Powering Potential for Zambian Schools
Pleased to have received this letter today regarding resources we have supplied to over 8o schools in Zambia.
Category : zambia
SOUTHEN NAQEZ HAPPY WITH OUTSTANDING G12 PROVINCIAL RESULTS .
The National Action for Quality Education in Zambia in Southern Province is extremely happy with the performance of 2020 grade 12 candidates for southern province. At 70.5% pass rate,the province has once again beaten all the Provinces in Zambia for the third consecutive year.
While they congratulate all the candidates who passe , NAQEZ feels that the teachers of Southern Province deserve to be commended and emulated. They are calling on the Teaching Service Commission(TSC) to quickly confirm and upgrade teachers who have been waiting for many years .This will motivate them for greater results.
The Ministry of Finance is further requested to increase funding to the education sector so that the Ministry of General Education can afford more teachers , buy desks, books and many more teaching and learning materials. The Laboratory equipment must also be procured to realise quality implementation of the Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) agenda.
We’ve had a fantastic response to the setting up of our Zambian Science teachers WhatsApp group. members are using it as a forum to share schemes of work, lesson plans and to seek clarifiction on things they’re unsure of.
Over 40 members joined in the first week.
Category : zambia
We are honorary members of NAQEZ (National Action for Quality Education in Zambia). This organisation is made up of educational professionals who have the ear of the Zambian Ministry of Education.
After attending a Zambia Qualifications Authority media breakfast representatives of NAQEZ appeared before a select Parliamentary Committee on Children Affairs this morning.
According to this Committee of MPs and Parliamentary staff, NAQEZ acquitted itself supremely well on Comprehensive sexuality education.
During the same meeting,the question of quality of education in ZAMBIA was raised by one MP.The NAQEZ team informed the house that the standards of education in schools are poor.The Champions pleaded with the MPs to join NAQEZ in demanding for more funds for the education sector.
Thanks to all those who contributed to our recent gofundme campaign. Today we sent off equipment for 8 Zambian teachers who had worked particularly hard at the Zoom training sessions Howard has been delivering this term.
With the Raspberry PIs and cables we’ve sent (and their own keyboard, mouse and screen) they will be able to practise the programming skills they’ve been learning; and pass them on to their pupils.
With some additional money, we sent SSD hard drives with Raspbian operating system so that they can each refurbish one of the laptops we shipped out a few months ago.
A big thank you to all our supporters.
Category : zambia
Howard has been running Zoom teacher training sessions twice a week for the last couple of months. He has focussed on Python and Scratch to teach basic programming skills to teachers in Zambia.
Despite connectivity issues at times, they have worked very hard and persevered. Giakonda Solar Schools wishes to reward their efforts by sending Raspberry Pi computers which can be used to practise the skills learned and pass them on to their pupils.
We aim to raise £1000 via gofundme and have so far already raised £540. To contribute please click on the link below or go to our donations page. Every penny goes to help Zambia schools – we have no paid staff or overheads.
We are super excited that Canonical have released Ubuntu 20.10 for the Raspberry Pi. As followers will know, we have been using Raspberry Pi computers in remote schools in Southern Zambia for over 5 years as a low power, cost effective and very efficient solution.
Well now we can run the full-fat Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB and 8GB versions).
We’re using COVID lockdown to hold twice weekly Zoom training sessions with Zambian teachers interested in learning Python and Scratch in order to teach coding to their pupils. It’s going well so far in spite of some technical problems- thanks to Howard sending support and practise materials and thanks teachers for hanging in there.
Schools in Zambia have now welcomed back all pupils and are trying to take as many precautions as they can against COVID 19.
Thanks to some generous individual donors, we have sent fifteen schools non-contact digital thermometers to test temperatures before letting students into school.
