Quality Education: The bigger picture

Over recent months you might have picked up that we have made the important shift from meeting the immediate needs of the children and the infrastructure of the schools to focus on the quality of teaching and learning being offered.

We recognised it as an important part of the schools’ development and our colleague, Dan, moved over to Zambia last year to lead this work. Dan is currently supporting the schools in the teachers’ professional development and helping provide a literacy framework to improve the levels of reading and writing.

Although for us it felt like a natural shift and the next step in our partnership journey with the schools, it is being reflected in what is happening on a wider scale across the globe, particularly within developing nations.

Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) seeks to, “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling”. 

Encouragingly, primary school enrollment rates have increased substantially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, many experts argue that this push to achieve MDG2 is a major cause for deterioration of quality at all levels of education. There is growing concern that low quality education translates into decreased competitive advantage; basic education is simply not enough to secure a successful future.

There is also evidence that the chances of a child moving through the primary education system and receiving the significant benefits of secondary and higher education have actually worsened since 2000. Increased class sizes and resources being shared amongst more students along with a lack of trained teachers has led to increased absenteeism and drop out; in the least developed countries (which includes Zambia) only 61% of children who begin primary education remain for 4 years.

A recent UNESCO 2013/4 Report, ‘Education for All’, “makes a powerful case for placing education at the heart of the global development agenda after 2015”.  It is widely noted that mere enrolment in primary education is not enough, and that quality education is the key.

So we’re encouraged to keep on moving forward in this area, to see real change in the teaching and learning at the schools we partner with. We know it won’t be a ‘quick fix’ but it’s something we are committed to over these coming years and know it will be something that truly makes a difference.