STORIES OF HOPE – DAY 8

Textbooks for schools – Zambia’s education structure has 7 years at primary school, 2 and 3 years at junior and higher secondary school. Age is flexible as many children are late starting school due to extreme poverty. Pupils can complete high school up to the age of 22. Facilities in rural areas are lacking in resources, educational supplies, equipment and sporting facilities. There is a huge shortage of textbooks in schools, some classes have only one to share between 60 pupils, for some subjects a teacher may have to take copies of the curriculum. This is most difficult for examination grades, especially those wishing to gain good results in order to proceed to higher education. The Butterfly Tree raises funds to provide textbooks in schools, and after monitoring classes whereby each pupil is given a textbook, exam results have considerably improved. In one instance in Mukuni Junior School every grade 7 pupil passed their exams.

‘Thank you for the donated learner’s textbooks. They have greatly helped to improve learner’s academic performance. Learners now have materials in terms of textbooks to use for their studies while away from school. They use them as reference materials for their homework, and also for research as well as reading literatures.’ Kingsley Hamachila – Head Teacher, Mukuni Secondary School.