Power and Policy

Well, big news to report. The power is finally on in my little house. This is huge for me. It means that I finally get to call a place home. I am very excited about it. I will include pictures some time, but it is really not much different from the States. I am not living in a mud hut or whatever your picture of Africa is. It has two bedrooms (one is my office) and two and a half baths. There is a lot of space. The only real difference from the states is that all the floors are tile, but I have a few rugs. Hopefully, with time I will be able to call it home.

Well, I promised my thoughts on the policy initiatives that I think the community schools should pursue. First of all, for those who don’t know I am working with community schools not government schools. These schools are privately financed to serve impoverished communities that are not served by the government schools. The plan is for these schools to eventually be strengthened enough so that they can be run by the government. That is the Zambian governments plan to help meet the UN Millenium Development Goal (MDG) of providing universal primary education by 2015.

Through my observations and readings, these will be my four suggestions for possible advocacy initiatives. The first issue is to focus on teacher accreditation. The Zambian government does not count time spent working in community schools as time teaching. Also, paths to teacher certification for these teachers are not transparent or manageable given the fact that the teachers are not paid. There must be clear and manageable paths for these teachers to be trained and certified. My brief training will not do. There has to be longer term solutions. The second issue is the issue of teacher deployment. Under the new mandates provided by the government for community schools, the government should be deploying their trained teachers to community and government based schools at an equal rate based upon need. This is not happening; therefore, the government needs to be “pressured” to fulfill their promise. The third issue is the transparency of the grant allocation process for community schools. Presently, the government does provide a small amount of money for community schools. The allocation process is murky though. Administrators have told me that during the last allocation, money was given to schools that did not exist. They were a little bit upset at that fact. Finally, the fourth issue is providing classroom or school libraries. Research has proven that when books are present children’s reading scores increase. It is not rocket science. The only books in the schools are text books and writing books. There are no books for children to simply read for enjoyment. If gains are to be made, this must change.

There is one more issue that I really care about that I will bring up, but I doubt that they will go forward with it. That is the issue of early childhood education. In order to meet the MDGs, Zambia must strengthen this sector of their education system. This initiative needs to start with the urban and rural poor. This is where it is needed the most. My mind races to beginning something like HeadStart in Zambia. (HeadStart is an early intervention childhood program that focuses on individuals in poverty in the US). To strengthen their system Zambia must start with a solid base (early childhood education, 1st, and 2nd). Of the 110 pages in the National Implementation Framework for Education 2008-2010, there are two pages on Early Childhood Education. The issue must be forced. Ok, I will get off my soapbox for now.

That just gives you a short overview of the issues presented when dealing with this type of education system. There are so many other issues I could bring up but my suggestions would be to start with those. In many ways, the schools are in a transition period. Resources have been promised, but there has not been follow through by the government.

By the way, some people have been asking about an address if you want to send letters, etc. to me. The address is:

David Bramlett

PO Box 70519 30 Lualaba Road,

Kansenshi

Ndola, Zambia