School grants

Community schools qualify for government school supply grants provided they qualify, register, and follow regulations. The government specifies how and what to spend the money on. For example, an instruction might be the school should use 35% of the sum for math and science books. The school then submits receipts and a report.

I’ve been looking into the specifics of the procedure because some of the community school supported by my organisation have not been receiving the grant. It turns out that the district level officer distributes funds on his/her own discretion. In some districts, if the school did not sufficiently report the use of last year’s funds, they are off the list and no longer get funding. It seems that once off the list, it is impossible to get back on. Yes, sometimes it is the fault of the school for misusing funds. However, sometimes it is a procedural error like not filling the form in correctly or not getting the requested type of receipt. When a school become a registered community school, the district education office is supposed to train the school in using and reporting on the grant. Unfortunately, in some districts, the government has not been holding training sessions.

A perspective I heard today is that by not holding the training, schools make errors and the district office can then take the grant back. Training people gives schools a chance to use the grant correctly and meet some needs of the school. But through training, fewer school will make errors and the office will have less opportunity to capitalise and take back money for their own use. Umm… should I say it… corruption.

The Situation

A typical community school has hundreds of students, a few teachers, and never enough resources like desks, chalk, and books. The government cannot financially support community schools. NGOs and faith-based organisation provide support through training teachers, donating teaching materials, running feeding programmes, and improving school infrastructure. But, one thing not addressed is the issue of teacher salaries. My organisation emphasises community ownership and we aim to train and support communities to source their own funds to pay their teachers. A few schools, through the efforts of parent school committees have income generating activities like tuck shops, piggeries, and chicken runs. In the end, there is never enough money to go around.

We have sent some teachers to college, but when the return to their community school, it is up to the community to support their teachers. Or in theory, government should hire them. Training teachers is not sustainable, if we cannot retain them. Some teachers get small monetary, housing, and food allowances, but most do not. The World Food Programme announced a shortage of food in Zambia and a number of feeding programmes at schools have stopped. As a result, a number of teachers has stopped showing up at school. I guess one thing keeping teachers around are feeding programmes, which at least allows the teacher and probably some of his/her family to eat.

How to pay teachers? Part of me is saying, yes we need to throw money at the situation to temporarily “fix” the problem and at least keep teachers to the end of the term. My organisation facilitates workshops to build the capacity of teachers and parent school committees. If basic needs are not being met, how can we expect people to be interested in building their capacity. In reality, people eagerly seek workshops because the transportation allowances given out are a source of income. We temporarily ride the enthusiasm and pride of new volunteer teachers, but that can only last so long. It is uncertain whether community school teachers, even trained ones will ever be put on the government payroll. Is there a long-term solution to enable communities to pay their teachers? Argh.

Building a community school teacher training package

I am currently involved in a workshop to build a community school training package. There is a wealth of teacher training materials in Zambia. The training manuals are rich with methods, techniques, and support for teachers. The acronyms still boggle my mind, but I uncovered a few:

CHANGES – Community Health and Nutrition, Gender and Education Support
REX – Read on Express
SPRINT – School Program In-service Training
GEMS – Gender in Math and Science
SHN (pronounced shin) – School Health and Nutrition
HIMs – Head Teacher In-service Meetings
ZATEC – Zambia Teacher Education Curriculum

I was sceptical with what another training package would do, but in the last few days I am encouraged with the focus on how community teachers can actually use the materials… sort of a guide to existing materials. Perhaps, maybe the manual developed help get materials and support to schools on the ground. It is easy to fall back to theory, but having community teachers in the workshop is keeping people grounded to making materials practical and useable. Sweet (or so I think).

Training untrained teachers

The majority of community school teachers are not formally trained. Some teachers have only completed grade nine. The majority complete grade twelve, but do not meet the requirements for college. Various NGOs and development agencies have developed training packages and manuals to build basic teaching skills in untrained teachers. In the confusing world of acronyms, some of these training programmes include SPARK, SPRINT, REX, CHANGES, QUESTT, AIMES, and GEMS. I would share what the acronyms stand for, but I barely know myself. Most programmes produced are in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, but it seems every international agency promotes its own package.

Some of the programmes focus on increasing literacy levels and others try to integrate gender, HIV/AIDS, life skills, health and nutrition programmes, etc. into basic school curriculum. There is also an interactive radio instruction programme where the teacher tunes into a radio programme that provides the lesson plan and content for a class. Aside from turning on the radio and keeping the class in order, the teacher does very little (actually, the teacher probably does a lot seeing that some classes have over 100 kids). With the plethora of materials, it is a difficult choice to decide which to promote. Then again, the community school teacher uses the materials, which are available to him or her and not all programmes have been equally promoted. Not surprisingly, schools within a three-hour drive radius from Lusaka benefit the most. Although each district or at least each province in Zambia has a teacher resource centre, individual teachers have very little access to the resources.

As a supporting organisation to community schools, one of our roles is to link and facilitate teacher training programmes to reach teachers on ground level. At a stakeholders’ meeting today, the Ministry of Education with funding from USAID announced that it will put together a comprehensive training tool kit specifically geared to build the skills of community teachers who may never formally upgrade their qualifications. I was encouraged when various ministry people recognized that manuals were being produced, only to be abandoned and then reproduced with a different name. Under an initiative called CHANGES2, the Ministry of Education will somehow work with partners and community stakeholders to bring together the various training programmes into a Community School Toolkit.

Aside from being somewhat sceptical whether this toolkit will be anymore usable than any previous programmes, it was a cool meeting be a part of where people including some working for the ministry were critical about previous initiatives. If I had my way, I would stop making manuals with only words in them. Or, stop doing training in the form of manuals. In most schools I’ve visited so far, those manuals just hold open doors, collect dust, or worse get used as toilet paper.

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In other news, my housemate cut my hair! I am somewhat afraid as to what I will look like tomorrow…

Community ownership

My organisation does not own nor operate any community schools. Promoting community ownership encourages community investment and responsibility. Naturally, a community that has burned the bricks to build their school will more likely ensure the maintenance of the school than a school completely built by external resources. I am happy my boss is passionate and understands the meaning of sustainable development. He encourages people to think about how much pride they will feel when they say they contributed to something completely their own instead of the instant gratification of just receiving something. For example, when a community decides it want to improve its school infrastructure, my organisation will provide harder to obtain materials including concrete, doors, and roofing sheets as long as the community agrees to provide labour and locally available materials such gravel. Similarly, the community finds way to pay their teacher through income generating activities, which can range from tuck shops to a piggery. The operation of the school is completely in the hands of the community. In addition to providing material support, my organisation provides skill training to build the capacity of community member in the management and operation of their school. I think this is precisely why I wanted to work with a local organisation – direct investment in community.

What am I doing here?

Now that I have been working at my organisation for two weeks, I am going to allow myself a stab at the ultimate question – what am I doing here?

First of all, a brief background: the community school organisation (CSO) provides support to a network of 68 community schools and over 300 teachers in the Copperbelt, Central, Lusaka, Northern, and Eastern provinces. These schools serve over 10 000 children, many of them considered orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). A large number of OVC are result of HIV/AIDS related deaths of their parents and/or guardians. Without community schools it is unlikely these children would have access to education. Community schools often work closely with other OVC programmes such as orphanages and street kid projects.

Most teachers at community schools are volunteers and have no formal training. The school themselves often have very little infrastructure and can come in many forms; rural areas they are often mud/sticks/grass structures and urban community school frequently utilise church and other available building space. The challenges of this type of learning environment are plenty: teacher to student ratios typically around 1 to 100, lack of teaching materials, poor sanitation and water facilities, teaching taking second priority to working on the farm.

The CSO works to support community schools through various activities:
Building teacher capacity by providing basic teaching workshops to untrained teachers
Sponsoring volunteer teachers to college (to be on the government payroll, a teacher must have college training)
Providing teacher and learning material supplied by other organisations and agencies (i.e. CARE International, UNICEF, Save the Children, etc.)
Linking schools with feeding programmes, commonly the World Food Programme
Building school infrastructure (including boreholes and latrines) through community partnerships – CSO provides building materials and training, if community provides labour
CSO also facilitates the development of income generating activities in the community in effort to make the community school more sustainable – i.e. volunteer teachers and donor support are not indefinite

My role as a Programme Support Officer is, as the title suggests, to support the CSO activities. The national staff currently consists of the Programme Manager, Office Manager, the driver, and me. The true work of the CSO lies in the efforts and commitment of volunteer teachers and community members. To date, I have mostly been in an organisational role working on strategic plans, following up with donors, and revising the end of year report. Seeing that I really do not know what I am doing, I expected to spend more time observing and learning about the organisation. However, jumping right in has been to my benefit as it accelerated the learning process. The last week I have been meeting with other organisations that work with community school, donors, and the Ministry of Education in addition to visiting community schools in and around Lusaka. In the coming weeks, most of my work will be focussed on specific training and education programmes. There are so many organisations that work to build teacher capacity, implement HIV/AIDS programmes in school, support life skills training, etc., so that my role is to link the plethora of resources with those can benefit from them. Most days (unless I have just attended an aimless, bureaucratic meeting) I feel very motivated and hopeful that there is so much energy, especially at community level.

The question constantly in my head is am I the right person to be doing this job. I don’t speak the local language, though I am learning quickly (appreciative responses from community members is a great motivator). I do not exactly understand the Zambian education system. I do not know the local support networks. However, even if it should not be this way, being foreign puts you automatically into the network of international agencies. And oddly enough, my computer and internet savvy have been my most useful skill. I do not think the answer is yes, I am the person for the job, but I am starting to think I can contribute and legitimately have a part in it.

Compound.

It really hit me today (the whoa moment I have been waiting for) when I visited a community school in a shanty compound on the outskirts of Lusaka. Just imagine a dilapidated two-room building, formerly a government school, seven teachers, and 800 children, almost half of them orphans. There are no water and sanitation facilities aside from one public pit latrine. Five years ago, the government school closed as the marketplace encroached, but an unofficial community school soon took its place. Many of the children are likely those of the women in the market. The teachers are seeking to relocated, but the proposed new school will be 7 km away. A new school will no doubt provide a more suitable educational environment, but there will probably always be the demand for some kind of school directly for the children in the market.

I think what I did not expect was the density of the compound. It is almost impossible to walk beside someone through the maze of alleys. Houses and little shops occupy every available space. I felt obnoxiously clean in my white shirt. For me, the short stroll with a few of the teachers contextualised what it means to be vulnerable and how the factors of poverty amplify one’s vulnerability. I am not sure if I will ever grasp what it would be like to live in these circumstances. How and where people get water? How do you stay healthy? Safe? How many of people will be able to improve their situations? Will it ever be possible to meet basic needs? The solutions to meet the needs of children in the compound (whom I think are all vulnerable) includes education, but needs to involve those who can address the living conditions in the compound.

Community Schools.

The Ministry of Education defines a community school as a community based learning institution that meets the educational needs of children not reached by government or private schools. These children may not be able to attend government schools due to cost, distance, or other factors excluding them from the system. In urban areas, it is common to see community schools situated near a government school allowing those who cannot afford school or uniform fees to attend school. Rural community schools exist where a school would otherwise not be present. Community schools are by no means an absolute solution to education gaps, but meet needs as identified by the local communities.

Aside from cost and distance, other issues of poverty, family dynamics, and effects of HIV/AIDS contribute to additional challenges. Many children face the responsibility of caring for family members, bringing in money, working in the fields, etc. The compounding factor of distance in rural areas where children walk upward to 15 km each way makes attending school almost becomes an impossibility. The government system does not have the flexibility or the resources to meet the needs of learners who do not attend school regularly and may begin school at a later age. Outside of the Ministry of Education structure, community schools can help meet the MDG of universal primary education and help children reach functional literacy.

The Zambian government seems to acknowledge the contributions made by community schools, but feels there has been an “explosion” in the community schools movement needs to be regulated so that minimum standards including student to teacher/desk/book/latrine ratio are met. Currently the Ministry of Education is in the consultation process with various community school stakeholders to create a framework that allows community schools to exist formally along side government schools. It is too early to tell how the government plans to involve itself with community schools.

Photo: A community school being built. New three classroom concrete building on left, old school on right, and grass wall of latrine beside me.