Better early childhood education for Zambia’s future

In her first few days at school, Chanda was absolutely thrilled, like so many children: she held a pencil in her hand for the first time, got to explore a new environment and made new friends. A whole new world opened up to her at her rural school in the Nakonde district in northern Zambia.

But Chanda’s optimism soon gave way to deep uncertainty: she realised she was finding it very difficult to keep up. “I did not understand what the teacher was saying at first,” Chanda recalls quietly. “I wanted to answer, but I did not know the words.” It turned out that she was ill-prepared for the linguistic and written demands of formal schooling, particularly when it came to the English language.

In Zambia, Chanda’s story is only too common. Countless children enter the classroom full of enthusiasm and eager to learn – only to discover that they are completely overwhelmed. Across many areas of rural Zambia in particular, pre-school children are getting little or no prior exposure to reading and writing. When they start school, they lack the foundations for learning effectively. Compared to other pupils, these children immediately fall behind – a disadvantage that can persist throughout their entire school career.

When children don’t understand the language of instruction

Judith Zulu, a Year 1 teacher with more than 22 years of experience in rural schools in northern Zambia, observes a consistent pattern: when they start school, many children are only fluent in the language spoken at home. It is in the classroom that they first come into contact with English. Instead of immediately engaging with new subjects, they must first learn basic English, which hinders their progress.

In Zambia, depending on the definition, there are between 20 and more than 70 languages. English, the former colonial language, is the official language and dominates both the business world and the education sector.

Zambia has made notable progress in expanding access to education in recent years. Primary education has been free since 2018 and secondary education since 2021. Although early childhood education programmes are provided by the state and civil society organisations, they reach only a fraction of children. According to UNICEF, in 2019 only 37 % of Year 1 learners had received pre-school education.

Inherited lack of early childhood education 

Children with a weak educational background often come from families where parents and other carers had little access to early childhood education themselves. In poor families in particular, many parents are often unable to support their children’s pre-school learning simply because they lack the time – for instance, because they have to work in the fields or do other informal work.

Many also see literacy training as the school’s responsibility rather than a process that begins at home. Without intervention, this cycle can repeat itself generation after generation. Time and again, classrooms are packed with eager but unprepared learners. 

The consequences are far-reaching. Even in mathematics and science, understanding depends on literacy skills in English. If schools fail to bring pupils up to an adequate language level at an early stage, every new subject will pose a challenge.

Over time, children’s self-confidence wanes, their opportunities diminish and their dreams are shattered. Human resources that Zambia urgently needs for its economic growth are thus lost at an early stage.

Early intervention yields the greatest success

It is therefore of central importance to intervene. Measures taken in the earliest years yield the greatest returns, as research and practice in early childhood education consistently show. If children are exposed to stories, language-rich interaction and basic reading and writing activities even before they start school, they are more likely to succeed and remain interested in learning.

In Zambia, various organisations have demonstrated how community-based approaches can expand access to early learning in underserved areas. These include the civil society organisations Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS) and Lubuto Library Partners. The latter plays a significant role in fostering a culture of reading: it creates easily accessible library spaces where children come into contact with books and reading and writing activities from a very young age.

It is now crucial for Zambia to involve parents and carers more closely in their children’s pre-school education. If they could be encouraged to more actively support early learning at home, this could have an enormous impact: literacy skills would no longer be confined to the classroom but would become part of the child’s everyday environment. This would boost both the children’s self-confidence and their long-term educational outcomes.

Pathways to better early childhood education

Progress begins with small but deliberate steps: storybooks that are written in familiar local languages; books that have both English and local-language translation for better understanding; the promotion of simple digital learning aids and community-based reading activities. Such pre-school literacy initiatives are important first steps towards fixing an educational system that often fails to start early enough. Without them, the significant gap between well- and poorly prepared pupils will never close. This is particularly true of places with scarce resources, such as rural Nakonde.

However, it is true that parents and carers, if they are to take a greater interest in their children’s pre-school education, must have sufficient time and resources to do so. Stronger social security systems would be a step in the right direction, for example.

In Zambia, many dedicated educators, parents and local communities are already doing their utmost to give children the best possible chance of a good education. They should be supported by further targeted programmes for early childhood learning. Zambia must continue to close its educational gaps: for the sake of the children’s future but also for that of the whole country.

LINKS
Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS)
Lubuto Library Partners

Diana Sakala is an educator and education consultant dedicated to improving literacy and expanding access to quality learning opportunities in Zambia.
sakalad4@gmail.com