IICD supported project: Education Support Network Project - Zambia

ESNet started as a pilot project in 2005. It is run by OneWorld Africa, an international non-governmental organisation. Goal is to assist poorly resourced schools by coordinating a collaborative effort to improve the relevancy and quality of locally developed teaching materials. The teaching materials are then shared with schools across Zambia. Initially, around 18 teachers and 800 pupils in nine secondary schools across the country have benefited from skills training sessions and improved teaching materials. This has now grown to 45 teachers and 2,000 students.

Teaching notes were written and published on the i-school website, a site for info on primary and secondary schools in Zambia. A group of 45 xteachers has already been trained in ICT skills and a workshop to make people aware on the importance of knowledge sharing was attended by 112 teachers and school managers.

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. ESNet enhances educational resources by drawing on locally-generated teaching knowledge. As teachers develop ICT skills, they will transcribe and email their notes 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 material 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.

Read more about IICD’s Zambia Country Programm

ESNet aims to:

• Improve the quality of teaching notes in poorly-resourced high schools in Zambia by using ICT
• 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  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. The project keeps rural schools more in touch with the external world and develops ICT capacities among teachers. It also allows 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.

Read more about IICD’s approach towards Education.

• The number of notes submitted to the editing centre and the rate at which they are submitted does not correspond to the training teachers received, for sustainability incentives to motivate voluntary teachers will be very important

• Although ICT entrepreneurship models were introduced to schools in order to sustain internet connectivity and other running costs, none of the schools has taken this seriously
• School management does not see the value of the use of ICT due to lack of ICT capacity. They need to be aware of the value of ICT in order to stimulate this to the teachers.
  

One World Africa (OWA) is a not for profit organization founded in 1999 to promote sustainable development and social justice in Africa. This is achieved through providing more people in Africa with the capacity to utilize locally available knowledge through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). 

The backbone of OWA’s operation is a network of civil society organizations coordinated by regional focal points in Southern, Eastern and West Africa. As such, OWA  has strong presence in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone regions. OWA work is structured into the programme areas: Capacity Building, Policy Advocacy, ICT Access and Local Knowledge for Development - where the ESNet Project falls under.

Interview with Gay Nyakwende