LUSAKA – On December 15, the U.S. government handed over 5,000 tablet computers and more than 2 million textbooks, readers, teachers’ guides, and other teaching and learning materials, to the Ministry of General Education (MoGE).  These tablets and materials will benefit approximately 20,000 teachers and 1.4 million learners in Early Childhood Education (ECE) through Grade 3 in five target provinces across the country. By 2024, the USAID Let’s Read Project will provide more than 5 million books and other learning materials in the seven official languages stipulated by the MoGE to over 4,600 public and community schools.

“The provision of textbooks and other teaching and learning materials is central to the quality delivery of education. Lack of high-quality learning materials affects learner performance, and this can be seen in the low literacy levels for learners from ECE to Grade 3. We are grateful that USAID is supporting teachers by collaborating with the Zambian government to combat this scarcity,” said Catherine Chileshe, Grade 2 Teacher, Mwaba Primary School, Chinsali District, Muchinga Province, Zambia. 

The U.S. government’s distribution of these materialswill take place this December during teacher training workshops led by the MoGE for nearly 10,000 teachers.    Each of the X schools benefiting from the project will receive a tablet to record pupil performance in standardized classroom assessments, which will be tracked over time.  The tablets are installed with several teaching and learning applications and will help teachers capture, aggregate, display, and monitor learner performance through school-based assessments.  School-level data will be available via the Performance Tracking System, a public dashboard that can be accessed by all education stakeholders, including parents and communities.  Schools, working closely with provincial and district level MoGE Officers will use this information to proactively address challenges that have a direct impact on learners being able to read at grade level.

To date, USAID Let’s Read, in collaboration with the MoGE, has supported literacy instructional training for over 18,000 head teachers and Grade 1-3 literacy teachers from 4,600 GRZ and community schools in over 60 districts.  Furthermore, working closely with MoGE, USAID Let’s Read has established private-sector partnerships with three mobile network operators: MTN, Airtel, and Zamtel.  These partners are providing data services to support the roll-out of the Performance Tracking System.  In the long-term, these partnerships represent an integral part of sustainable, quality education in Zambia.

For more information about this press release, please contact the U.S. Embassy Zambia Press Office at ZambiaPress@state.gov.