Powering Potential for Zambian Schools
Category : Training
Great to see that McCloud Mwiinga of Kabuyu School has started a code club for his pupils following online training sessions from us. The children’s faces say it all. This kind of learning is fun! Scratch is a good introduction to programming.
Category : News
We are proud to have an article included in the first edition of the Zambian Education Magazine, published by NAQEZ (National Action for Quality Education in Zambia). Howard talks about the issues of choosing appropriate IT equipment for use in a rural African setting.
Click the link to read
Category : solarpower
REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA
SYAMWIINGA PRIMARY SCHO0L
RE: Benefits that have come to our school, Syamwiinga primary on having solar power with support for GIAKONDA.
The above caption matters refers,
Our school received and had solar panels installed with support from GIAKONDA in 2021.
In line with government policy computer literacy programs has been embarked on. Competence on hands on to pupils, teachers and community members has greatly improved.
Due to the solar panels, adult literacy learning programs has been introduced. This is in the evenings.
Pupils have also benefited since they can now do their evening study.
Teachers have directed benefited by lessening burden on lesson preparations .The lessons are now more effective by the use of RACHEL PI and RASBERY PI .
The school has actually been earmarked for upgrade to junior secondary, since it has now power.
We whole heatedly thank Giakonda for this support and hope our partnership will go a step further.
With regards to the supporting team Giakonda solar schools, we say thanks and hope for more support.
Head teacher
Nawiko Lungowe
Category : News
Daniel Mangwende of Dibbwi School today sent a letter describing the impact that solar power has made on his school. We are glad to receive his endorsement and thank him for his kind words.
If anyone doubts how effective £5000 can be to rural Zambia, read below.
Category : News
On our travels homeward we met with some of our partners. Aaron Chanza is CEO of NAQEZ, an organisation which promotes quality education in Zambia and advises and makes recommendations to the Ministry of General Education.
We also met our partners from The Future is Female Zambia who are working with us on the Learning to Learn project, funded thanks to a grant from the Welsh Government’s Wales and Africa Grant Scheme.
The new Zambian government is prioritising education. They have made primary and secondary education free for all which has encouraged an influx of extra pupils into schools. Along with this they are increasing the number of teachers and helping them to be better qualified. Schools were already short of classrooms and of desks in particular. This is even more the case now.
On our last day in Siavonga, we had a meeting with DEBS (District Education Board Secretary) to identify the schools most in need of solar power and to report back on the internet capabilities of the schools taking part in the Learning to Learn Project. She mentioned that girls often stay away from school rather than sit on the floor. We discovered that Siavonga High School has a carpentry department which, amongst other things, refurbishes old desks, adding new wood to their metal frames. We are looking at ways to help them provide this service to local schools, many of which have old frames available.
Category : zambia
At Sianyoolo we were pleased to see the school in line of sight with two powerful masts. They should easily be able to connect in to the fortnightly mentoring sessions. Two teachers from this school will be involved.
Finally we visited Kabuyu Primary. Mr McCloud from the school regularly joins our zoom training but there are connectivity issues at the school which we will be working to solve.
Thanks to Ms Ephe Hambabangolwe, the District Education Board Secretary, we secured the use of the official landcruiser to visit some of the other schools involved in the Learn to Learn project.
We first visited Siamwiinga School where we had installed solar panels in March 2021. We hadn’t actually checked out the installation due to COVID restrictions so it was good to see everything in good condition.
Teachers and pupils helped mount an external wireless antenna which will boost internet signal for the school.
Next on to Chaanga, a large secondary school with solar panels for power and for a water pump.
The headteacher was very positive about the project and felt it is very much needed. The school has weekly boarding places for vulnerable girls who return home at weekends.
Some of the teachers were unfamiliar with the Raspberry Pi 400 computers that we’d supplied so Howard spent some time demonstrating its features. We also invited them to join in our weekly ICT tutorial sessions.
We supplied a router for which they will need to purchase data bundles.
On Wednesday we visited one of the less accessible schools, Munyama. When Mr Richard Mabunde tried to get home from Monday’s training by motorbike he found himself in a flood and needed local children to help him get the bike through.We chose to go by speedboat which was the other option and were lucky to find the lake calm and without waves.
Our main purpose was to check out the best place in the school area to access internet. Munyama is one of the schools chosen to pilot a learning to learn scheme which will mentor teachers in ways to encourage pupils to attend and achieve in school. We were pleased to see good care being taken of the solar panels and RACHEL learning resources being connected and used.
We were treated to fish and nshima before listening to the very talented Munyama School Choir. These are very impressive young singers, coached by a volunteer teacher.