We have enjoyed delivering and managing GSP in Zambia since its inception. Many schools involved in the programme have changed - their ways of working are quite different from the schools that have not been part of GSP.
Chilanga Basic School’s head teacher, Mrs Ireen Chunga agrees, “In just two years of our partnership, we have acquired knowledge and styles on how to organise and maintain our school performance levels so that we can reach the high school levels. Previously, our PTA was not involved in the academic life of the school but after what we saw in the UK, we have fully involved them in monitoring teaching and learning programmes in the classrooms. Pupils’, teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of the UK have changed. We have now come up with a plan on how to sustain the partnership when funding comes to an end.”
In the last two years of our delivery of the programme, we have benefited from the Local Authority Grants which have helped us increase our numbers. We have nearly 100 new partnerships as a result of Local Authority arrangements, which have also increased wider participation, including rural and urban areas covering all kinds of schools from private to public and community schools.
Loveness Mubisi is the District Education Board’s Secretary from Kafue District partnered with Cardiff Local Authority. She recently travelled to the UK with her team and commented, “I am happy that we have seen our rural schools getting involved in the programme as opposed to what I used to see in the past where most schools came from urban areas. My visit in the UK was an eye opener, life changing experience and I came back more determined to see that our school administrators applied themselves to became more active and involved in their work than being office and chair bound.”
It has been exciting to work on the programme, working with partners like the mines and the NGOs. In Monze the local NGO, Matantala Rural Integrated Development, works with schools in rural areas and we have partnered ten of them on the programme. Of these, five have been successful with their Reciprocal Visit grant applications. In the last round of applications, sixty Zambian schools applied for RVs with their UK counterparts and it is good to see that thirty were successful - a great result for Zambia!
Ackim Banda, GSP Country Manager, Zambia
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