Zambia: Education for All 2015 national review

Zambia: Education for All 2015 national review

book

Corporate author

  • Zambia. Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education

Collation

  • 44 p.

Language

  • English

Year of publication

  • 2014

          Zambia    Education for All 2015 National Review      This report was prepared by the relevant national authorities in view of the World Education Forum (Incheon, Republic of Korea,  19‐22 May 2015). It was submitted in response to UNESCO’s invitation to its Member States to assess progress made since 2000  towards achieving Education for All (EFA).   The  views and  opinions  expressed  in  this document  are  those of  the authors and do not  commit UNESCO. The designations  employed  and  the  presentation  of material  do  not  imply  the  expression  of  any  opinion whatsoever  on  the  part  of UNESCO  concerning  the  legal  status  of  any  country,  territory,  city  or  area  or  of  its  authorities,  or  concerning  the  delimitation  of  its  frontiers or boundaries.     The  paper  can  be  cited with  the  following  reference:  “Education  for All  2015 National  Review  Report:  Zambia”.  For  further  information, please contact: [email protected] Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE) 2014 Zambia  EDUCATION FOR ALL 2015 NATIONAL REVIEW Page 1 of 43   Foreword Against a background of enrolment stagnation from the mid to late 1990s, Zambia has since 2000 opened the door for more than 1.2 million additional learners to the basic school system. The phenomenal growth in access and participation is the result of four decisive factors: Pragmatic policy initiatives to counteract factors limiting participation particularly among poverty stricken groups; increased budgetary allocations to the education sector; communities taking action given the magnitude of the challenges the government faced in providing educational services; and concerted action from the international community. The combinations of these measures have enabled the country to meet key milestones outlined in Zambia’s 2005 Education for All (EFA) operational framework. Addressing all six EFA goal areas, the government has been able to make new funding commitments to education and taken policy action to institute measures to expand opportunities in early learning, primary and secondary education. Indeed, the education sector receives the largest budgetary allocation at approximately 20 percent of the total national budget. About 68 percent of this allocation goes towards personnel emoluments leaving just below a third of the budget for other non-Personnel Emolument programmes. Coupled with other demographic challenges, access remains a huge challenge in high density areas as school places are still insufficient. Long distances between schools in rural areas also limit access particularly for children in the early grades and this is further complicated by migratory and resettlement practices brought about by economic imperatives. The government’s decision to expand early learning services is intended to provide access to more children early. Community action has been crucial in this regard. Since 2000, communities, working with civil society organisations and cooperating partners, have helped to create over 550,000 new places through the establishment of community schools. With the expansion of school enrollments, challenges of improving the quality and relevance of education have arisen. Over the Fifth National Development Plan period, (2006 – 2010) Zambia set the target of hiring 5,000 teachers annually to reduce high pupil teacher ratios particularly in rural areas. The government has also taken steps, including improving conditions of service and requiring teachers to serve a minimum two years before requesting to be moved, to reduce teacher attrition which tends to be high in rural areas. The persistence of low learning achievement scores across the board, however, shows that more needs to be done. Accordingly, Zambia has prioritized quality and relevance for its post 2015 agenda for education. Key to this agenda is the execution of the recently introduced primary school curriculum and the two-tier education system that offers academic and skills education. In this regard, the government wishes to reaffirm its unequivocal commitment to ensure that any child, pushed out of the educational system will have an alternative opportunity to continue with their acquisition of skills and knowledge. As in its pursuit of access, the government will continue to call on the contributions of communities, cooperating partners and the private sector in addressing issues of quality and relevance. The next decade will still be challenging because the country will continue to tackle access due to population growth while trying to improve educational quality. The challenges for the educational sector will increase in view of globalisation and the importance of knowledge for nations to be competitive. Investments in human capital and the quality of such investments will play a decisive role in determining the productivity of any country and resulting economic fortunes.Page 2 of 43   Acknowledgements This report is a result of the dedication and commitment of staff in the various directorates and units of the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE) and a wider array of key stakeholders amongst the cooperating partners and civil society. My gratitude goes to the Director of Planning and Information for coordinating the development of this report. Additionally, I extend my gratitude to members of the EFA Review Steering Committee for their commitment to the review process and for providing oversight. Finally, I wish to thank two education practitioners, Mr. Joe Kanyika and Dr. Cornelius Chipoma for facilitating the work and drafting the report at short notice. Their contribution enabled the Ministry to review the progress Zambia has made on its EFA commitments. ChishimbaNkosha, Permanent Secretary (Education) MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE, VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND EARLY EDUCATIONContents Foreword ................................................................................................................................................. 1  Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 2  Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 1  I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3  2. Status of Education in Zambia ............................................................................................................ 4  3. Tracking Progress on EFA Goals ........................................................................................................ 7  3.1.Review of the Implementation strategies of the Dakar Framework of Action ............................. 7 3.2. Goal 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 11 3.3. Goal 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 13 3.3.1 Access to Upper Basic Education – Grade 8-9 ........................................................................ 17 3.4. Goal 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 19 3.4.1. Championing Life-skills programmes under EFA .................................................................. 20 3.5. Goal 4 ......................................................................................................................................... 22 3.6. Goal 5 ......................................................................................................................................... 26 3.7. Goal 6 ......................................................................................................................................... 29 3.7.1. Showcasing Performance Improvement – North-western Province ....................................... 32 4. Key Issues for Post-2015 Agenda ..................................................................................................... 33  4.1. Policy Consolidation and Evaluation ......................................................................................... 34 4.2. Striving for Universal Access .................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Assessment as Pillar for Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance ................................ 35 4.4. Education Financing .................................................................................................................. 36 4.5 Education Leadership and Management ..................................................................................... 37 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 37  References ............................................................................................................................................. 39 Page 1 of 43   Figures and tables Figure 1: Comparison of Proportion of the Primary School Age Population (7 to 13 years) between the 2000 and 2010 Census………………………………………………………….………………..…6 Figure 2: Enrolment changes in the EFA Review Period……………………………………………....6 Figure 3: Primary School Enrolment Trends (1994 to 2005)…………..……………………………..14 Figure 4: Transition Rates for 7/8, actual and projected………………………………..……………..18 Figure 5: Transition Rates 9/10, actual and projected………………………………………..……….18 Figure 6: Push outs at end of Grade 7 and 9………………………………….……………………….21 Figure 7: Illiteracy Rate trajectories under EFA proposed scenarios contrasted with the actuals……24 Figure 8: Population trajectory for the illiterate population………………………………..…………25 Figure 9: School certificate Grade 12 pass % by Province 2004-2013……………………………….31 Figure 10: Early Warning Assessment System………………………………….…………………….35 Table 1: Zambia ECCE Performance 2005……………………………..………………….…………12 Table 2: Zambia Performance on Free and Compulsory Primary Education 2005-2014……….……14 Table 3: Zambia Performance learning and life-skills programmes 2005-2014……………………...21 Table 4: Zambia Performance Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy……..……..25 Table 5: Gender Parity Index and achievements…………………………………..……………….…27 Table 6: Trends on the Proportions of learner in National Assessment………………………….......30                     Page 2 of 43   Acronyms CDC Curriculum Development Centre CPD Continuous Professional Development DEBS District Education Board Secretary DfID Department for International Development (UK) ECE Early Childhood Education ECZ Examinations Council of Zambia EFA Education for All EGMA Early Grade Mathematics Assessment EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment ELM Education Leadership and Management EMIS Education Management Information System G5NA Grade Five National Assessment GER Gross Enrollment Rate GPI Gender Parity Index GRZ Government of the Republic of Zambia MDGs Millennium Development Goals MESVTEE Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training, and Early Education NER Net Enrolment Rate ODL Open and Distance Learning PPP Public Private Partnerships PTA Parent Teachers’ Association SACMEQ Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality SNE Special Needs Education SWAP Sector Wide Approach TEVET Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations Children’s FundPage 3 of 43   I. Introduction Zambia is a landlocked country with a total surface area of 752,614 square kilometres located in the Southern part of Africa. It has a total population of 13,046,508 according to the 2010 census of population and housing. During the 2010 national census of population and housing, 61 per cent of the population was in rural areas while 39 per cent was in urban areas. About 45.4 per cent of the population is predominantly youth (below the age of 15). Zambia has over the years experienced mixed economic fortunes since independence. The first 10 years of independence from 1964 were characterised by massive expansions in all areas of human endeavour. Then followed years of economic sluggishness up until the mid- 1990s.Economic growth as measured by GDP growth rate between 1995 and 2000 averaged 3.5 per centwhile that of the period 2000 to 2005 averaged 5.8 per cent per annum. By 2011 the annual average economic growth for the previous 5 years stood at 8.7 per cent. The cumulative growth in real GDP since 1994 up to 2013 has been three times more, moving Zambia from a poor income country to a prospering lower middle income country. Within the first 10 years of independence, primary school enrolment rose from 378,417 in 1964 to 858,191 in 1974 representing an increase of about 2.2 times. Equally Secondary School enrolments rose from 13,871 in 1964 to 65,764 in 1974 representing an increase more than 4 times. In addition to this was the creation of many other school opportunities for tertiary education, skills development centres, kindergartens and adult literacy programmes centres. The exponential expansions in the provision of educational services were largely predicated by pressure to expand access and participation against the background of severe under provision during the colonial era. Zambia’s Education for All (EFA) review report highlights important progress made by the government in implementing the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Education for All (EFA) 2000 Dakar framework of action. This review evaluates Zambia’s performance against targets and milestones outlined in the 2005 EFA National Framework. As a follow through on the Dakar framework for action, Zambia established an EFA Secretariat to supervise and facilitate a country effort of operationalizing the global and country effort of EFA and MDGs. The EFA National Framework is based on national educational aspirations espoused in various policy documents including Educating Our Future (1996), the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TEVET) Policy (1996), the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development Policy, the Ministry of Community Development Policy, the Basic Education Sub-sector Investment Programme (BESSIP) Implementation Plan, the Education Sector Plan (2002 -2007) and the Six National Development Plan (2011-2015). This EFA review coincides with major educational reforms that include the introduction of a new national curriculum in 2014, phasing out of basic education and introduction of a two- tier system that offers academic and skills educational the secondary school level. On the basis of the country’s performance thus far, the report sets the stage for Zambia’s educational agenda for the next decennium. Looking back, the country’s experience with the expansion of primary education is perhaps the most remarkable. Zambia’s success in expanding access is the result of government determination to overcome intractable constraints to participation, aPage 4 of 43   resolute effort by communities and civil society organisations to help out and the generosity and commitment of cooperating partners. While Zambia has made significant progress on access, improving quality remains a huge challenge. Measures of learning achievement across the board show that children are underperforming particularly in foundational skills such as reading and mathematics. This document is informed by various reports done by actors in the education sector including the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training, and Early Education (MESVTEE), civil society, Parliament and cooperating partners. The report is primarily shaped by the commitments Zambia made in the 2005 EFA country framework. The report begins with an overview of the status of education in Zambia that overall, show that the education sector has seen improvements in most key indicators. The third section tracks progress against the milestones for the six EFA goals. Highlighting the phenomenal growth in participation at the primary level, the third section reports on government action in all six EFA goal areas and show communities have played a pivotal role in expanding learning opportunities. Conveying the outlook for the coming decade, the fourth section addresses key issues for the post 2015 agenda. Key among these issues is the pursuit of quality which will be a crucial measure of educational progress in the coming decade. The report concludes by emphasizing the relevance of key measures accounting for Zambia’s progress towards the achievement of the EFA goals. Notably, achievements of the EFA goals and targets have been laudable in Zambia largely due to three factors: Overall government commitment; Community participation and commitment; and sector support partners that include the cooperating partners and civil society. 2. Status of Education in Zambia According to the 2010 census of population and housing, Zambia’s population stands at approximately 13.1 million while growing at a rate of 2.8 per cent per annum. Of this, 49.3 per cent (6,454,647) were males and 50.7 per cent (6,638,019) were females. In terms of distribution, 60.5 per cent (7,923,289) were in rural areas and 39.5 per cent (5,169,377) in urban areas. The 2010 census also estimates that 45.4 per cent of the population are aged below 15 years. In other words, the country overall has a young population. Providing educational services to this population is of strategic importance. Accordingly, the government has continued to build on the progress made over the past decade. Notable in this regard has been a valiant effort in increasing participation through investing in school infrastructure. Although this report focuses on achievements made between 2000 and2014, the backdrop to Zambia’s experience is inextricably linked to educational challenges the country faced in the 1980s and 1990s.These include a sustained decline in enrolment rates and exclusion of the most vulnerable groups, low levels of learning achievements, inadequate educational infrastructure at all levels, a shortage of teaching and learning materials and appropriately qualified teachers, and a general absence of investments in education the sector.These challenges made it difficult for the government to deliver educational services effectively.Page 5 of 43   This situation as, the review report shows, has changed considerably. The government is investing in Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) as a split mandate between the MESVTEE and the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH). While the MESVTEE is responsible for what the government has titled Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the children aged between 3-6 years, the aspect of child development (0-3 years) is the mandate of MCDMCH. In support of ECE, the government hired 1,000 teachers in 2014, developed an ECE curriculum, and commenced construction of model ECE centres starting with 20 in 2014 and another 60 under the2015 budget. The private sector will also continue to play a vital role in the delivery of ECE services. With regard to education financing, the budget allocation to the sector has increased considerably from just about 4.2 percent of GDP in 2002 to 5.2 percent of GDP in 2014. A significant portion of the increase in the education budget has gone towards improving school infrastructure and conditions of service for personnel including teachers. Comparing data between 2000 and 2014, the overall indication is that Zambia’s education sector has experienced noticeable improvements. Since 2002, when the government announced the Free Primary Education (FPE) Policy, the MESVTEE has registered over 1.2 million more learners, growing Zambia’s net enrolment from 71 per cent in 1999 to over 97 per cent in 2013. The FPE policy directed heads of primary schools not to charge any kind of fees in recognition of various economic challenges facing the general population especially in rural areas. This was further compounded by the escalating numbers of orphans due to HIV/AIDS related deaths. The policy directive also barred schools from denying children from attending school on account of not having a uniform. For children that had dropped out of the education system, the FPE directed that schools invite them back with no questions asked. This requirement is fully articulated under the MESVTEE’s Re-Entry Policy which encourages girls especially, to return to school in the event of falling pregnant. The success of efforts to improve access in Zambia is such that participation rates for both data obtained from the Ministry’s own information system and the participation rates obtained from the household based information through the National Census of population showed significant improvements. Comparative data between 2000 and 2010 census of population showed that there were improvements in the proportion of population attending school of over 10 per cent in urban and rural areas for both males and females (Figure 1).Page 6 of 43   Figure 1: Comparison of Proportion of the Primary School Age Population (7-13 years) attending school between the 2000 and 2010 Census Source: 2010 Census Analytical Report (Central Statistical Office: 2012: 27) The literacy rate for adult population (15 years and older) also increased from 67.2 per cent in 2000 to 83.0 per cent in 2010. Adult literacy rates for both sexes improved between 2000 and 2010. For the percentage distribution of population (25 years and older) that ever attended school by highest education level completed, 47.8 per cent had completed primary level, 37.3 per cent had completed secondary and 14.5 per cent had completed tertiary in 2010. Regarding specific progress on EFA, the projections for primary and upper basic (junior secondary, Grades 8-9) are less than actual enrolment as of 2013 based on the MESVTEE’s data. In other words, the government has exceeded what was projected. As Figure 2 shows, the projected enrolments for high school (or secondary education) are less than the actuals largely due to a shift in the national policy of providing Grades 8 and 9 in secondary schools. This inevitably reduced available places for senior secondary schools. The government is correcting the reduction through the massive construction of secondary schools. Figure 2: Enrolment changes in the EFA Review Period - Contrast between and Actual and Projected 1,589,544  2,103,664  2,743,117  2,847,045  1,756,210  2,230,929  3,027,157  3,267,652   ‐  500,000  1,000,000  1,500,000  2,000,000  2,500,000  3,000,000  3,500,000 2000 2004 2013 Proj. 2013 Actual 1 to 7 1 to 9 8‐9 10 to 12Page 7 of 43   Figure 2 shows that there were more learners at the lower levels of the education system than projected due largely to the level of efficiency in the system accentuated by transition nodes and the push back effect. 3. Tracking Progress on EFA Goals Emphasis on education is particularly important given Zambia’s young population. In 1990 Zambia joined other countries around the world in adopting the EFA goals. The following discussion details the progress made against the EFA milestones outlined in the 2005 EFA country framework for Zambia. 3.1. Review of the Implementation strategies of the Dakar Framework of Action Major Policy, Programmes and Initiatives in achieving EFA In support of the EFA goals, Zambia has mobilized local and international assistance from cooperating partners operating in the education sector. In order to reduce transaction costs, Zambia also developed a Joint Assistant Strategy (JAS) that harmonizes general education investments, aid coordination and monitoring of progress. During the period under review, critical investment frameworks for education include the national policy on education, Educating Our Future (1996), the Basic Education Subsector Investment Programme(BESSIP - 1998), the Education Sector Plan (2003 - 2007), the Fifth National Development Plan Education Chapter (2006), the Second Education National Implementation Plan (NIF II - 2008), the Sixth National Development Plan for 2011 and the revised Education Act of 2011 which legalised community schools. Fundamental aspects of these policy development processes and initiatives included clear underpins of international commitments Zambia has made. Therefore, the general practice that was followed when developing any major educational policy and programme on education, was to identify global commitments Zambia has subscribed. Therefore careful and well thought out strategies mirroring these commitments into the local programmes and policies were a central feature of all these initiatives. A fundamental national thrust in moving towards achieving MDGs and EFA goals was the National Implementation The main features of all the programmes surround four main recurring themes: Broadening access and participation; improving quality and relevance of education; enhancing systems efficiency and effectiveness of education delivery systems; and creating frameworks for the educational system to be responsive various imperatives of the time affecting general welfare of humanity with varying shades of complexities such as impact of HIV and AIDS as well as addressing various educational needs of marginalised and special groups. The central government had also taken a central role in galvanising coordinating various players and providing the requisite policy and legal environment to realise the aims of the mentioned policies and programmes. Central to this has also been the participation of communities, civil society and cooperating partners.Page 8 of 43   Promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well integrated sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination and development strategies; Zambia made the Education for All goals a central and recurring feature in all broad policy frameworks starting with the Focus on Learning of the early 1990s. A dominant feature of Educating Our Future Policy document of 1996 was the domestication of the EFA Goals notably on universal provision and access of basic education for all, bridging of gender gaps in access and participation as well as addressing the challenges of education quality and relevance. Ancillary to the educational policy have been other specific policy interventions meant to address specific bottlenecks in the attainment of EFA and educational policy goals such as the declarations of Free and Compulsory Primary Education in 2002 and the 1998 re- entry policy for pregnant girls.It is also important in this context to acknowledge the deliberate effort by education practitioners have made in aligning all national milestones to the Global EFA goals. A significant undertaking in ensuring that Zambia was on track in the pursuit of its EFA goals was the establishment of an EFA secretariat whose achievements included the following: a) establishing a robust information database that was used as springboard for EFA targeting post Dakar framework. The Secretariat worked with all Education district planners in collecting all the required data to form a solid baseline upon which the National EFA targeting was made. The data collection efforts built on the already existing data sets and in areas that were identified to have had data gaps measure were put in place to fill the gaps. This in turn also enabled the Secretariat to develop and investment framework to domesticate the EFA framework. However the role of the EFA Secretariat faced numeracy challenges in terms of institutional alignments in the light of various compelling challenges on shifting roles, responsibilities and mandates among different players. Ensure the engagement and participation of civil society in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of strategies for educational development; An integral aspect of the EFA drive has been the role of civil society in Zambia. An important achievement is this respect was the creation of the education umbrella civil society organization, ZANEC (Zambia National Education Coalition). ZANEC provide a framework for coordinating all civil society non-governmental organizations in education. This also includes community and faith based organizations that supplement government efforts in the provision of education. Generally, the Ministry of Education implementation strategies over time evolved around inclusiveness by taking on board various player and partners at planning, programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages. This is done through the Joint Assistant Strategy Framework that includes major sector players with the government playing a critical coordination role. On the side of civil society, the Zambia National Education Coalition plays a pivotal role in facilitating for cooperation with the government. ZANEC is a non-partisan and not for profit membership driven organisation established in May 2001, to coordinate national efforts of education based non-state actors to work in partnership with the Zambian Government and other stakeholders in the attainment of Education for All (EFA) Goals. ZANEC makes its contribution through advocacy, research and capacity building of its member organisationsPage 9 of 43   Develop responsive, participatory and accountable systems of educational governance and management; Educational delivery in Zambia is decentralized in line with one of its principal policy pillars. The Ministry recognizes the critical role various stakeholders play in the management and delivery of educational services while upholding the tenets of accountability and local level participation. There are just over 100 education boards that preside over the education affairs of the district with some level of autonomy. Further all High (Secondary) Schools, Colleges of Education, and Trades Training Institutes have educational boards. Through elaborate guidelines, the local communities are expected to participate effectively and efficiently in the management and operations of educational institution in their localities. Educational institution is expected to be accountable to local stakeholder interests as well as responsive to their educational needs. Meet the needs of education systems affected by conflict, natural calamities and instability and conduct educational programmes in ways that promote mutual understanding, peace and tolerance, and that help to prevent violence and conflict; Education in Zambia is perceived to be a major catalyst for cultural and political transformational change in multicultural and multiparty political dispensation. Of critical note are the pronounced educational long term goals that focus on the development of individual learners in holistic manner that address their cognitive developmental needs, affective and psychomotor skills. Implement integrated strategies for gender equality in education which recognize the need for changes in attitudes, values and practices; A number of proactive policies and strategies were devised. Notably the re-entry policy for girls who get pregnant with the establishment of the requisite support structures while they return to school. These include proactive affirmative action especially with the creation of learning opportunities especially for girls. Equal access to educational facilities, including embarking on several initiatives to improve water and sanitation plus hygiene programmes that focus on the adolescents became s central feature in a number of programmes. Implement as a matter of urgency education programmes and actions to combat the HIV /AIDS pandemic; The education sector, like many other public sectors in Zambia has responded to the call for pragmatism in managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Critical to this has been the recognition of HIV/AIDS as a challenge that requires multifaceted approach at all levels of education delivery. Generally the approach of the Ministry in addressing related challenges recognize two critical factors: a) the pandemic significantly affects the delivery side of education through raised mortality rates for critical educational staff, and wasted human resource hours in lost through off sick time taken from the normal service delivery time. Related to this is the high management cost of the pandemic directly and indirectly; b) education provides the greatest window of opportunity in mitigating against over impact of the pandemic. If education is effectively used as tool to combat the pandemic, it can potentially reduce the rate of infection for the younger generation.Page 10 of 43   In addressing the aforementioned two aspects, this Ministry, in conjunction with various partners and Ministry of Health have worked out programmes of supporting voluntary counselling and testing with the request follow up support system for those that are found to be positive. Further, on the side of macro impact at national level, the education ministry has been integrating the HIV/AIDS education content in the curriculum along its broad content frame across all levels with focus on knowledge driven interventions under the broad framework of life and survival skills. Create safe, healthy, inclusive and equitably resourced educational environments conducive to excellence in learning, with clearly defined levels of achievement for all; While addressing the challenges of access and participation, the Ministry has been steadfast in the pursuit of ensuring that the education provides opportunities for the meaningful acquisition of relevant skills and knowledge to enable learners meet the present day challenges that will not only enable them lead individual fruitful lives but will also empower them to contribute to the sustainable development of their immediate environment. Other interventions to support school health and sanitation programmes are the school feeding programmes that have been scaled up across the country with support from cooperating partners and local communities. . The first ever policy framework that was developed in addressing the EFA Jomtien conference resolution focused on learning in 1992, the 1996 broad based policy document, Educating Our Future also sought among many things to address the challenges of educational quality, with redefined educational aims and outcomes defined for each educational level. Additionally, all investments programmes had an inbuilt learning achievement monitoring framework as shall be further elaborated on in this document. Enhance the status, morale and professionalism of teachers; Continuous professional development programmes for teachers as well as leadership development in the education system have become central in the general delivery of education. Further, the development of the legal instruments for the creation of the teaching council in line with the policy pronouncement was part of the education Act of 2011 and made operational in 2014 through the establishment of the Teaching Council. Harness new information and communication technologies to help achieve EFA goals; The education sector has embraced the vast potentialities and opportunities that emergent information technologies provide. Notable areas in this respect has in the general management and automation of systems and processes in order to improve general delivery, management and evaluation of systems performance and in the area of the learnt content and general education outcome that is also buttressed by improved content delivery. Systematically monitor progress towards EFA goals and strategies at the national, regional and international levels; and The creation of the Education For All Secretariat whose mandate was EFA specific and overarched a number of education that were involved in the delivery of educational services notably the then Ministry of Science Technology and Vocational Training, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, the Ministry of CommunityPage 11 of 43   Development and Social Services, the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development. The first two Ministries have since been merged to form the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE). The creation of the EFA database, created a launch pad upon which milestones were built. The database was initially intended to be updated so that it informs systematic monitoring. However this was replaced with general e-governance information systems that are still being further developed and refined. Build on existing mechanisms to accelerate progress towards education for all. The EFA framework in Zambia was premised on the existing national programmes and structures to effectively integrate the agreed on interventions. The country mutually agreed with stakeholders to holistically embrace both the Millenniums Development Goals and EFA goals and integrated the in existing programmes while not los within the existing frameworks. Additionally, the evolvement of education policies in Zambia, and related investment programmes and sector strategies all use EFA and MDGs as fundamental benchmarks to guide and align national strategies and milestones. This effectively negates the push to establish EFA or MDG specific goals and targets. 3.2. Goal 1 Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. The major challenges facing the provision of early childhood education had been in the area of general policy direction and non-participation of government in the sector for a long time. To further compound this was the challenge early childhood education falling in a non- education sector ministry and this created additional bottlenecks of linkages and synergies. This therefore left the burden of provision to mainly the private sector. Specific challenges included: 1. Low participation rate that was further compounded by non-participation of the government therefore adversely affecting especially poor families; 2. Absence of a centrally developed common curriculum; 3. Inadequate infrastructure with absence standard prescribed designed suitable for young children and learning purposes; 4. Inadequate funding for the early childhood education; and 5. Under qualified teachers. Zambia has made important strides in meeting the first EFA goal. Characterised as Early Childhood Education (ECE), this early learning phase is represented by pre-elementary, pre- school and nursery education. ECE is specifically offered to children at three levels: Nursery (kindergarten or baby class); pre-school; and reception. ECE services are offered by Day Care Centres, nursery Schools and Pre-schools. Day Care Centres usually serve children aged 2 or below who need parental care but have not reached the age of formal schooling. Nursery schools combine parental care and the holistic development of the social, emotional and intellectual dimensions through play and cover the age group of 2 to 4 years. Significant for this stage is also the development of speech and motor skills. Predominant activities include playing, drawing, painting, singing, and speaking. Broadly, ECE offers a structuredPage 12 of 43   developmental support curriculum offered to children aged 0 to 6 years. As delivered in Zambia, this age group is segmented by implementing agency. The MCDMCH focuses on child development for the 0-3 age group while the MESVTEE serves the 3-6 age groups. Reporting Zambia’s performance, Table 1 highlights three of the possible seven indicators under Goal 1 showing that ECE is now part of the mainstream education system. While the shift from a sector run predominantly by private providers, churches and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (with oversight from Ministry of Local Government) tosignificant involvement of the MESVTEE occurred in 2004, the results are still modest. Table 1 show, however, that the MESVTEE’s commitment to ECE is set to grow substantially. The MESVTEE has so far developed a curriculum, hired 1,000 trained teachers, and allocated 0.05 per cent of the 2015 budget to ECE. In expanding the growth of ECE, the MESVTEE also plans to construct 60 new schools with more facilities planned for subsequent years. Table 1: Zambia ECCE Performance 2005-2014 Indicator Reported Baseline (2004) EFA Target (2015) Results (2013) Goal 1: ECCE Early Childhood Care and Education) Percentage of new entrants to primary Grade 1 who will have attended some form of organised ECCE programme Proportion of Grade 1 entrants with ECCDE experience was 15.9% 50% of all learners enrolling in Grade 1 should have prior ECCDE 14.8 per cent Percentage of trained teachers in ECCE programmes N/A1 No specific targets were made in view of the various complexities 20 per cent (1,000 per 5,000) of teachers deployed annually by MESVTEE 2014 to 2020 Public expenditure on ECCE programmes as a percentage of total public expenditure on education 0% 0.05 per cent of 2015 MESVTEE budget allocated to ECE Historically, ECE has not been a major responsibility of government. This has been the case for both pre- and post-independence governments. In colonial times, Sub O education was offered for one year and included learning to write letters of the alphabet, on the ground, for African children. This was the closest the system then came to offering ECE. Later, the colonial government came up with Day Nursery Act of 1957 to benefit local children. After independence, the government established nurseries and pre-schools through the Ministry of Local Government and Housing. These were mainly located in welfare halls. The level of participation though remained low and by the middle 1980s this provision had fizzled off. The MESVTEE is unable to report on the four other indicators under Goal 1 because it is yet to collect enrolment data. In 2004, an EFA baseline survey showed that 32,460 learners                                                              1 N/A means Not Available.Page 13 of 43   (13,981 males and 18,479 females) were enrolled in a total of 2,668 facilities, making an average enrolment of 12 learners per facility. Given a national population of children aged between 3 and 6 years totalling 1,477,785 (737,952 males and 739,833 females), the participation rates in early childhood education are still modest standing at 2 per cent for boys, 3 per cent for girls. Disaggregated according to location, 34 per cent of boys, compared to 33 per cent of girls who attended some form of ECE services were in rural areas, while 66 per cent of boys and 67 per cent of children were in urban areas. In rural areas, 52 per cent of those who attended ECE were girls compared to 48 per cent for boys. In urban areas 53 per cent if the children who attended ECE were girls as compared to 47 per cent for boys. In terms of gains made in participation rates, the population of new entrants at Grade 1 with an ECE learning opportunity increased from about 9per cent in 2004 to almost 15 per cent in 2013. The government has made budgetary provisions for this subsector in line with the EFA commitments. In 2014, the budget stood at 1.7 million Zambia Kwacha (US Dollar 300,000 equivalent) representing 0.05 per centof the total education budget. ECE activities have significantly scaled up in recent times with the commencement of the construction of 20 ultra-modern centres in 2014 and an additional 60 in the approved 2015 budget. While still relatively small, the allocation to ECE is expected to grow over the medium term as the MESVTEE develops school infrastructure. 3.3. Goal 2 Ensuring 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. Despite 15 years of concerted action, access remains a huge challenge for Zambia. The access challenge has two key dimensions. The first is about getting more pupils into limited school places while the second relates to ensuring that disadvantaged children access education. In addressing both aspects, the government implemented the Free Primary Education Policy (FPE) in 2002. Prior to the FPE policy, enrolment had stagnated prompting the government to implement the Basic Education Sub-sector Investment Programme (BESSIP) – 1999-2005 and the Ministry of Education Strategic Plan (MoESP) – 2003-2007.As Figure 2 shows, enrolment stood at 1.5millionin 1994 in lower and middle basic classes and basically fluctuated marginally until the year 2000. Fundamental in the policy development area has been the enactment of the 2011 Education Act included the compulsory attendance of primary education for all children of the school going age, the outlawing marrying or giving into marriage children of school going age, recognition of community schools and many other progressive measures to support achievement of EFA goals.Page 14 of 43   Figure 3: Primary School Enrolment Trends (1994 to 2005) The stagnation in enrolment caused great concern given the goal of universalising education access for all children of school age. In 1998, the Study Fund Project of the World Bank in conjunction with the Ministry of Education commissioned a priority study to investigate factors accounting for declining participation. The study found that deteriorating participation was tied to poverty and a perceived decline in the quality of education in Zambia. As Figure 2 shows, the participation rate for primary education only began to increase in 2000.Implementation of the FPE accelerated enrolments after 2002. In an effort to meet the demand generated, the government planned to construct and rehabilitate 4,000 classrooms under the BESSIP and MoESP to create more school places. 3.3.1. Managing rapid increase in participation Currently, the government, its partners and local communities have more than doubled the primary school enrolment from two decades earlier (Figure 3) to just below three million pupils. The number of schools offering basic education has increased from 5,324 in 2000 to a total of 8,801 in 2013. The breakdown by agency in the year 2005 was 4,442 GRZ schools, 2,129 community schools, 266 grant-aided and 419 private schools. The number of community schools grew rapidly from 38 in 1996 to almost 3,000 in 2013. Community schools account for almost 20 per cent of total enrolment in primary schools. Indeed, community schools are a crucial pillar in resolving challenges with access. The Government now has a deliberate strategy to improve community schools. With the additional capacity created, Zambia, as Table 2 shows, has made progress on a number of selected Goal 2 EFA indicators reported for this review. Table 2: Zambia Performance on Free and Compulsory Primary Education 2005-2014 Indicator Reported Baseline (2004) Target (2015) Results (2014) Goal 2: Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in Net Intake Rate (NIR) Primary (Grd. 1 – 7) 42.1% 100% 56.9% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) 105.3% 102%2 127.1%                                                                1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Series1 1,507 1,506 1,547, 1,547, 1,557, 1,555, 1,589, 1,625, 1,731, 1,876, 2,249, 2,564, - 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000Page 15 of 43   difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality. Primary(Grd. 1 – 7) Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) Primary (Grd. 1- 7) 85.1% 100% 100% Repetition Rate (RR) by grade– Primary (Grd. 1 – 7) 66% 0% 7.5% Dropout Rate (DR) by grade (Grade 1 – 7) 28% 0% 2.9% Primary Cohort Completion Rate 72% 100% 99.04% Transition Rate (TR) from primary to secondary education 53.5% 100% 89.36% Percentage of Trained Teachers in Primary Education 98% 100% 81% Pupil/Teacher Ratio (PTR) in Primary Education 62 41 48.1 Public Expenditure on Primary Education as % of Total Public Expenditure on Education 40% 60% 56.5%                                                                                                                                                                                         Page 16 of 43   The official entry age for grade 1 in Zambia is 7 years and by the time of completion of Grade 7, children are at the age of 14 to 15. Using strategies that include double-shifting and economising on instructional time, the government has managed to get more pupils into the limited school places. The net intake rate (NIR) for 2000 stood at 42.1 per cent (Table 2) largely due to long distances to schools in rural areas for younger children and scarcity of grade 1 places in urban areas especially Lusaka district. As of 1996, the education system had the capacity at the lower and middle basic school system to admit about 90 per cent of the children aged between 7 and 14 years. This relatively high gross enrolment ratio (GER) had declined from 1985, when the schools could admit 95 per cent of the children. The GER ratio, though apparently high at 127.1 per cent in 2014, includes over and under-age children. Nationally, all highly populated schools (mostly in urban areas) undertake double and even triple-shifting using instructional times that range from 2.30 hours to 3 hours for grades 1-4. For such schools, the new requirement under the revised national curriculum to increase instructional time to four hours for grades 1-4 remains a challenge because of limited classroom space. Accordingly, Table 2 shows that the government’s commitment in the Fifth National development Plan (FNDP) to enrol all children aged 7 has helped to close the gap for NIR by almost 20 per cent in the last ten years. This achievement, however, is still significantly far from the 2015 NIR target of 100 per cent. The government may fall short of meeting this target because there are still a large number of over-age children who are yet to enter the school system. Table 2 also shows a high Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) that exceeds the 2015 target and is above 100 per cent due to a statistical calculation error of the population base. Primary completion has improved largely due to the FPE policy; launching of an integrated multifaceted basic education investment programme; implementation of the Re-entry policy for girls and vulnerable children; and the abolition of the Grade 7 examination fee. In trying to boost attendance among vulnerable groups, the government has also implemented a school feeding programme in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP). More pupils that complete the primary level have transitioned to secondary education over the past decade. Zambia has specifically encouraged more girls to progress to grade 8 on account of available school places. 3.3.2. Managing teachers Zambia has improved the supply of trained teachers while aiming to manage attrition by deploying 5,000 teachers annually. With a total teaching force numbering 93,164 (56,721 in basic schools) in 2013, the education sector is the largest government employer. Of these teachers, 8,803 left their positions compared to 6,450 in 2012. This number includes retirements, upward movement into administrative positions, contract expiration, death, dismissal, illness, transfers, and other reasons. The 2013 Statistical bulletin has the highest number (4,036) leaving under the category ‘others’, indicating a need for investigation. Nonetheless, the numbers leaving exceed replenishments. Moreover, 20 per cent of the teachers deployed annually will now be allocated to meet the growing requirements of the ECE subsector. As such, all schools will continue to experience deficits.Page 17 of 43   In addition to keeping numbers at desired levels are challenges with distortions resulting from deploying teachers in overstaffed schools. Typically, urban schools have ‘excess’ teachers due to classroom shortages. Most of these teachers have, however, been reassigned to community schools while maintaining their payroll status at the respective school of deployment. Another distortion relates to the fact that typically, over 70 per cent of teaching staff in urban schools are female (largely because of requesting transfers from rural areas). As such, the impact of teachers taking time from school for maternal reasons is much more significant urban schools. Other issues relate to teacher quality which has more to do with qualification as opposed to just being untrained. The government is now requiring teachers to have diplomas and degrees as appropriate for their teaching positions. 3.3.3. Financing Education Education financing has improved since 2000 given the increased demand. The MESVTEE projects primary school enrolment to increase from 2.8 in 2013 to approximately 3 million children in 2015. As Table 2 shows, public expenditure on primary education as a per cent of total public expenditure on education has increased by over 10 per cent. Figure 3 shows that the improved spending on primary education is a result of the Zambian government’s increased budget allocation (over 20 per cent in 2014) to education over the past seven years. Broken down according to programme areas, however, a significant portion of the education budget currently goes towards paying salaries and funding construction activities. With regard to construction, the government is building primary and secondary schools while establishing new universities. Thus, in reality, the amount available for teaching and learning resources and running schools is low. 3.3.4. Access to Upper Basic Education – Grade 8-9 Enrolment in upper basic education rose from 234,059 in 2004 to 451,163 in 2013 representing an increase of 93 per cent. Generally, the government’s goal of providing upper basic education is to ensure that more children complete a learning phase that equips them with productive skills. Two key factors affected participation and access to Grade 8 and the first being inadequate school infrastructure and second being the Grade 7 composite examination that serves the purpose of rationing the limited space available by pushing out children who do not achieve the required marks. Initially, the government planned to provide upper basic education using the existing primary schools. This approach, however, met a lot of practical challenges that include ergonometric and delivery incompatibility. The younger children could not use the same furniture and other facilities provided for older learners. Furthermore, teachers of Grades 8 and 9 had a different level of educational specialization to that of those teaching 1 to 7.Page 18 of 43   Figure 4: Transition Rates for 7/8, Actual and Projected Figure 4 shows that transition rates from grade 7 to 8 increased in line with the government’s quest to create a fully-fledged upper basic school system. In 2011, however, the government changed strategy reverting to the old system of having grade 8 and 9 as junior secondary. The change in policy, in the absence of more secondary school places, may push out more children at the seventh grade. Transition into high school (Senior secondary) also remains a critical challenge as Figure 5 shows. The government, however, plans to achieve a 50 per cent progression rate and maintaining it in line with the 2015 EFA target. Since 2009, transition rates have dropped sharply. Figure 5: Transition Rates 9/10, Actual and Projected Overall, the government’s efforts have improved the country’s educational status. The 2010 Census data shows that at the national level, 34.2 per cent of the population was attending school in 2010. This was an increase from 26.7 per cent in 2000. In rural and urban areas the percentage attending school was 31.1 per cent and 38.5 per cent in 2010, respectively. This 0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 7/8 Actual 7/8 Projected 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 9/10 Actual 9/10 ProjectedPage 19 of 43   shows an increase of 8.5 and 4.8 percentage points for rural and urban areas, respectively from 2000 to 2010. The percentage of males attending school increased from 28.7 per cent in 2000 to 35.9 per cent in 2010 while female attendance increased from 24.9 per cent in 2000 to 32.5 per cent in 2010. The age group 10-14 had the highest population attending school at 83.8 per cent in 2010. This shows an increase of 12.1 percentage points from 71.7 per cent in 2000. The percentage of the population attending school for the age group 15-19 increased from 46.1 per cent in 2000 to 64.5 per cent in 2010 (CSO 2012). 3.4Goal 3 Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes As a country, Zambia has always been committed to ensuring that young people have skills that enable them to be productive citizens. Through various educational reforms, successive governments have attempted to achieve a sharper focus on skills education. Historically, however, there has been a challenge in understanding the notion of basic skills education. The concept has almost always been understood to refer to technical and vocational training and also seen a departure from formal learning of such school subjects as mathematics, geography, history, English, and science. Throughout the colonial period, technical and vocational training and practice for Africans was relegated to the menial or bottom-ladder jobs (carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing etc.) that offered no real socio-economic upward mobility for them – unlike their white counterparts who appeared to place emphasis on studying academic subjects. At the time of independence in 1964, technical and vocational training had therefore become the most undervalued and the most underdeveloped educational area (Kelly 1999: 114). In addition to the provision of the Education for All policy strategic framework developed in 2004, there are several pronouncements and commitments made by the government on the importance of skills education and the development of a two tier education system with specific focus on the children that are pushed out of the educational system. The education policy in development, to follow after Educating Our Future that comes to its terminal end in 2015, will also focus on addressing the needs of those who will not be absorbed in the formal educational system after Grade 9. This is against the background that every learner in Grade 7 will automatically proceed to grade 8 in 2016. However, the government will create another parallel education stream under the two tier system that will cater for basic skills education. The country faces numerous challenges with basic skills in many areas requiring technical proficiencies and mastery resulting in the country dependency on important labour for various technical jobs. The current pace of national development and industrialisation faces huge challenges in the light of severe human resource constraints due to under supply of Zambians with technical competencies at basic, intermediate and advanced competencies. The policy thrust for skills education will be further fine grained in the post 2015 period and will include encompassing measures such as the following:  The push out system of the education system will no longer obtain. This is a strategy the government used to push out of the education system, a defined proportion of learners at the end of an education cycle in order to accommodate fewer learners atPage 20 of 43   the next higher education level given the limited available places. Using this system learners are ranked in order of performance from the best to the least and available places for the next level are declared by province. The number to be selected will be equivalent to the number declared and the remaining learners are consequently pushed out of the education system. A two tier system will replace this with every learner being provided with an opportunity;  There will be no more push outs at Grade 7 as the Grade 7 examination will no longer be a selection examination but will be used to further rationalise the provision of universal Grade 8 and 9. The grade 7 examinations will be transformed into a learning achievement and aptitude tool that will be used for student placement;  Developing tailored curriculum to address the specifics of skills education under the two tiered system that meets the needs of an emerging industrial middle income country. The government move to create the basic school system with the 1977 educational reforms aimed to reconcile the rift between academic and skills education. While the intentions of the basic school system were appropriate at the time, implementation was hugely constrained by inadequate infrastructure and the lack of qualified teachers. These challenges have persisted without resolution. The urgency around skills education remains as hundreds of thousands of youth continue to exit the system at all levels of the education system. As Figure 6 shows, grades 7 and 9 account for the largest numbers exiting the system. As the government has over the past decade pushed for more children to transition to grade 8, fewer are falling off at the seventh grade but eventually exit at the ninth grade. 3.4.1. Championing Life-skills programmes under EFA The government has established centres for continuing education and trade schools across the country that jointly address life-skill needs. Basic Skills Education, in the context of EFA, refers not so much to technical and vocational training, usually offered out-of-school e.g. at tertiary level but to the acquisition within school of pre-vocational and life skills, and the development of individual learner talents for one’s survival, development and self-worth. The framework provides for a meaningful linkage in the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes; in light of the five pillars of education i.e. learning to know (continually acquiring the instruments of understanding and recognising challenges), to do (acting with determination), to live together (being party to collective responsibility and engaging in constructive partnerships), to be (answering to the individuality of human dignity) and learning to become or promoting the personality of human creativity. In 2004, there were slightly over 14,000 learners participating in Basic Skills education in designated centres. This number then was far too low to meet government aspirations. Moreover, given the large number of youth that exit the system (Figure 6), more needed to be done to ensure youth left the school system with a sense of self-sufficiency. Yet, fundamentally, the challenge remains that skills education plays second fiddle to academic education. Accordingly, a resolute commitment to skills education must begin as early as in ECE. This approach would create the connection that often is lacking when youth have to turn to skills education as a last resort. Trades schools countrywide fail to attract largePage 21 of 43   numbers because traditional artisanal skills such as brick laying and carpentry are looked down upon. Ironically, Zambia has a huge shortage of these trade skills. Figure 6: Push outs at end of Grade 7 and 9 3.4.2. Rethinking skills: The two-tier system The two-tier education system introduced in 2014 under the current education reform initiative is a demonstration of the government’s continuing commitment to finding a way forward on skills education. Modelled along the German philosophy of giving equal importance to academic and skills education, the two-tier system is targeted for Grades 8-12. With implementation beginning in schools that are equipped to support this new resolve, the Ministry is prioritising improving infrastructure and ensuring that teachers are qualified to teach skills education. To avoid another good intention falling short of its desired goal (as has been the case for basic education), the two-tier approach needs the requisite capacity to significantly raise the levels of participation in skills education. The nature and approach of implementing this system is very critical from the onset given the complexities surrounding it in the face of resource constraints. The unit cost of offering vocational education is generally higher than conventional education. Therefore modalities need to be worked it to make it financially manageable and sustainable in the long term. The government will also need to assess progress by establishing robust common database to evaluate the gains that will accrue. Thus the paucity of data reported under Goal 3 (Table 3) for this review reflects more a lack of institutional capacity to collect the information than is indicative of a deficiency of investment in the sector. 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Grade 7/8 99,495 123,033 110,317 113,534 107,439 104,916 95,033 99,025 70,391 25,776 10,325 Grade 9/10 63,777 79,994 73,662 72,688 78,882 110,495 128,985 124,947 103,042 115,697 158,383 Total push outs 163,272 203,027 183,979 186,222 186,321 215,411 224,017 223,972 173,433 141,473 168,709 - 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000Page 22 of 43   Table 3: Zambia Performance learning and life-skills programmes 2005-2014 Indicator Reported Baseline (2004) Target (2015) Results (2014) Goal 3: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life- skills programmes. Number and Percentage Distribution of Lifelong learning/continuing education (LLL/CE) centres and Programmes for Young People and Adults 14,222 N/A Two tier system introduced progressively Number and Percentage Distribution of Young People and Adults Enrolled in Lifelong Learning/Continuing Education Programmes N/A 50% of push outs to be enrolled in Basic Skills Education under the two tier educational system N/A Overall, the government has made progress in addressing the educational needs of youth. The 2010 census (CSO 2012) shows, for example, that the literacy rate for persons aged 5 years and older was 70.2 per cent in 2010. This represents an increase of 14.9 per cent from 55.3 per cent in 2000. The literacy rates increased for both males and females between 2000 and 2010 in rural and urban areas although that of males was higher (73.2%) than that of females (67.3 %). Youth literacy is one of the indicators used to assess the achievement of the universal primary education. At national level, youth literacy was 88.7 per cent in 2010, an increase from 70.1 per cent in 2000. Between 2000 and 2010 the male and female literacy rate increased by 15.8 percentage points for males and 21.0 percentage points for females. The challenge remains in translating these gains to sustain youth productively. 3.5. 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 The EFA target of halving adult illiteracy rates by 50 percent, especially for women implied that the national average literacy rate that stood at 67.2 was targeted to be raised to 83.6 by 2015. Halving illiteracy rate mean that this was to be reduced to 16.4 by 2015 on average. Additional efforts were also required to ensure that the manifest gender gap in adult illiteracy was also reduced. The mandate to provide adult literacy remained under the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services until 2004, when Government through a gazette notice designated the MESVTEE to be in charge of this portfolio. When the mandate shifted to thePage 23 of 43   Ministry it prioritised the development of a Policy on adult literacy that is now being considered at Cabinet level. With the transfer of the adult Literacy portfolio to the Ministry of Education, there is the reinvigoration of efforts and aspirations to essentially eliminate adult illiteracy through structured and non-structured systems. A significant effort in this regard is to ensure that none of the young adults of tomorrow and the future become adults without knowing how to read or write. If the education system will live up to the true expectations of the EFA aspiration and milestones, it is envisaged that all children will enrol in school of appropriate quality and standards that will enable them read to acceptable levels by the time the graduate from what has been defined as basic education. It also envisaged that, with the same momentum as in the past the country will continue with systematically addressing literacy challenges for the adult population that is not able to read or write with the eventual aim of eradicating adult literacy altogether. Practical policy aspects will also be devised in consultation with stakeholders in order to further sharpen strategies and programmes for the post 2015 EFA period. 3.5.1. Status of adult literacy According to a 2010 Parliamentary review report, twenty-five different organisations, namely, civil society and faith based organisations in addition to four line ministries (i.e. MESVTEE, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of Community Development and Social Services and Ministry of Local Government and Housing) conduct adult literacy programmes in Zambia as either basic literacy or functional literacy or both. The mandate to provide, coordinate, manage and monitor adult education activities has been placed under the Directorate of Open and Distance Education of the MESVTEE. The other players and providers in adult literacy still remain active. Adult literacy education according to the EFA framework for Zambia was categorised as Basic, Functional or Integrated. Basic Literacy is the ability to read, write and count. This type and level of education brings fundamental changes in the life of an individual who, prior to that time was illiterate. Since basic literacy empowers individuals concerned with skills to read, write and count, it increases opportunities in their lives in so far as understanding and acting on the basis of the written word is concerned. Functional Literacy is the ability to perform a function (a duty, service or business) by the individual who has acquired basic skills in reading, writing and counting in order to understand issues related to income- generating activities such as crop-growing, nutrition, health, childcare and issues of household management. Integrated Literacy is the ability for an individual to combine basic and functional literacy in order to improve the interaction between the environment and peoples’ livelihood. 3.5.1. Adult literacy and meeting EFA goals Adult literacy education practice and provision in Zambia remains a challenge. As the EFA baseline of 2004 indicates, Zambia’s literacy rate for the population aged 15 years and above was 67.2 per cent. This was an increase from 66 per cent in 1990 while in the age group 15 to 24 years, the literacy rate stood at 70.1 per cent. Thus the level of illiteracy among all adultsPage 24 of 43   was 33.8 per cent while in the young adult group aged 15 -24 years, was 30 per cent. Previously the MESVTEE had not been directly involved in providing adult literacy education in Zambia. Its involvement was at the post adult literacy level. From 1965 up to the 1980s, people were encouraged to enrol in evening classes conducted by Ministry of Education under the then Department of Continuing Education now the Directorate of Open and Distance Education (DODE). In 2004, there was a total of 913 facilities offering Adult Literacy Education of which 495 were offering basic literacy, 270 Functional Literacy and 148 Integrated Literacy. Out of every three institutions offering Adult Literacy education, two were Government run. A total of 33,157 adult learners were enrolled in these institutions out of which 14,391 were males and 18,766 were females. In the year 2003, the Ministry of Education opened adult literacy classes in various zonal centres in districts of each province. However, the programme was not sustained due to:  inadequacy of trained staff in adult education methodology;  inadequacy of teaching and learning materials for adult literacy, and  lack of organised structures in the Ministry Zambia’s 2005 EFA framework offered three scenarios for achieving Goal 4 milestones. As Figure 7 shows, the first sought to maintain a proportion of 32.8 percent illiteracy. The second sought to achieve the global EFA target of halving adult illiteracy by 2015 while the third optimistically aspiredto reduceit by 80 percent. In addition to the three scnarios, Figure 6 presents two data series showing actual results up to 2010. From 2010 to 2015, the two data series take different trajectories assuming that the rate of annual reduction would be sustained over the remaining period, while the other trajectory assumes that the country would maintain the same target set in 2005. Figure 7: Illiteracy Rate Trajectories under EFA Proposed Scenarios Contrasted with the Actuals 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Illiteracy Rates Trajectory under various EFA Scenarios  1. Maintain the status quo 2. Reduce by 50% by 2015 3. Reduce by 80% by 2015 4. Reduce according to the 2000‐2010 intercensor reduction rate 5. Reduce according to the 2000‐2010 intercensor reduction rate but still maintain the 2015 targetPage 25 of 43   Figure 8 below quantifies the five scenarious. Under scenario 1, which is maintaining the rate of illiteracy at 32.8 percent, the number of those illiterate would have risen to 4.3 million by 2010 and subsenquently to 4.9 million in 2015. However, if the EFA Target had been pursued, the number of those illiterate should have stood at 2.7 million in 2010 and further reduced to 2.5 million in 2015. Figure 8: Population Trajectory for the Illiterate Population The actual achievements for Zambia, as Table 4 shows, are over and above the set international benchmark. Generally, over half additional adults became literate exceeding the EFA target as of 2010. If the same rate of progress was to be made under the scenario 4, the country will only have 1.8 million illiterate adults by 2015 against the set EFA global target of 2.5 million. Table 4: Zambia Performance Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy 2005-2014 Indicator Reported Baseline (2004) Target (2015) Results (2014) 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. Illiteracy rates for those aged 15 and above 3.2 million illiterate (32.8% of the adult population 16.4% Adult Illiteracy rate or 2.3 million adults 13.07% Illiteracy rates or 1.9 million Adults Completion Rate in Adult Literacy and Basic Continuing Education Programmes High Dropout rates 100% completion rates Going by the achievements in the previous indicator, this target was generally met  ‐  2,000,000  4,000,000  6,000,000 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Population trajectory for the Illiterate Population  1. Maintain the status quo 2. Reduce by 50% by 2015 3. Reduce by 80% by 2015 4. Reduce according to the 2000‐2010 intercensor reduction rate 5. Reduce according to the 2000‐2010 intercensor reduction rate but still maintain the 2015 targetPage 26 of 43   In moving forward, Zambia needs to adjust its EFA target from reducing illiteracy rates by 50 percent to reflects the countrys potential to do more.However, the target of reducing illiteracy rates by 80 percent was ambitious too. The number of those literate needs to be raised from 2.2 million in 2010 to 2.5 million in 2015 in order to keep up with the set target. However, the most progressive option would be to maintain the momentum set duing the period 2000 to 2010 by maintianing the steady pace of reducing illiteracy by approximately 2 percent annually. This would ultimately lead to reducing illiteracy rates by two-third in 2015 with the rate standing at 12.2 percent. The progress made in reducing illiteracy is important in fighting poverty and tackling issues of learning support for children. Parents and guardians who are literate are able to provide learning support through homework. Overall, the commitment of adult learners to their own education is encouraging. Adult learners have entered school as beginners before proceeding to Grade 5, with those who were determined studying up to GCE ‘0’ level. The most determined continue thereafter up to university level. From the period 2003 to date, there has been re-introduction of evening classes, revamping of distance learning and re-introduction of adult literacy education. For the indicators reported under Goal 4, Table 4 shows that Zambia has made progress on reducing adult illiteracy. 3.6.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 Zambia has taken important steps to increase participation rates for girls and vulnerable children in general. Beginning decisively with the Programme for Advancement of Girls’ Education (PAGE) in the mid-90s, the MESVTEE has implemented several measures including a fifty-fifty enrolment policy at grade one, free primary education, bursary support and the Re-entry Policy for pupils seeking to take leave from school in event of falling pregnant. Zambia has also upheld the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. With these efforts, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) shows that for the most part, girls are entering the school system in equal numbers with boys. The challenge, however, is ensuring that girls stay in school. For example, the MESVTEE’s data shows in the 2013 statistical bulletin that while boys and girls start off with equal opportunity to enter the school system, girls start to drop off most notably by the fifth grade. Every policy, strategy and programme on education has had a component on addressing the needs of girls and marginalised children an unequivocal imperative for the education sector in Zambia. As a start, legislation has been put in place to ensure that girls and other vulnerable children are enrolled and stay in school. Where adults would be involved in either aiding or abating the withdrawal of children from school for a variety of reasons, the new law of the lands prescribes very punitive unprecedented measures such as a minimum of 15 years jail terms for those found wanting in such cases as marrying off school girls.Page 27 of 43   The challenges encountered in the area of gender equity include the challenge of early pregnancies for schools girls, the perennial decline of participation for girls from Grade 5 upwards, though somewhat insignificant, the very fact that some girl children start dropping out from grade 4 though in small numbers eventually accumulate to significant levels higher in the education cycle with evidently glaring gender disparities. The disparities between urban and rural areas in gender across the two critical thematic areas of access and participation on one side and learning achievement and performance on the other side are evidently wide. Gender disparities in urban areas do not evidently exist but are reckonable in rural areas. Policy measure taking root have evidently shown results for urban areas and the programme for scaling them up involving very high government official targeting rural areas have be scaled u and appear to be yielding results. Girls in rural areas are most likely to drop out of the school system. Nationally, the 2010 Census shows that the GPI for those attending primary school was 0.99. The GPI in 2010 for rural areas was 0.96 while that of urban areas was 1.05. The national GPI for those attending secondary school was 0.89 in 2010. In rural areas the GPI for those attending secondary school was 0.75 while that of urban areas was 1.00. The GPI differences in rural and urban areas show that there is more equality in access to education for females in urban than rural areas (CSO 2010). Notable measure to ensure that girls access and are retained in school include the 50/50 enrolment policy, re-entry policy for girls who fall pregnant, the affirmative action for selection higher levels, special quota systems for girls in technical schools, and provision of bursaries and social safety nets for the vulnerable children. There also significant inroads that have been made by special NGOs programmes supporting girls education such as FAWEZA and CAMFED. Table 5: Gender Parity Index and achievements Indicator Reported Baseline (2004) Target (2015) Result (2014) 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. Female Enrolled as Percentage of Total Enrolment 48.4% for Grades 1 - 9 50% 49.2% Female Teachers as Percentage of Total Number of Teachers 47.8% for Grades 1 - 9 50% 50.1% Gender Parity Index for: GPI 2005 2015 2014 Grd 1-4 1.0 Grd 1-4 1.0 Grd 1-4 1.0Page 28 of 43   Grd 1-7 0.96 Grd 1-7 1.0 Grd 1-7 0.99 Grd 1-9 0.95 Grd 1-9 1.0 Grd 1-9 0.98 Grd 10-12 0.81 Grd 10-12 0.84 Grd 10-12 0.84 3.6.1. The nexus between quality education and achieving gender parity and equality A crucial constraint to sustaining gender parity and achieving equality in Zambia is the inadequacy of the educational experience that children are exposed to. Various assessment efforts including the Primary Reading Programme’s (PRP) ‘break through to literacy’ (BTL), early grade reading assessments (EGRA), the Grade Five National Assessment and successive public examinations conducted over the past decade show that children are drifting through the school system with very low mastery of desired learning competencies. Reading assessments for early grades show consistently that over 80 per cent of children are unable to read and write at the end of their first year of learning. As class sizes have grown exponentially and the attention to monitoring teaching and learning has weakened, children move on to second grade with minimal remediation. Critical to any corrective action in the early stages of learning is an ardent commitment to and use of formative assessment. Zambia, like most other countries, has focused more on summative assessments. Most teachers not only neglect formative assessment but are also are unable to do it well because they lack skills. Teacher professional development activities have neglected the development of assessment skills to the detriment of effective teaching and learning. In the absence of corrective action, most children, especially girls in rural areas, eventually lose interest in learning and start to drop out rapidly by the fifth grade. A poor educational experience is unable to protect children from the vagaries of social norms that assign roles and responsibilities that disadvantage both boys and girls. The boys are expected to quickly cede their childhood and become ‘men’ while girls are exploited sexually and economically. In rural areas, boys are faced with pressures to take on wives and become bread winners while girls are pushed into marriage for financial gain. 3.6.2. Teenage pregnancies and participation Over the past decade, Zambia has experienced a challenge in pregnancies among school girls. The MESVTEE’s data shows on average over 15,000 reported pregnancies annually the past five years. More than 80 per cent of these pregnancies occur in rural areas where children are subjected to unsafe learning environments. Girls that have to temporarily relocate to makeshift boarding houses, because of long distances to school, fall prey to sexual predators because of poverty, lack of personal security, and the allure of ‘looking nice’. In some communities, copycat behaviour, because it is trendy among peers to have babies, leads to an escalation in pregnancies. If not that some of these girls will die from child birth complications (Zambia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Africa that is closely linked to a school-age group), indeed even unsafe abortions, they are at great risk ofPage 29 of 43   contracting sexually transmitted diseases particularly HIV. Their children’s survival is also at great risk and most grow up to continue the cycle of poverty. The government drive to construct schools with safe boarding facilities will help to manage the vulnerabilities that girls face. Crucially, however, reproductive health is needed to better inform girls about the risks of early sexual debut. There is also early optimism that the promotion of school councils is putting the responsibility into pupils to address such issues in a much broader way than is achieved by self-selecting Anti-AIDS clubs. 3.6.3. Participation and the opportunity cost of schooling Because education is seen as bringing returns in the long term, the temptation to opt out is high particularly for children coming from poor households. The opportunity cost of staying in school is therefore exacerbated when children experience little joy in learning. Failing to read, write one’s name, and undertake simple arithmetic harms self-esteem as well as reinforces negative messages about schooling. Faced with often severe poverty situations, and a learning experience that is not compelling, families and their children opt out of the education system. The children that stay in the school system are permanently disadvantaged, progressing without essential competencies such as the ability to read. Such poor performance negates the valiant efforts that Zambia has carried out to increase participation. A good educational experience creates positive incentives for children and families to choose education over other competing influences. Proving that communities and the negative social norms that often dominate their lives are not necessarily the constraint to gender parity and equality, well over 600,000 new school places that have been created since 2000 to increase participation are in community schools. Zambia has over 3,000 communities initiated and run schools that account for almost 20 per cent of total enrolment in basic schools. 3.7. 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. Zambia has worked hard to achieve universal basic education. The drive to increase participation preoccupied education delivery in the past 15 years. The pursuit of expanding access has, however, had important paradoxes. The most significant being that of increasing participation while trying to safeguard quality. However, the need for infrastructural investments is unquestionably rational both at the primary and secondary school levels. The practice of multiple shifts in heavily enrolled schools (commonly with several thousand pupils), due to lack of space, reduces teacher pupil contact time (barely a few hours in grades one to four) while at the same time creating a school environment that is buzzing with raucous activity but very little learning. This negative experience significantly contributes to girls, especially in rural areas, exiting the school system in the upper primary because they and their families question the value of education for their immediate livelihood needs. Lack of classroom space not only constrains core learning activities but also makes it difficult forPage 30 of 43   school management teams to carryout remediation and learning support. Under these circumstances, even teachers do not have space for preparation. The consequence has been that teachers spend barely a few hours in public schools, a practice that has diminished their commitment to building robust learning environments. Since the 1980s, debate over the value of investing in secondary as opposed to basic education resulted in neglect of the subsector. Secondary education requires attention given the reality of a pyramid like population structure of the school system that is heavy at its base (millions at primary) but narrowing out practically to a pin-point at its apex (hundreds of thousands in secondary and even fewer still in tertiary). Indeed roughly, only 20 per cent of all children who enter the school system go on to complete secondary education. From these, only a small number go on to complete tertiary education. Given the fact that basic education in Zambia has failed to provide the practical skills envisioned to children exiting at the ninth grade. In recent years, the Zambian government has implemented an ambitious programme to revitalise the subsector. By 2015, the Government plans to build about 118secondary schools (in addition to 683 existing secondary schools).Under the basic school approach, teaching of science and practical subjects suffered because learning happened in schools that lacked equipment and qualified teachers. The quality of learning in general has been weak as manifested by low learning achievement scores of a huge number of learners in junior secondary who are unable to master required competencies such as reading. The impact of the neglect of quality on learning is, indeed, unequivocal at all levels. Despite Zambia’s success in expanding access to education, the country has routinely ranked at the bottom in terms of academic achievement as measured by standardised national and regional testing. As the 2012 Grade Five National Assessment (G5NA) indicates, pupils consistently score below the 40th percentile, the minimum performance standard established by the MESVTEE. Mean scores in 2012 recorded include 35.3 per cent in reading in English; 39.4 per cent in mathematics; 40.2 per cent in life skills; and 39.4 per cent in Zambian languages. This pattern of results has persisted over the past decade. Regionally, the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) shows that Zambian learners are performing at levels far lower than their regional counterparts. In 2007, for example, Zambia’s learners scored an average of 434 in reading and 435 in mathematics on the SACMEQ assessment, well below the international mean of 500. Table 6: Trends on the Proportions of learner in National Assessment Achieving defined Performance Levels  Subject  Pupils Reaching MLP (%) Pupils Reaching DLP (%)  1999  2001  2003  2006  2008  2012  1999  2001  2003  2006  2008  2012  English  23.1  29.3  28.7  29.2  32.3  35.8  2.8  5.4  5.5  6.2  6.4  7.6  Mathematics  26.5  28.7  43.4  42.4  44.6  39.5  3.8  6.1  10.1  9.6  9.9  10.0  Life Skills  61.9  38.5  11.8  11.4  Icibemba  31.3  28.4  36.2  46.2  57.2  25.3  9.5  8.4  10.6  9.7  17.3  8.8  Silozi  36.5  31.1  51.2  50.8  54.6  46.7  13.0  7.8  20.5  12.2  16.0  14.7  Chitonga  18.4  22.4  40.4  34.3  25.3  32.9  4.6  5.5  9.7  5.2  6.9  Cinyanja  18.2  27.5  31.4  31.1  4.3  5.8  3.0  3.5 Page 31 of 43   Source: Ministry of Education National Assessment Report for 2012 National Assessment results for Grade Five are of particular concern because poor performance during the middle stage of primary education indicates that learners are not grasping key foundational skills in the early grades. The government has committed in the Revised Sixth National Development Plan (R-SNDP) to improve the quality of education. Table 1 presents data that show trends in the proportions of learners reaching defined levels of achievement over the EFA period. There has been some progress achieved in the proportions of learners attaining the defined minimum level of competencies in both Reading in English and Mathematics. Specifically, the proportion of learners reaching the minimum level of proficiency for Reading in English rose from 23.1 percent in 1999 to 35.8 percent in 2012 while in Mathematics, this rose from 26.2 percent to 44.6 in 2008 and dropped to 35.8 percentby 2012. The country still faces serious challenges with quality provision of primary education given the low proportion of learners achieving the desirable level of mastery in both Reading in English and Mathematics with the proportions remaining below 10 although there has been some improvements somewhat. Education programming suffers globally from an ‘input-output syndrome’ which lends itself well to large scale resource mobilisation efforts. Undeniably, while EFA and the larger MDG goals have rallied nations to focus on specific areas of socio-economic improvement and poverty eradication, the approach used is heavily input focused. Whether the quest is to reduce pupil teacher ratios or indeed classroom class ratios, which in Zambia appear to be affecting effective instructional time is a matter that needs further attention. Though on average the pupil teacher ratio stood at 48 to 1 in 2013, there are huge variations across localities, with urban and peri-urban areas having classes exceeding 100. There is yet debate whether focus should be placed on reducing pupil teacher ratio or buying school requisites such as desks, chalk, textbooks, and work books, the operational modality has emphasized an input and output interest. This approach has crowded out concerns with soft issues particularly governance and education leadership and management. Furthermore, perhaps more crucially, critical activities such as formative assessment have not received the much needed attention; to the detriment of robust teaching and learning. It should be noted, however, that in recent years interventions have been put in place to start addressing the above issues. The challenge of quality education has been acknowledged across the education sector and will form part of the critical post 2015 education agenda in Zambia. Against the several major achievement that have been made in the area of access and participation, there is now a call to ensure that education provided to all learners is of acceptable quality and relevant to their individual and societal needs. Frameworks also need to be put in place where defined parameters are agreed on with a wider spectrum of stakeholder such as what could be defined as acceptable quality of education, relevance and effective schools. Pupil teacher ratios still remained high at 56.1 in 2013 having dropped from 58 in 2004 at primary education level. For the 8-9 and 10 -12 levels the rates changed from 25.0 in 2004 to 24.1 and from 19.0 to 36.9 in 2013 respectively. There were though accentuated provincial variations that give rise to concern such as Copperbelt Province having a pupil teacher ratio of 44.7 contrasted to that of Luapula Province which was 92.3 in 2013. With respect toPage 32 of 43   pupil/teacher contact hours, this still remained a huge challenge over the reporting period averaging 3.6 for Grades 1 to 4 and 5.1 for Grades 5 to 7. In respect of class sizes for the year 2013, the average for 1 to 9 was 37.3and that for 10 to 12 was 50.7. 3.7.1. Showcasing Performance Improvement – North-western Province The North-western Province (NWP) of Zambia had, within Ministry circles, always been tagged a ‘Cinderella Province’ because of its poor performance that had become the norm. Since embarking on a strategy to improve oversight and management of teaching and learning six years ago, NWP has solidly turned around its negative image. The 2012 Grade Five National Assessment shows that NWP had the highest average improvement (39 percent) across all examined subjects. At the secondary school level, NWP rapidly improved its Grade 12 national examination performance (as seen in Figure 9 in comparison with Southern Province, traditionally the highest, and the national average) from languishing below the national average and surpassing it in 2012. What accounts for the turnaround in performance? Figure 9: School Certificate Grade 12 Pass % by Province 2004-2013 NWP’s turnaround began in 2007 with a meeting called by stakeholders after the province recorded its worst results at all levels (primary, secondary and college). Attended by a cross section of society including chiefs, members of parliament, civil society, private sector, parents, cooperating partners working in the province and education administrators, the meeting scrutinized learning achievement to chart a way forward. For its part, the provincial education management team took steps to censure poorly performing heads of institutions (college, districts and schools). By 2008, the provincial management team, working with stakeholders, began to set performance targets for all learning institutions while stepping up monitoring activities and introducing local policies principally relating to assessment (including homework) and supervision of teaching and learning. For the higher grades (9 andPage 33 of 43   12), the NPW increased its management of the mock examination whose results have been used consistently to carryout remediation. Essentially, the change in attitude has been pivotal in NWP’s transformation, the management team has relied on specific measures particularly related to assessment, to chart its improvement journey. Beginning with developing provincial learner performance improvement strategies (2008-2011 and 2011-2015), the NWP identified six areas for performance improvement:  Leadership, management and supervision;  Teacher preparedness;  Assessment;  Supporting learners;  Policy development and implementation; and  Monitoring of teaching and learning. All of the NWP’s districts and schools have developed learner performance improvement strategies in line with the vision of the provincial management team but tailored to respond to their specific circumstances. Key among the measures implemented related to assessment are the mock examinations and homework. Steadfast attention to homework policies and tracking related teacher performance measures such curriculum coverage and attendance needs to be enhanced. Some schools, in agreement with local communities, have held back children from progressing to the next grade if they have not achieved required competencies. Aiding such children to catch up is a strong focus on remedial instruction particularly during term breaks. With these measures, NWP like the other nine provinces, are showing that the pursuit of quality is feasible with conscientious attention to teaching and learning. Certainly, additional resources would be most effective when the fundamentals of education management are solid. 4. Key Issues for Post-2015 Agenda The preceding discussion shows Zambia’s efforts in implementing the EFA goals. Despite the phenomenal success in expanding participation through strategies that included introducing free basic education, construction of new classrooms and schools, and abolishing examination fees and grade seven selection, challenges remain. The challenges are principally in five areas that include policy, achieving universal access; improving assessment practices; educational financing; and education leadership and management. The significance of these issues to a post-2015 agenda is elaborated below. During the EFA review, it became apparent that the country faces recurring challenges in approaching the assessment it has made on Education for All. The country has achieved so much progress in the area of Education for All but has difficulties to accounts for the achievement made in the absence of a framework to do so largely due to the fragmentation of efforts across EFA ministries that have been ranging from four to five over the last 20 years. Equally the non-continuity of the EFA secretariat rendered the greater and good work done under its charges such as the creation of a comprehensive database of less value. There is therefore need for a secretariat to run throughout the implementation period with dedicated staff and counterpart identified from the line ministries. Alternatively, it is critical to havePage 34 of 43   identified critical staff within the lead ministry and line ministries to steer the coordination through a broad based consultative framework while taking all stakeholders on board. In the Midst of vast quantitative progress, it is important to ensure that the next EFA focuses on ensuring that the debate on the quality and relevance of education form an important agenda item. Equally, rationalised provision of junior and senior secondary education should be critically considered in the light emerging evidence of the impact this level of education has on poverty reduction and national productivity. 4.1. Policy Consolidation and Evaluation Zambia has followed through on numerous policy initiatives in an effort to improve education delivery. Clearly, policy initiatives related to improving access have been more successful than those related to quality. As noted in this review, and most significantly for access, the FPE has over the past decade afforded millions of children an opportunity to learn. Subsequent policy initiatives such as the introduction of ECE, bursary support for vulnerable children and the abolition of the grade seven cut off point selection method are helping to keep more children in the education system. Quality initiatives, however, have proven to be more challenging. For example, Zambia abandoned the two-year Zambia Teacher Education Course (ZATEC) programme that was blamed for producing less competent teachers. The country has also introduced a revised national primary curriculum on account of the ineffectiveness of teaching methods supported under the Primary Reading Programme. Certainly, the Government’s willingness to continuously explore alternative initiatives is a positive quality in itself. Nevertheless, various policy actions and iterations have moved along with little consolidation and evaluation. For example, the FPE policy was largely a pragmatic directive articulated in a circular. Despite the FPE’s positive impact on increasing participation, the quality of service delivery at the primary schools level has suffered from financial constraints. The school grants that primary schools receive to support teaching and learning are insufficient (the average expenditure per pupil of K34.14 per year – approximately US$5.4) to cover running costs. Going forward, Zambia will need to prioritize policy design while ensuring to limit the time lag behind between its finalization and implementation of programmatic activities. 4.2. Striving for Universal Access The push for universal access in Zambia still faces difficult challenges. At the national level, the government is yet to clear the backlog of over aged (above seven years) pupils who are yet to enter the school system. Making things even more complex, while public schools in high density urban areas have challenges absorbing children, schools in low density neighbourhoods are under enrolled in the early grades because people take their children to private schools. Challenges with over enrolment also show that it is not enough to get children into school. The school environment must be adequate to support learning. In rural areas, long distances between schools remain a challenge. Distances in excess of the desired 5 km minimum between schools are the norm for rural areas rather than the exception. As such, Zambia will need to continue building primary schools for the foreseeable future. The reliefPage 35 of 43   that community schools have provided is temporal because the infrastructure and learning conditions are hardly ideal. Even the dogged and selfless commitment of volunteer community school teachers cannot be sustained forever. Poverty is also an on-going challenge as it influences participation even with compulsory education because children will always engage in economic activities that take them away from school, such as subsistence farming, fishing, cattle herding and collecting caterpillars. These intractable challenges call for innovation both in terms of creating flexible learning environments (as opposed to solely relying on a one-size fits all school calendar) and the use of technology solutions. Zambia has popularly used radio (Interactive Radio Instruction) to reach underserved populations. Advances in computer technologies and the availability of relatively low cost devices means that there are more avenues to deliver quality education. The newly established ECE centres would benefit the most from technology innovations. The urgent need for learning spaces also calls for innovative ways to provide school infrastructure. The concrete construction solutions are not only costly but take time to deliver. Certainly, the continuing urgency around achieving access calls for an even stronger resolve to address the challenge, not business as usual. 4.3 Assessment as Pillar for Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance The significance of assessment to the post-2015 quality agenda cannot be overstated. Zambia has generally done well in carrying out summative assessments but needs to build an early warning system to gather achievement data continuously throughout the learning cycle in an aggregative manner so that policy actions derive from information based on real-time practice. The revised national curriculum’s focus on assessment is an important step in the right direction. Broadly, there are three types of assessments in use in Zambia: school-based assessments (formative assessment as well as the new Grades 1 and 4 literacy and numeracy assessments); public examinations (Grades 7, 9, 12 and institute/college exams); and the competency assessments (national assessments for Grades 5 and 9, Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), Early Grade EGMA, SACMEQ, TEVETA and higher education certification). Characteristically, these assessment practices are mostly summative in orientation and are aimed at understanding system performance rather than immediately inform teaching and learning. Zambia’s education system needs to balance between ‘assessment of learning’ and ‘assessment for learning’. Assessment for learning principally relates to formative assessment practices which enable teachers to give immediate feedback to learners and undertake remediation. For assessment to play a pivotal role in the pursuit of quality, different actors need to come together to minimize fragmentation in execution of functions. Because assessment serves different purposes, key actors need to work together to balance the competing purposes and interests. Assessment of learning activities naturally attracts a lot of interest and finances whereas assessment for learning activities are low profile. In building an early warning assessment system, Figure 10 illustrates sequentially how this may work. The overall reasoning is that stakeholders need to come together and achieve consensus on an ethos around assessment. Crucially, strengthening the ability to collect and apply everyday data is bound to improve the quality of monitoring the performance of the system. Improving everyday assessment practices will also increase the chances of achieving better results at the end of learning cycles. In all, the notion of evidence based decision making in the educationPage 36 of 43   sector must derive evidentiary from a robust process of collecting and analyzing assessment data. Figure 10: Early Warning Assessment System 4.4. Education Financing The reality that school construction will continue to be a priority entails that the argument for increasing funding for quality concerns may seem abstract. Zambia needs to bring a sharper focus on urgent issues, such as assessment and remediation, to be able to politically move financial resources to address quality arguments more directly. Indeed, even school constructions can ultimately and legitimately be rationalized in terms of quality arguments. The goal, however, is immediacy. Zambia needs to increase resources to fund activities that have an immediate impact on learning. Moreover, the recently launched revised national curriculum will require significant resources to support its implementation. Education financing in Zambia also needs to capitalize on the growing goodwill from the private sector. As cooperating partner budgets decline, the private sector will become an important contributor to education financing. Private businesses are keen to carry out corporate social responsibility activities. It is important that the MESVTEE can engage the private sector in a systematic and long term way. Besides the private sector, the MESVTEE needs to encourage schools to spend funds collected from parents on improving teaching and learning. Funds collected as Parent Teacher Association (PTA) contributions have traditionally been applied to finance school capital projects. PTA funds are also used to buy buses. These big ticket expenditures, while agreed to by parents, are prioritized over purchase of books and other teaching and learning materials. Ultimately, however, resolving the tensions between competing priorities in thePage 37 of 43   MESVTEE budget is crucial. Shifts in the planning and budgeting process, that now require an output based budget (OBB) approach may detract from a focus on less tangible results. 4.5 Education Leadership and Management This review highlighted the success story of NWP’s improvement. NWP’s success illustrates the importance of leadership and management going forward. Beyond just increasing resources, education managers need to ensure that available resources are applied effectively. In the case of NWP, little had changed in terms of financing but a lot changed in terms of results. In a pragmatic way, NWP demonstrates how education governance can quickly meet the goal of improving educational performance. In the past, ideas about governance through decentralization have focused more on efficiency arguments rather than putting the capability of problem solving in the hands of lower level management units. Consequently, education management is top-down in orientation. Decision makers in provinces, districts and schools are looking for solutions to come from the top. In contrast, NWP’s transformation depended on the provincial, district and school management teams taking responsibility and ownership of the challenges they faced. NWP’s experience also shows that it is not just a matter of providing training for education managers. It is, more crucially, the ability to simulate leadership. Key in this regard is how leadership practice at multiple levels (province, district, and school level) creates incentives to motivate others to improve performance. NWP has also capitalized on mining companies to support its incentive initiatives. As Zambia moves to effect fiscal decentralization, education managers will require support in developing problem solving skills. Most education managers have risen through the ranks without exposure to management practice. Furthermore, the false dichotomy that splits education administration and academic in the public school system has undermined the supervision of teaching and learning. In private schools, head teachers are as involved in administration as they are in academic work because ultimately they are held accountable for the performance of their school. 5. Conclusion The phenomenal growth in access and participation in Zambia is the result of four decisive factors: Pragmatic policy initiatives in the face of a dire situation of sectoral underperformance; increased budgetary allocations to the education sector; communities taking action to salvage the general decline in the education service delivery; and concerted action from the international community. The combination of these measures has enabled Zambia to make progress on both EFA and MDG goals. Looking beyond 2015, EFA goals will continue to be relevant. The priorities of the past 15 years have not changed. ECE (Goal 1) will help children to enter primary school equipped with basic learning skills. Achieving universal access (Goal 2) remains a difficult challenge given limited school places and the backlog of children who are yet to enter the school system. Addressing the learning needs of youth (Goal 3) is ever more critical given Zambia’s predominantly youthful population. The situation of young people, particularly girls, requires innovative approaches to offer them employment opportunities as well as protect them from vices and abuse. Adult literacy (Goal 4) is strategic in many respects. It is empowering for adults and essential for children’s learning support. Parents and guardians who are able to read can help children to developPage 38 of 43   reading skills and persist in education. Eliminating gender inequities (Goal 5) remains a challenge despite Zambia’s exceptional levels of gender parity. Moving beyond equal numbers, the task for the future is to resolutely improve the quality aspect of participation. Finally, and globally, quality (Goal 6) was left behind as the pursuit of access dominated education programming in the past 15 years. Attaining quality is the crucial imperative for the coming decade as it is not just about learning but about social justice.Page 39 of 43   References Central Statistical Office (CSO). 2010. Analytical Report. CSO Lusaka Chekani T. Sakala& Michael M Chilala 2007 ‘The Role of the Zambia National Assessment Programme in Evaluating the Attainment of Educational Goals’ Paper Presented at the 33rd International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) Annual Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Fullan, M. 2011. Change leader: learning to do what matters most. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Healey, F. H., &DeStefano, J. 1997. Education Reform Support. Volume Three: A framework for making it happen. Washington, DC: Office of Sustainable Development, Bureau for Africa, USAID. Lungwangwa G, Kelly J M et al. 1998, Education For Some:- Factors Affecting School Attendance, Report Commission by the Study Fund Committee of the of the Social Recovery Project Kolb, D. A., Boyatzis, R. E., &Mainemelis, C. 2000. Experiential Learning Theory: Previous Research and New Directions. In Perspectives on cognitive, learning, and thinking styles. Sternberg & Zhang (Eds.). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C. and Barber, M. 2010. How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. McKinsey. Ministry of Education 1996. Educating Our Future. Lusaka, Ministry of Education. Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2000. National Assessment Survey Report – 1999. Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2001. National Assessment Survey Report – 2001. Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2003. National Assessment Survey Report – 2003. Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2006. National Assessment Survey Report – 2006. Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2008. National Assessment Survey Report – 2008.Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2012. National Assessment Survey Report – 2012. Lusaka, Ministry of Education Learning Achievement at the Middle Basic Education Level, 2003. Strategic Plan 2003-2007. Lusaka, Ministry of Education.Page 40 of 43   National Parliament. 2009. Second Report of the Committee on Education, Science and Technology for the Fourth Session of the Tenth National Assembly Appointed on 24 September 2009 World Bank 2010. READ Annual Report 2010. World Bank. Washington

Epub Document
Source document
Record
Title
Zambia: Education for All 2015 national review
Other title
Education for All 2015 national review: Zambia
Collation
44 p.
Material type
Year of publication
Country of publication
Zambia
Language
English
Geographic topic
Other subject
Notes
Electronic version
Incl. bibl.
Media type
Electronic
Source
Non-UNESCO
Catalog Number
0000231573