IICD supported project: Educational Support Network (ESNet) - Zambia

Countries: Zambia [ZM]
Sectors: education

Summary

The Education Support Network (ESNet) is a pilot project run by OneWorld Africa to assist poorly resourced schools by coordinating a collaborative effort to improve the relevancy and quality of locally-developed teaching materials and then to share them with schools across Zambia.

Update

Updated: 2008-02-26

Initially, when the project was started in 2005, around 18 teachers and 800 pupils in nine secondary schools across the country would be benefiting from skills-training sessions and improved teaching materials. Two years later, by the end of the pilot period, a much larger amount of 515 secondary school teachers are taking part in the project and an estimated 11,000 secondary school students are benefiting as a result.

Introduction

Most teachers across Zambia develop their own teaching materials, drawing on local knowledge to ensure its relevance to the lessons, but this process is inefficient and material may be inadequate. The ESNet project enhances educational resources by drawing on locally-generated teaching knowledge: as teachers develop ICT skills and are provided with acces to the Internet and online education databases , they will transcribe and email their teaching notes/material to the Editing Centre, which will then compile and edit these resources to create new materials that can be shared .

ESNet also links up with the Global Teenager Project to further expand its information sources. The project provides teachers relevant, contemporary and high-quality teaching resources, and connects those in rural communities with others. Thus local material and knowledge is preserved and transmitted as the foundation for new, easily adaptable and broadly available teaching materials.

[1 MB]	Mr. John Zulu of OneWorld Africa, Lusaka, explains how they use ICT in the IICD supported Educational Support Network (ESNet) project.

Objectives

ESNet aims to:

• Improve the quality of teaching material in poorly-resourced high schools in Zambia by using ICTs
• Draw on traditional and local knowledge and relevant materials to create high-quality, up-to-date teaching resources
• Create new learning opportunities for teachers
• Establish and promote a learning network among teachers

The project links teachers to share expertise and create a much larger pool of knowledge and resources for pedagogical purposes. Eventually it should become a self-generating network, operated and owned by teachers.

Development Impacts

The project will bring rural schools more contact with the external world, develop ICT capacities among teachers, and allow teachers to develop professionally by sharing ideas and strategies for improved pedagogy, thus helping the development of the teaching profession in Zambia. Local communities will also benefit from having a population of well-educated and informed young people.

Budget

Euro 121,600.00

Project Owner : OneWorld Africa, Lusaka