Samuel Mbewe
Early Childhood Education is important and considered to be the foundation of better education.
In Zambia According to Education for Development, only 17% of children enrolled in Zambia enrolled for primary education and enjoyed any kind of Early Childhood Education.
The low percentage of enrollment shows that there are various challenges that hinders most children from being enrolled in early childhood education.
Some of the challenges include infrastructure, specialized teachers in early childhood education and distance to access schools where they offer such education.
Ministry of Education Assistant Director at the Directorate of the Early Childhood Education Patrine Chilala says government has made concerted efforts to improve early childhood education by the construction of more classes for the learners.
The government disclosed that about 440 Early Childhood Education Centres -ECE- will be constructed across in the country in 45 selected Districts. The centres will include 110 Early Childhood Education hubs with each receiving three satellite centres.
This is at the cost of about 39 million United States dollars, which comes as a grant from the World Bank under the Global Partnership for Education. The program which is being run under the Zambia Enhancing Early Learning – ZEEL- Project by the Ministry of Education has so far seen 52 schools currently under construction in phase one.
And, Ministry of Education Director Planning and Information, Linda Siwale says it is governments aim to enhance Early Childhood Education as it is a key strategy in championing poverty alleviation, promoting equality and stable societies among other benefits.
“Over 110,000 Children aged between 3 and 6 years will benefit from project once construction is done, said Ms. Siwale.
And, World Bank Senior Education Specialist and ZEEL Team Leader Veronica Grigera said it is the Organization’s desire to see to it that children have access to quality education from infancy.
“World Bank will try and restructure the Grant to see how the project can be accelerated to fit into the country’s current economic status,”said Ms. Grigera.
She disclosed that most primary schools have been annexed to allow the construction of the early childhood centers.
Mrs. Chilala says following the free education policy by President Hakainde Hichilema the centers have seen an increase in the enrollment of early childhood learners. She says the foundation of the child is critical because it helps the performance of the child.
Mrs. Chilala says with the help of stakeholders the syllabus and learning materials have already been formulated.
And Senior Education Officer at the Directorate of Early Childhood Education Caster Mulafu says the directorate has received funding to ensure that early childhood education is actualized.
“Some stakeholders have already come on board to support us with learning materials, coming up with the curriculum and other supporting materials for early childhood education.” Mulafu explained.
Geoffrey Lungu who is Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula ward 12 Ward Development Committee Chairman in Kanyama Constituency says using CDF funds they have built classrooms blocks for ECE at Johnlaing Combined school in Lusaka.
He said the children from the community will benefit because they will providing food for the learners to ensure that children from vulnerable families are encouraged to attend classes.
” We are happy with the construction of the Early Child Hood Section, as parents we are in support of this development because some of us we cant afford to take our children’s to private schools because we don’t have money, but with the coming of the school we are really happy, visibly happy parents said.
Mr. Lungu observed that with the challenges such as hunger exacerbated by the effects of climate change most families are struggling to feed their families result into some children not attending school and the school feeding program will be a great achievement.
And some parents in Johnlaing compound are happy with the development saying this will attract children not to be absent from school especially those coming from vulnerable families who cant fully support their children due to economic challenges.
Meanwhile, Media Network on Child Rights and Governance Executive Director Henry Kabwe has appreciated the government to prioritize investments in the education sector and efforts being made to increase infrastructure for early childhood development and education(ECD/E).
“We are supporting the move by the government to prioritize ECE across the country and our call is to ensure that school feeding programs are implemented in all schools offering ECE as an organization we are happy that even in rural areas now they have ECE schools, Kabwe added.
Further, Zambia National Education Coalition Executive Director George Hamusunga said the increase in the school feeding programme from the current 39.4 million to 111. 7 million in 2024 national budget is commendable as it will encourage children to stay in school and improve the nutrition of the learners especially the young ones in ECE.
“Good nutrition can improve attendance, concentration , and overall academic performance for learners, especially in marginalized areas, Hamusunga added.
He suggested that it is important for government to ensure that 15% of the staff recruited are ECE Caregivers, as ECE teachers need a lot of assistance when handling learners at this age and also at least 20% of the teachers employed are Early Childhood Education teachers
