Zambia Launches new Educational Curriculum

The Zambian Ministry of Education has embarked on a complete revision of the education curriculum from Early Education to Secondary Education. This new curriculum will be rolled out as of January 2014. VVOB participated in the launch of the new Educational Curriculum, which was attended by the Minister of Education, Dr. John Phiri. The launch has been supported mainly through USAID projects, but also VVOB was invited to display its literacy related teaching and learning materials. Highlight at our stand was an instructional material made of a coloured maize sack, which is easily available all over the country, and very cheap and hardy. It contained drawings and items translated into three local languages. The concept will be promoted in our new Multi-Year Programme on Early Education as well as in our EU co-funded project on Empowering Community School Teachers, as one of the many low cost teaching and learning materials for resource poor schools. The Zambian Minister of Education is a strong champion of Early Childhood Education, currently a very unregulated sector. He therefore encouraged our focus on Early Education Teacher Training – both in government and community schools - and the use of low cost teaching materials. VVOB and the Zambian Ministry of Education are eager to continue the collaboration with our new programmes.