Lukulu Teacher Training Program

Partner | IBVM Community of Southern Africa

Location | Lukulu, Zambia

Overview

This program provides nine young people from the Lukulu and Mitete districts of Zambia with access to certified teacher training. Each participant, selected by a panel of educational experts, is enrolled in a three-year diploma in primary education at the Mongu College of Education, a college affiliated with the University of Zambia.

A condition of receiving the teacher training is that, upon graduation, the teachers return to the district and teach voluntarily in a rural community school until the government employs them to teach at a school in the Western Province, the most impoverished region in Zambia.

Challenges

This teacher training program is critical to the future education of children in Lukulu.

Many schools in this area have been established by rural village communities and have no trained teachers. They are often run by a person whose only qualification is that they are literate. Most of the ‘teachers’ in these schools are voluntary until the government agrees to take over the school, only once it has proven viable.

As community schools are becoming fully incorporated into the government school system, more community schools are being initiated by communities desperate to educate their children.

Impact

This project offers teacher training to nine volunteer teachers from rural community schools in the Lukulu and Mitete Districts. Each of the nine participants receives three years of training to become a qualified primary school teacher and an opportunity to earn a living for themselves and their families.

These newly qualified teachers return to the district and teach voluntarily in a rural community school until the government employs them to teach at a school in the Western Province. This provides children attending these schools with a higher standard of education, as fully trained teachers are teaching them.

Activities

• Assisting local students to apply for a diploma course in primary education at the Mongu College of Education – affiliated with the University of Zambia.
• Providing financial support for nine students to complete a diploma course in primary education.
• Monitoring students’ progress and managing consequences should students not meet guidelines.