Education

Partners In Development works in two areas of education— First by supporting primary and secondary schools, and second, with adults who need training and skills to support themselves and their families.

Teaching school children

Teacher conducting class outdoors

Partners In Development supports educational institutions by providing resources for schools such as textbooks and supplies, as well as sports and recreation equipment for extracurricular activities which are vital to a child’s growth and learning. We have also built many water wells for schools. And we have provided professionals to volunteer in schools (primary through professional schools) to bring thier expertise to students and educators.

PID is also trying to affect change in the areas of training and income generation by training individuals in the start-up of small businesses and training in the use of agricultural tools and techniques. We have also held HIV/AIDS retreats and educational workshops for people affected by HIV/AIDS and have sponsored a symposium for health workers. We provide books and educational materials for various organizations and institutions.

We are also working in the area of environmental education, and are looking to initiate an Environmental Education Club for the schools and communities in which we work. For our volunteers and visitors, we offer experience and dialogue with local villagers living by and along the Zambezi River up from the Victoria Falls. We also advocate, for both visitors and local communities, experience with the Livingstone Game Park which includes the Rhino Walk and learning about the diversity of the Park’s environment. In this park the Wildlife Authority has 24 hour protection of the Rhinos. Our environmental education includes dialog on different avenues to engage in advocacy for the protection of earth’s natural resources.

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish…”Thomas Jefferson

Other issues related to education in Zambia include:

  • In all of Zambia, a small percentage of students are able to attend school beyond the seventh grade, with the fewest in rural areas, due in part to lack of secondary schools available and also in having no resources for fees
  • Schools in rural areas lack resources such as adequate number of teachers, classroom space, textbooks and supplies—some children must share pencils or even have none at all
  • Lack of classrooms forces time to be split into sessions, thus students spend very little time learning
  • Women in particular have difficulty in obtaining a proper education because they are frequently relied upon to retrieve water from faraway water sources as well as other manual labor tasks at home

Partners In Development provides support to community schools based on their individual needs. Learn about our recent projects in education.