school
inspections and its procedures at Dambwa schools. The MoE has successfully managed
to implement the school monitoring objective.
The school inspections however could be used, besides monitoring the performance of
schools, as a communication channel between schools and the education authorities.
During the school inspections the information on struggles and difficulties of schools
could be gathered and communicated back to the authorities. The interventions for
addressing the issues could be outlined and included in the strategic plans which would
help the country to progress towards fulfillment of the global goals faster and more
effectively. According to the secondary research (Vandemoortele, 2002), considering
information regarding the local context is important in outlining of the strategic plans to
69
avoid imposing the general policies inappropriately. According to the primary research,
this will have an impact on both micro and macro levels.
6.5.2 Teacher Management and Motivation
The Zambian government and the global education initiatives are aware of need of the
good and motivated teachers to have a positive impact on pupils. Therefore a clear
policy on teachers’ management and motivation has been formulated and implemented
at the national level in Zambia.
Teachers’ management focuses on the monitoring of teachers performance at schools
by the school management and the MoE representatives. According to the research at
selected schools in Dambwa the monitoring and evaluation of teachers performance is
taking place on regular basis. The majority of monitoring activities is performed by the
school management and head teachers. These include classroom observation, checking
the preparation books, presentation skills and suitability of topics and general
performance of teachers.
Regularity of monitoring varies
from school to school and
from teacher to teacher.
The teacher observations in classroom are performed once in one to six months, the
teachers preparation books are checked once per one to four weeks. New and
professionally junior teachers are monitored more regularly than senior and experienced
teachers.
The research revealed the feedback is given to the teachers including praise and
criticisms of teachers’ performance. Teachers at all selected schools reported that they
benefit from the given feedback, helping them to improve their performance and find the
monitoring and feedback important aspect of communication with the school
management.
Teachers’ performance is being monitored by the MoE as well, however the depth and
regularity of the monitoring is undermined by the capacity of the MoE. The number of
school inspectors at the MoE is insufficient to monitor all the teachers to be in line with
the MoE policy. According to the MoE regulations, the monitoring of teachers should
take place at least once per year. Teachers at Dambwa schools are usually checked by
the MoE inspectors once per 18 – 24 months. The research revealed that in case of the
“I find feedback from head teacher useful”
Grade 2 teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School
70
teachers monitoring the MoE has to improve the regularity of monitoring at schools in
order to fulfill its policy.
The school management recognizes the importance of the teachers monitoring and its
benefits for the schools and pupils. Therefore the school management perform monitoring
and evaluation of teachers as their own initiative without being controlled by the MoE. The
research revealed no major issues with monitoring of teachers at the school level,
however, monitoring from the MoE require an intervention to make it more efficient and
more regular.
One of the biggest issues in Zambian education system that interferes with efficiency
and effectiveness objectives is the teacher motivation and career progression. According
to the research at Dambwa schools the main motivating factor
for teachers in their personal feeling of satisfaction by
giving pupils knowledge and helping to improve their
lives. By this teachers feel to benefit the children, families
and the whole community.
Teachers reported only minimal external motivation. Teachers’ most commonly complain
about the low salary and poor benefits.
Comparing help and support from the school management and the MoE, teachers feel
supported by the school management; however from the MoE the support is minimal.
In terms of career progression, all teachers reported difficulties in this case. The only
possible way of progressing in the career is through further studies; however promotion
is usually hindered by the high level of bureaucracy within the education sector.
Teachers reported significant difficulties with their studies as the tuition fees are high and
the support from the MoE in terms of grants or loans is minimal. The MoE provide
financial support only to three or four teachers in the province per term. This forces
teachers to study and work in parallel which inevitably interfere with their school
performance as well as study results. The only support teachers receive from the school
is time off during the exams, however, schools do not provide any extra time off for
preparation and studies.
“Salary is too little, we live cheap lives.”
Grade 4 teacher, Mulwani Basic School
71
“The accountability of teachers to their classes gets compromised by the fact that MoE is not able to sponsor enough teachers to go officially for their studies…the
only way to help teacher is simply to allow them to go and sit at their exams… which then steals them, I am using the word steal from the class when they are
supposed to be teaching”Head Teacher, Mujala Demonstration School
The poor coordination within the education sector is significant mainly in cases when
teaching and study timetables clashes. In such cases teachers are not allowed the time
off their work, are left to self-study and rearrangements with their supervisors needs to
be established. Teachers would welcome more support from their schools in terms of
providing free time for their studies. However, according to the head teachers, such
arrangements are not possible as the schools do not have enough teachers to cover the
absent teachers.
In terms of bureaucracy within the education sector and its
influence on the teacher’s career progression, the main
issue the teachers reported is the long period of time
between career achievements and recognition of these
achievements by the MoE. According to teachers it takes
more than year to get promoted after finishing course or a
degree.
The secondary research agrees to the findings from the primary research. “Teachers
motivation is a concern, due to low salaries, lack of suitable accommodation and
services and low status of the profession” (IOB, 2008, p 179). The combination of the
low salaries and benefits with almost no support in personal growth and poor recognition
of the personal ambitions results in discouragement of teachers and have a certain
impact on their performance. Fortunately, the teachers are still able to find an inner
personal motivation by perceiving their work as beneficial for the community and the
whole society.
In order to fulfill the global goals, Zambian government needs to give a greater
recognition to the teachers as they are the important figures in this global education
effort. It is not only pupil-teacher ratios that play role in provision of good quality
education, but the teachers’ motivation and the wellbeing which motivate them to
continue with the effort.
“For a teacher to get promoted it takes sometimes a year, sometimes it can
take even two years”
Head Teacher, Livingstone Basic
School
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6.5.3 Pupils’ Performance
Pupils’ performance is one of the most important indicators of a good quality and
effective education system. Learning achievements has become one of the strategic
priorities of the global initiatives (UNESCO, 2010). Setting up the criteria for measuring
pupils’ performance should be therefore priority for the education sector. In Zambia, the
criteria have been clearly set aiming to monitor pupils’ performance on regular basis.
There are three levels of pupils’ performance monitoring in Zambian education sector:
school level, district level and the state level.
At the school level it is the responsibility of schools to establish pupils’ performance
monitoring system. The monitoring at school level includes tests, homework and
examinations. The research indicates that the uneven frequency in monitoring results is
one of the challenges faced by the schools. Some schools reported the tests and
examinations taking place once per fortnight, some schools run examinations at the end
of each month depending on the resources and enthusiasm of the teachers and head
teachers.
At the district level, the monitoring is based on comparing the test and exam results from
the zonal examinations within the district. These exams take place once per term and
are beneficial for the schools in terms of giving feedback to schools by comparing the
results with other schools within the district.
The state level monitoring of pupils’ performance is focused mainly on the grade seven
final exam results as it is the end of primary school for pupils. Comparing the results
from schools and districts provide information on the individual children, schools within
the districts as well as the DEBs performances.
According to the strategic plans, the aim is to increase the completion rate, which means
passing at the grade 7 exams, to 86%. The Table 9 presents the grade 7 final exams
completion rate at the Dambwa schools.
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Table 9: Grade 7 final exams results
School Grade 7 pass at final exams in 2005 (%)
Grade 7 pass at final exams in 2010 (%)
Indeco Community School n/a 75Livingstone Basic School 77.3 100Mulwani Basic School 35 81Mujala Demonstration School
76 93
Zambezi Sawmills Community School
33 75,7
Average 55.32 84.94MoE overall national results n/a 81.15
According to these results, the pupils’ performance has significantly improved. However,
the target of 86% has not been achieved, although the average at national level as well
as at Dambwa schools is very close. From the researched schools two have managed to
reach the target: Livingstone Basic and Mujala Demonstration. Comparing these data
with Table 3 these two schools has the highest school fees towards PTA. On the other
hand, the two community schools which accommodate the poor and vulnerable children
have in long term the worst performance at grade seven final exams. According to these
results the connection between school incomes and pupils’ performance is clear. At the
same time, the marginalization of poor and vulnerable and sustaining the poverty and
vulnerability by the education system in the country is according to this research
persistent.
The improvements in pupils’ performance can be considered as a great success of
Zambian education and these results are proudly presented to the public and the global
community. However, looking deeper at the issue and analyzing the data and context at
the school level might reveal a different story, a story of discrimination and
marginalization. Therefore, looking at national average results is not sufficient enough to
evaluate the success or failures. It is needed to look at the context of the successes and
failures and address the issue at the school level in order to evaluate pupils’
performance more accurately.
Another mean of monitoring pupils’ performance is the dropout rate. In Zambia,
however, this criterion is challenging to be measured. It is difficult for schools to estimate
whether a child has relocated to another school or drop out from school completely as
the information and statistic systems in Zambia are at a poor level. Therefore it is very
74
difficult to track every child in the Zambia and check whether a child has been relocated
or drop out from school.
The Zambian government aims to decrease the drop out rate to 4%. The field research
at Dambwa schools however fails to obtain the information on the drop out rate due to
the ambiguity regarding the drop out children and their further lives. Schools are unable
to provide the drop out information as the reasons for children leaving is unclear to them
as well. In Zambian culture it is usual that children are relocated within the family and
live with the other relatives rather than parents. Therefore movement of children is at the
high level and estimating whether a child continue with education elsewhere is
challenging. Therefore in this study the drop out rate is opting out to avoid providing
misleading information.
The secondary research also suggests difficulties with measurement. Maligalig, (2003)
pointed out that one of major difficulty in measuring global progress is lack of baseline
and sub-national data. The findings from primary research support the criticisms by
providing evidence on problems with baseline data gathering, as it was in case of the
drop-out rate data.
Using the data on progression rate as a mean of monitoring of pupils performance is
misleading as well. The research at schools revealed lack of objective criteria for
progression of pupils except recommendation from teachers and head teachers.
However, it is up to decision of parents and care takers of pupils to decide if a pupil
progress to next level or repeat the year. The repetition rate is according to interviews
highest at the first and the sixth grade. The first is due to making sure the pupil managed
to acquire the basic knowledge upon which the knowledge is broadened at further levels
and the latter is due to avoiding the disappointment of failing at grade seven final exams
in case the pupil is not performing up to required level.
Leaving the final decision on progression of pupils is, however, inappropriate for two
reasons. Firstly, pupils with a poorer performance might hold back the rest of the class
by requiring more attention from the teacher and by adjusting the demands from the
class according to the pupils with poor performance.
75
Secondly, the cases where parents and care takers observe the repetition of a child as
financial burden on the whole family are in Zambian context not unusual. These cases
are prevalent mainly with children from economically deprived families and therefore
such policies lead to detriment of the poor and vulnerable children.
Another problem with progression policies are directly connected to the quality of
education provided. The global initiatives as well as national plans focus on the quality
and learning achievements, however, if a child progress to higher grade without having
necessary skills and competences, the learning achievements are hindered. The
observation at the Indeco Community School revealed that only three out of 34 children
at levels three and four were able to fluently read and write in English. This finding is in
accordance with the secondary research of reports and articles focused on the learning
achievements (EFA 2010, World Bank 2005, Alexander 2008, Filmer et al 2006) which
indicate the literacy skills of pupils are generally very poor. If the MoE of Zambia aspires
to improve the performance of pupils the criteria of progression needs to be addressed.
Monitoring the progress towards global education goal in terms of improving efficiency
and effectiveness in the Zambian context is according to the field research noticeable.
This is due to strong reliance on average national data with lack of attention to the local
context. Conducting a qualitative research at the school level might reveal that the reality
in the field might differ from the official government and NGOs reports. In order to
assess the actual progress towards the global initiatives looking at the local context is
important in order to get a real picture of the situation in the education sector.
6.6 EQUITY
This part of the study is focused on presenting and analysis of the information from
interviews that are linked to the improvements in equal opportunities for all children
provided by the education system in Zambia. There are several categories which aim to
be the focus of intervention by the Zambian government: orphaned and vulnerable
children (OVC), children affected by HIV and AIDS, children with special education
needs (CSEN) and girls.
76
Looking at the government financial support towards equity, the set target is to provide
20% of the school funding to support OVC, girls, CSEN and children with HIV or AIDS.
At present time, the allocation of financial resources from the MoE towards the equity
goal is 15% (See diagram 5). According to head teachers, there is no extra funding
provided by the MoE towards these category besides the regular quarterly financing.
Most of the schools receive small support from NGOs, CBOs and churches either in
financial or material form. This help is, however, insufficient to cover the needs of all
vulnerable and SEN children at schools. The cases when teachers and head teachers
support vulnerable children from their own resources are, according to primary research,
not unusual.
6.6.1 Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
The number of orphaned children (when either one or both parents died) and vulnerable
children who are either from economically deprived families or has suffered physical or
mental abuse is high. According to the statistics, there are 1.2 million orphaned and
vulnerable children in Zambia. (UNICEF, 2009).
The MoE and the Government of Zambia set the target to the 5% of all children enrolled
at school to be OVC children. According to the findings from the field research, the
number of the OVC children is difficult to estimate as the precise definition of
vulnerability is missing. This is due to the fact that vulnerability is not measured on the
basis of quantitative indicators but on the qualitative ones. Therefore the vulnerability
and non-vulnerability has no clear cut distinction. For example, some children who are
orphaned are not necessarily considered as vulnerable as their care takers provide a
stable family background. Therefore, vulnerability needs to be estimated on the
individual level.
All teachers and head teachers from visited schools estimate the vulnerability on the
basis of long-term experiences in working with children as well as using their common
sense. Based on their estimation, there is definitely higher number of OVC children at all
schools than 5%. With community schools the percentage is close to 100% and the
Indeco School enroll the OVC children only.
However, from the observation at the streets of Dambwa Township, as well as from the
secondary research (ZOSC, 2008) many children do not go to any school, or the
77
absenteeism is high. For this reason, the Zambian government should express higher
ambition than 5% in terms of the OVC enrolment rate as the problem require
considerably higher attention, resources and commitment if the problem is taken
seriously and the government is honest with addressing the issue properly.
Establishing community schools brings another controversy into the issue of equity. The
primary as well as secondary research (ZOSC, 2008) revealed that the purpose of
establishing community schools is to provide access to the poor and vulnerable children.
The community schools in Dambwa Township require lower PTA contributions in
comparison with the government and private schools. The lower fees makes schooling
accessible for the poor and vulnerable, however this encourages separation of the poor
and vulnerable from the rest of the society.
Another issue with the community schools is according to the primary research lower
learning achievements and worse results at final exams. This indicates that poor and
vulnerable children have access to education of lower quality with lower learning
achievements. The linkage between poverty and vulnerability, finances available to
schools and learning achievement is demonstrated in the Table 10. The community
schools accommodating mainly poor and vulnerable have less financial resources as
well as lower learning achievements.
Table 10: PTA funding contributions compared to grade 7 final exams
School PTA Contribution per term (ZKW)
Grade 7 pass at final exams in 2010 (%)
Indeco Community School 25 000 75
Livingstone Basic School 75 000
60 000
100
Mulwani Basic School 40 000 81
Mujala Demonstration
School
45 000 93
Zambezi Sawmills
Community School
25 000 75,7
78
6.6.2 Children Infected or Affected with HIV and AIDS
The HIV and AIDS issues are one of the top priorities to be addressed by the Zambian
government. Therefore addressing the issue has been implemented into the all aspects
of social life including education. According to the secondary research, Zambia has
made a serious progress in implementing the HIV and AIDS policies within the education
sector by providing funding for infected or affected pupils as well as implementing the
topic into the school curricula (IOB, 2008).
One of the most significant policies on HIV and AIDS at schools is discussing the issue
with pupils on a daily basis. Although this policy seems to be an adequate form of
building awareness, this might not be the case at all times. The interviews revealed that
discussing the issues regarding sex with children at grades 1 and 2 might be rather
contra productive, as this might encourage the pupils to get involved in sexual activities
at the earlier age.
In terms of provision of support to the pupils infected
or affected by the HIV and AIDS, there is a difficulty
with targeting the pupils. The fear of stigmatization and
discrimination by the society deter pupils and parents
to reveal their health condition to the teachers and
head teachers. The teachers and head teachers tend
to find out only when the health condition of a pupil starts to interfere with the schooling
process. The number of children with the HIV and AIDS is for this reason unclear and
the support for such children is in most cases undelivered. If the exact data are not
available at school levels the data presented at the state level are therefore highly
suspicious. Therefore, the measurement of progress at the global level seems to be in
the context of this research rather a guess than a reliable statistics.
6.6.3 Girls
In terms of improving the schooling of girls, Zambia has made a significant progress
which is supported by both, primary and secondary research. The policy of positive
discrimination in preferring the enrolment of girls at primary schools is taking place at all
five schools researched. This resulted in slightly higher number of girls enrolled than
“We don’t ask pupils if they have HIV for the fear of
stigmatization”
(Head Teacher, Mujala Demonstration School)
79
boys. Increased enrolment rate of girls at Dambwa schools correspond with the global
trends of increased enrolment rates of girls at the primary level (UNESCO, 2010) which
can be considered as a positive sign of girls and women’s empowerment.
On the other hand, the drop-out rate of girls is still higher in comparison with boys, which
reflects the findings from the secondary research on the drop-out rate in Zambia (Hooper
et al 2008, IOB 2008, MoE - NIF 2007). The reasons for higher drop out rate in girls
according to primary research vary. It could be due to sickness of a family member
where traditional gender role prescribe women and girls to care for the sick family
members and due to the early pregnancies and marriages of girls. However, as it was
mentioned earlier in this paper, it is difficult to track the drop out rate in the Zambian
context.
“Drop out rate is high for girls… they get pregnant or there are the cases of early marriages… In order to stop the child to proceed to grade 8, fast, fast they
[parents] will make child to get married so the child don’t give headache to their parents”
Head Teacher, Zambezi Sawmills Community School
Besides the support from the government in terms of creating policies and frameworks, a
great attention is given to educating girls in Zambia by the NGOs and CBOs.
Organizations such as FAWEZA are directly targeting the girl-pupils and provide
financial and material support in form of free uniforms, books and stationery.
The support of girls at the primary level of education in Zambia in terms of policy making
is strong, which has already brought its fruits. On the other hand to accelerate the
progress, more financial resources need to be allocated for education of girls by the
education authorities.
6.6.4 Children with Special Education Needs
In terms of children with special education needs, the situation according to the research
seems to be difficult as well. Only one of the interviewed teachers reported feeling
confident when approaching the CSEN due to the specialization in this area during the
teacher training. All other teachers reported that they do not know how to appropriately
approach the CSEN which in most cases results in ignoring them. The teachers reported
80
the training provided during their training is not sufficient and they would welcome extra
training in order to learn how to approach the CSEN.
Another problem with the CSEN is they are often not detected by the teachers in the
class. According to teachers it is very difficult and challenging for them to give
appropriate attention to all children individually due to the high teacher-pupil ratios in the
classrooms. Therefore, many of the CSEN children remain unheeded and left without
the adequate support.
According to the DEBs there is a negative attitude in general towards the CSEN by the
teachers as well as the school administration which needs to be addressed in order to
provide greater support for these children.
Only one of the schools researched provide targeted education to the CSEN in form of
the special class established with seven pupils. Other schools usually recommend
parents or care takers to relocate the pupil to a school with such special classes for the
CSEN. However, according to the research, schools with special classes for the CSEN
in Dambwa require higher contributions towards the PTA which make these schools for
some of the children inaccessible. This leads to further marginalization of the CSEN
children as they do not get adequate education and
support.
The analysis of primary research revealed that the
support from the MoE to the girls, CSEN, OVC and
children with HIV / AIDS is minimal. Community
schools substitute the role of government schools in providing education to these
children. However, the community schools have less financial resources available than
the government schools which has an effect on the quality of the education. According to
the primary research, community schools are unable to provide education of an equal
quality to the government schools which results in poorer exam performance of the
pupils. Therefore, the MoE should either provide greater support for the community
schools in terms of resources, or channel the resources through government schools to
enable accommodation for all children regardless their economic background, disability
or health status.
“I don’t know how to approach the girl [CSEN
pupil] so I just ignore her.”
Grade 4 teacher, Mulwani Basic School
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7. Conclusion
The research aimed to assess the state of the education sector at the global and
Zambian level by means of the secondary research and evaluate the progress towards
EFA and UPE initiatives. The findings were compared with the results from primary
research targeted to evaluate the authentic information concerning the progression and
accomplishment of the national and global educational goals in selected schools where
the plans were implemented.
Primary schools at Dambwa Township are facing several difficulties and challenges on a
daily basis, which hinder the provision of a good quality education to its pupils. Although
the Zambian government and the MoE have elaborated the strategic plans, reforms and
policies in accordance with global initiatives, implementing them at the school level has
succeeded partially. The primary research revealed that schools at Dambwa Township
are unable to achieve the objectives and targets set in the national plans in any of the
strategic priorities.
The major challenge for the schools is insufficient resources available for daily
management of the schools and for the implementing of the strategic plans at those
schools. According to the study, the funding provided by the government was insufficient
to cover the school expenses. Therefore schools have to find funding from other
resources. The major schools income source still remains parents and families of pupils
despite the Free Primary Education Policy established in 2002 which contradicts the
global aim of free primary education to all children worldwide.
Lack of financial resources has negative effect on provision of education at schools. The
primary research revealed the access to schools is conditioned by the financial
contributions of parents and families of pupils towards the PTA funds. This is opposing
the policy of equity where all children including girls, OVC, CSEN and children with
HIV/AIDS should have equal opportunities in accessing the primary education. The
financial burden has rather discriminative effect where the poor and vulnerable children
prefer to attend community schools with lower PTA contribution and are affordable to
them, but the quality of education provided is compromised.
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Moreover, primary research indicates that further government support towards Equity as
a strategic priority is minimal.
The enrolment rate of the OVC, girls, CSEN and children with HIV/AIDS at the primary
education has in past few years significantly increased in Zambia mainly due to the
increase in number of community schools. However, when focusing on equity and
equality it is not only access that is important indicator but the quality of provided
education as well. The primary research revealed differences in the learning
achievements between the government and the community schools which indicate the
marginalization of these groups of children is persistent. Further research on comparison
of the learning achievements in community and government schools in Zambia is
recommended to gather deeper information in the matter.
Provision of the primary education to marginalized groups of children is one of the major
focuses of the initiatives at the global level. The secondary research revealed significant
improvements around the globe; however, the case study from Zambia indicates
discrepancies in measurements of successes which can be transferred to the global
level as well resulting in the distortion of real picture.
Fulfilling the Efficiency and Effectiveness strategic priority at schools in Dambwa
Township which was set by the MoE and the Zambian government is facing several
challenges as well. According to the primary research, the main difficulty in this category
is the management and motivation of teachers. Low salaries and benefits, lack of career
progress opportunities, low social status of teachers and lack of scholarships provided
towards teachers’ education have negative effect on teachers’ motivation.
In terms of pupils performance, Dambwa schools has significantly improved, however,
the national targets have not been met at all researched schools.
The national strategic plans set the targets and indicators predominantly in quantitative
terms focusing mainly on ratios. In this term, both the teacher-pupils and the textbook-
pupils ratios set as indicators of success have significantly improved in past years.
However, the qualitative aspects such as learning achievements of pupils are taken into
83
account by the education authorities only peripherally. Primary as well as secondary
research revealed significant dilemma in pupil’s learning achievements in Zambia.
The learning achievements of pupils have became one of the major concerns of the
global initiatives. The global community recognized that focusing on the quantitative
indicators of education without taking into account the quality of education provided will
not achieve the aim, which is equipping the pupils with skills and abilities useful for their
further life. Measuring the progress in quality of education at the global scale is
challenging, but important in order to gain a real picture on the matter and in case of
failure to adequately intervene and improve the status. Focusing on quality of education
provided and setting adequate measurements and indicators is therefore recommended
at the global and the national level.
Improving access to the primary education is the most successful strategic indicator. The
secondary research revealed significant increase in the primary education enrolment
rate mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa where the provision of primary education is
considered to be challenging. Zambia experienced similar success in rapid increase of
the enrolment rate at primary schools during the past decade. This is mainly due to the
building school infrastructure at rural areas and increased number of community
schools. Primary research, however, revealed that in the urban area of Dambwa
Township, the problem with access to primary school is persistent. The existing
infrastructure cannot facilitate all the children living in the area resulting in high number
of the out-of-school children in Dambwa. The projects focused on providing more
schools and classrooms in the area have been minimal. Giving adequate attention to
provision of education in urban areas by the Zambian government and the MoE is
therefore recommended.
The global education initiatives such as EFA and UPE are generally considered to be a
positive step towards improving the provision of education at a global scale. However,
the criticisms of their policies and implementation strategies can not be ignored as some
severe errors occurred. These errors were subsequently transferred to the state and
school level, where negatively influencing on schools and pupils performance. The major
issues can be identified in lack of understanding of the local context, assumption of one-
size-fits-all policy to be adequate for fulfillment of the goals, inadequate indicators set for
84
measurement of progress and success, lack of commitment from donors in provision of
resources, and unassailability of the set targets. These issues need to be addressed and
minimize in order to fulfill the global aspirations in provision of good quality primary
education to all children around the world.
85
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Appendix 1: Interview Questions (Teachers)
Date Place Duration Time Gender
1, Do you have sufficient amount of learning materials?
2, Do you find these materials to be of a good quality?
3, Do you follow the national curriculum?
4, Do you find the curriculum to be of a good quality?
5, Are you happy with the number of pupils in your class?
6, Do you feel motivated?
7, What motivates you?
8, Are you happy with your salary?
9, Are you paid on time and on regular basis?
10, Do you receive any non-salary benefits such as housing allowance?
11, Do you have any career progression opportunities?
12, Do you get regular feedback on your performance?
13, Do you have SEN, OVC, HIV/AIDS children in your classroom
14, Have you receive any special training on approaching these children?
15, Are there any special programs on mitigation and impact of HIV/AIDS and other
social and health related issues?
16, Are you happy at your school, are you happy to be a teacher?
Further comments
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Appendix 2: Interview Questions (Head Teachers)
Interviewee ContactDate Place Time Duration
School:Date of establishing:No. of pupils grade 1-7:No of boys / girls:No of classrooms:No of teachers:
ACCESS:1, Has number of classrooms increased in last years?2, Has enrolment rate increased in last years?3, Have you received any funding from MoE to support enrolment rate increase?4, Do you have any projects to increase enrolment rate / classroom ( eg.World Food Programme)6, Do you use double shifting (morning and afternoon classes)?5, Do pupils pay extra fees to be allowed to school?6, Do pupils have to have school uniform?7, Do you consider funding from MoE to be sufficient to cover your expenses?7, Do you have any issues with receiving funding from the MoE?8, Do you have any other sources of income?
QUALITY1, Are you familiar with new curriculum, do you follow it?2, Have your educational materials increased in last years?3, Are the study materials gender-sensitive?4, What is the pupil/book ratio?5, Has the number of teachers increased in last years?6, In case you wish to increase number of teachers, do you have possibilities/funding?
Efficiency and Effectiveness1, Do you regularly monitor pupils performance? How?2, Do you monitor teachers performance? How?3, Do you give regular feedback to teachers on their performance?4, Do you have regular inspections from the MoE?5, Do the teachers have progression opportunities?6, What is the dropout rate?7, What is the repetition rate?8, What is the grade 7 exams achievement?9, What are the progression criteria for pupils?
EQUITY1, How many children with SENHIV/AIDSOVCdo you have at school?2, Do they receive any extra support?
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3, Do you receive any extra funding for them?4, Do you have any programs on mitigation and impact on HIV/AIDS and other social and health issues?5, Do teachers receive special training on awareness regarding OVC, SEN, HIV/AIDS issues?6, Has the enrolment rate of girls increased in last few years?
Further Comments
91
Appendix 3: Interview Questions (DEBs)
Name:Position:
How many basic 1-7 grade schools are in Dambwa Township?How many of the schools are: community, government, other? How many pupils are enrolled at primary schools in Dambwa Township?How many pupils in Dambwa are out of school? How many teachers are teaching at Dambwa Township primary schools?
Where the MoE receive money from? Does Zambian government receive finances from foreign donors?
Access:Are you aware that parents have to pay for schooling and uniforms?Are there any plans to increase funding for schools? On what basis are the money allocated?What is the reason behind delays in sending the funding from the Moe to schools?Has the enrolment rate at Dambwa Township primary schools increase in last years?
How many infrastructure projects has been completed at Dambwa schools in recent years?Are there any other projects at Dambwa schools to increase enrolment?PTA sensitizing to allow children to come to schoolWhat is the competition rate at Dambwa primary schools?What are the reasons for establishing community schools in Dambwa?
QualityAre you familiar with new curriculum? How do you find it?Do you receive complaints from school?Are there any plans for revisiting the current curriculum in near future?Schools complain about insufficient amount of learning materials. Can you comment on that?Schools complain about insufficient teachers at schools. Can you comment on that?Are there enough trained teachers to be placed at schools?On what basis you allocate teachers? What are the criteria?How do you monitor pupils performance?How do you monitor teachers performance?
Efectiveness
How do you monitor schools? What do you check?Are there any interesting findings from school inspection worth of mentioning?Do teacher have any career progression opportunities?Do teachers receive any support from MoE?
Does the MoE have any plans for reducing bureaucracy in the education sector?
Equity:Is there any support from MoE towards SEN, OVC, HIV/AIDS?
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Are there any specialized programs taking place for SEN, OVC and HIV / AIDS children?Does the MoE developed a specialized curricula for CSEN?Are there any special program in supporting girls education?Are there any special program in supporting children with HIV / AIDS education?
Further Comments
93
Appendix 4: Statistical Data on Primary EducationSource: EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2010
Primary enrolment 1999 and 2007 (in millions)
Total enrolment in 1999
Total enrolment in 2007
World 646 694
Developing Countries
559 615
Developed countries
70 66
Countries in transition
16 13
Sub-Saharan Africa
82 124
Out of school children in 1999 and 2007 (in millions)
1999 2007
World 105 72
Developing Countries
101 68
Developed countries
1,7 2,3
Countries in transition
1,4 0,8
Sub-Saharan Africa
45 32
94
Out-of-school girls from the total out-of school population at primary level (in %)
1999 2007
World 58 54
Developing Countries 58 55
Developed countries 50 44
Countries in transition 51 50
Sub-Saharan Africa 54 54
Pupil/teacher ratio – number of pupils per teacher
1999 2006
World 25 25
Developing Countries 27 27
Developed countries 16 14
Countries in transition 20 17
Sub-Saharan Africa 41 44
Total public expenditure on education as % of GNP
1999 2006
World 4,6 4,9
Developing Countries 4,5 4,5
Developed countries 5 5,3
Countries in transition 3,9 3,5
Sub-Saharan Africa 3,5 4,5
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