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.

…………………………… …………………………Signed Date

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

95