Education

Challenges in Education
The recent evaluation of the basic education sector in Zambia (PDF) by the Evaluation Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs demonstrates that Zambia has a good story to tell. Zambia has seen a tremendous increase in access to education with pupils’ enrolments growing over 9% since 2000. However, as a result of the growth in the number of pupils, the quality of education is still an issue. Only one third of the students in grade 5 attain the minimum level in English and math. A key factor is the high pupil/teacher ratio of 74:1 in the lower grades. Consequently, most classes are split in double or even triple shifts, in which pupils receive only three hours of instruction or less. This situation is exacerbated by a lack of classrooms and textbooks. Quality improvement is therefore the main priority for the Zambian Ministry of Education. More details on enrolment in the education sector.

Education policy in Zambia
Education, defined broadly in terms of both general education and skills development, is considered a priority sector for poverty alleviation and economic growth in the Fifth National Development Plan 2006-2010 (Word doc). The Ministry of Education has developed the National Implementation Framework 2008-2010 (NIF) that covers all sub-sectors in the education system: early childhood, basic schools, high schools, teacher training colleges, universities and adult literacy. The NIF is a successor of the Strategic Plan 2003-2007, which was supported by the Netherlands and 10 other donor agencies. The NIF works towards achieving the Education for All (EFA) goals, as agreed upon at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, and the Millennium Development Goals. It aims to achieve universal access to quality primary education and gender equality for both boys and girls.

Dutch support to education
The education program of the Embassy is focused on three areas:

Support to the National Implementation Framework 2008-2010 of the Zambian Ministry of Education
Support to FAWEZA, a national NGO focusing on girls’ education
Assistance to the development of skills training (TEVET: technical education and vocational and entrepreneurship training).

Financial support from the Embassy to the education sector has doubled from € 9.9 million in 2005 to € 20 million annually for the period 2008-2010. The lion’s share of Dutch support (over € 18 million) is channeled to the Ministry of Education for the NIF. In addition to the Embassy’s programme, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs also supports education in Zambia through the Netherlands Programme for Institutional Strengthening of Post-Secondary Education and Training (www.nuffic.nl).

Donor coordination
The Strategic Plan is supported by 14 bilateral and multilateral Cooperating Partners (CPs) within a sector-wide approach that aims to reduce transaction costs for the Ministry of Education as well as for the CPs. With some CPs having moved on to providing general budget support, the Netherlands is one of the 4 partners providing support through a common sector pool account, and is among the largest CP of the sector. In view of the further harmonization and alignment, it is the intention of the Embassy, together with other CPs involved, to change the sector pool into sector budget support.

2.1 Enrolment in the education sector

There were 2.8 million children in basic schools (grades 1-7) in 2007 compared to 1.8 million in 2000. With net enrolment over 97% in 2006, Zambia may be on its way to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary completion by 2015. However, the positive average scores hide gender imbalances and geographical disparities. As girls grow older, they drop out more frequently. The gender parity index drops from 1 in grade 1 to 0.83 in grades 10-12 (roughly 4 girls to 5 boys). The enrolment rates in Eastern Province is 30% lower than in Copperbelt or Central Provinces.

Transition to higher levels is still a major challenge. While the rapid expansion of basic education has increased demand for post-primary education, supply remains limited due to a lack of facilities and qualified teachers. Net enrolment at high schools was only 24.6% in 2007, while the two public universities enrol less than 15,000 students. Skills training institutions account for 26,000 students. For illustration: 110,000 students passed grade 9 and 12 examinations in 2007.

Zambia key education data (2007)
Children enrolled in grades 1-7	2,822,759
Number of basic schools	8,013
Pupil/teacher ratio in grades 1-4	74.9:1
Total number of teachers in all schools	71,612

2.2 National Implementation Framework 2008-2010

The NIF covers the entire education column, with the exception of skills development under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training. The objectives for the NIF are similar to those of the overall FNDP education chapter, which focus is on 4 strategic priorities:

access: increased enrolments with an emphasis on infrastructure development
quality: enhanced learning achievement through curriculum development, provision of learning materials and increased teacher deployment and training
efficiency: enhanced capacity to deliver quality services with a focus on school management, teacher management/motivation and pupil retention
equity: equitable access with a focus on girls, orphans and vulnerable children, children affected by HIV/AIDS and children with special educational needs

Under these four strategic priorities, objectives with measurable outcomes and outputs have been formulated for each sub-sector: early childhood development, literacy, lower and middle basic education (grades 1-7), upper basic (grades 8-9), high school (grades 10-12), teacher training and university education.

The objectives of the FNDP are translated into a series of key performance indicators:

Indicators	Baseline 2005	Target 2010
Net enrolment ratio grade 1-7 grade 8-9 grade 10-12	(a) 94.7% (b) 23.5% (c) 21.3%	(a) 97.3% (b) 48.5% (c) 32.6%
Completion rate grade 7 grade 9 grade 12	(a) 89.9% (b) 42.7% (c) 17.6%	(a) 90.0% (b) 65.4% (c) 29.6%
Pupil teacher ratio grade 1-4 grade 5-7 grade 8-9 grade 10-12	(a) 80.3 (b) 37.5 (c) 32.5 (d) 21.7	(a) 60.1 (b) 41.1 (c) 36.8 (d) 27.6
Gender parity index grade 1-7 grade 8-9 grade 10-12	(a) 0.96 (b) 0.95 (c) 0.81	(a) 0.98 (b) 0.97 (c) 0.82

The total costs of the NIF are ZMK 7.8 trillion (or USD 2.1 billion). The Zambian government will fund 80% of the total costs of the NIF, while the Cooperating partners will provide 8-10%. However, this leaves a financing gap of approximately USD 121 million. The CPs expect that USD 61 million can be mobilized locally, mainly through increased tax revenue, but also by scaling up by local donors. Already Germany, currently not an education donor, has indicated an interest to support the education sector through a silent partnership with the Netherlands. For the remaining gap, the local donors will support a request by the Ministry of Education for additional funding from the Education for All/Fast Track Initiative for an amount of USD 60 million (www.efasttrack.org). More information on the NIF can be downloaded here (Word doc).

2.3 FAWEZA

Basic schools in Zambia are approaching gender parity, i.e. there are as many boys as girls in the classroom. However, the education system still disfavours girls. As girls grow older, they tend to drop out more frequently than boys. Girls underperform in science and math, while they are vulnerable for (sexual) violence in and around schools.

FAWEZA is a local NGO that aims to reduce gender disparities in education so that more girls will have access to schooling, complete their studies and perform well in a girl-friendly environment at all levels (www.widnet.org.zm/partner_faweza.php). FAWEZA is the national chapter of FAWE, the Forum for African Women Educationalists, which is the leading African network to promote girls’ and women’s education in Africa (www.fawe.org).

The Embassy supports FAWEZA’s Strategic Plan 2005-2009 which aims to increase girls‘ and women’s enrolment, retention, progression, qualitative performance and completion at all levels of education. The Plan outlines four strategic objectives:

advocate for policies and programmes that support the education of girls and women
implement pilot demonstrations/interventions that enhance girls and women’s participation in education
create and strengthen collaborative partnerships and networks for effective implementation and monitoring
build capacity of FAWEZA at all levels to effectively carry out its mandate

2.4 Skills training

A better skilled Zambian population is important for achieving the central theme of the Fifth National Development Plan, 2006-2010: broad-based wealth and job creation. Better skilled people usually have more opportunities to finding a job or set up a business. For these skills to be developed, Zambia needs a sound skills training sector that is able to respond to the demands of the labour market and local business. A vibrant skills training sector is also required to meet the needs of the 100,000s of young people who leave school and try to find a way to find employment or create their own opportunities. However, with a total capacity of 26,000 places, the sector is unable to meet the demand. The skills training sector does not fall under the Ministry of Education, but is the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training (MSTVT).

The Embassy supports:

the Ministry (MSTVT) in the development of a national skills training strategy, which would attract funding for implementation from internal and external sources
the strengthening of the authority in charge of regulation and quality control of all training institutions in Zambia, TEVETA (www.teveta.org.zm) and
the establishment of a specific sub-granting facility (TEVET fund) to subsidize training institutions on the basis of competitive proposals.

After the Danish exit in 2007, the World Bank and the Embassy have decided to continue supporting the sector until mid-2009.

2.5 Donor coordination in education

In 2006, 12 bi/multilateral agencies supported the Ministry of Education (MoE), in addition to a large number of NGOs and projects. The JASZ process has led to a critical review of the existing dialogue mechanisms in the sector with the aim to reduce transaction costs for MoE. It has been agreed to limit the large number of bilateral meetings between CPs and MoE by a strengthened dialogue with MoE in the regular joint committees. A key JASZ innovation was the nomination of a limited number of “sector leads” to represent the CPs in their dialogue with GRZ. In the education sector Irish Aid and The Netherlands were nominated leads.

The first feedback from MoE on the JASZ is positive. They have experienced a reduction in time spent on donor issues, while the CPs provide more consolidated comments. From the CP side, the JASZ has also reduced the workload for donors who are active in education, as the leads have taken on a role as chair/secretariat in the internal donor dialogue and in most meetings with MoE.