FOR a while now there has been a lot of talk about the progress of African countries in attaining the eight goals that are to be achieved by 2015 in response to the world's main development challenges - collectively called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Goal number two - to achieve universal primary education - has been a top priority of several African countries, Zambia inclusive.

In Lusaka district alone, there are a wide range of basic and private primary schools for parents to choose from; evidence of the high demand for education in the country.

In one of Lusaka's most populated townships, Chawama, an assortment of uniforms in just about every colour under the sun, comes into sight at the end of each school day and is a rainbow representation of the student populace in that one locality.

The faces of these children are as bright as their uniforms as they make the walk to school each day to have knowledge instilled into their little minds.

They walk along the same path every day and are the epitomes of MDG number two; they are Zambia's future.

Ask any of them what they want to be when they grow up, and they respond with some of the most ambitious of titles not to mention some of the most bizarre: doctor, engineer, pilot wrestler.

One realises that one may be talking to a future president or even a future first lady and for a while, that thought takes one away from the realities on the ground.

The most outstanding reality perhaps is that many of these children are going to school yet can hardly read or write in English and it poses one of the biggest challenges before Zambian basic school teachers today.

An impassioned basic school teacher in Chawama, Ida Mvula, aired her concern about this and cited it as Zambia's main challenge in achieving what she termed "quality primary education" under the MDGs.

She emphatically explained that Zambia's education standards were worrying because of the slow progress demonstrated by learners in basic schools.

"In many of our basic schools, the literacy levels are not very impressive because some pupils have had a poor foundation in Grades one and two, so as they move up, they have difficulty comprehending harder topics," Ms Mvula said.

Only a few years ago, when English was still being used as the medium of instruction from Grade one, it was realised that by the time children got to Grade seven, they could hardly read or write.

Hence the reason in 2003, new syllabi were introduced to replace the old curriculum.

Published by the Curriculum Development Centre, the Zambia Education syllabi was compiled after extensive consultation undertaken to reform the old curriculum.

Under the old syllabi, children lacked the confidence needed to boost their academic performance because they were learning in English, a language which was not their own.

The new syllabi is supposed to make learning an easier and more enjoyable affair because by speaking their mother tongue, the children feel at home whilst at school as they are familiar with the medium of instruction being used.

"For many of these children, the classroom was a strange place because they found it difficult to learn in English and that is one area which was successfully revised under the new curriculum," Ms Mvula said.

In Grades one and two, pupils learn in their vernacular tongue so that by the time they get to Grade seven they have a thorough understanding of the subjects they are taught as a gateway to grade eight.

The new syllabi further tells of being learner centred and provides for increased learner - teacher contact time, different ability groups and use of familiar language for initial literacy.

Tired and heat drained, Ms Mvula struggles to draw the attention of her pupils to the work on the blackboard.

She's been doing this job for eleven years now and would have quit long ago had it not been for the fact that she always wanted to be a teacher.

"The problem we're having in Zambia is the mushrooming of schools and the shortage of teachers who really want to do the job."

"It is necessary to stress the quality of education found at some of these schools because it tells where we are headed as a country," she said.

Ms Mvula also emphasised the importance of nursery or pre-grade as the foundation to Grade one because she said there was a very big difference between those children that had entered straight into Grade one without being to nursery and those that had attended nursery.

In contrast to Ms Mvula's opinion, District Education Board (DEB) Lusaka and Kafue district education standards officer, Mutinta Lupapula said years ago when nursery school was not as popular as it is now, Zambia was still producing pupils of high standard.

Ms Lupapula said there were other issues at play and that the subject of nursery school was not a major one because several pupils still did well minus attending nursery school.

The world is smaller now, thanks to technological advancement and innovation. But with these developments have come numerous challenges for African nations.

The UNDP Millennium Project Report, Toward Universal Primary Education, offers a rigorous set of interventions that countries can choose from to help provide universal access to 'high quality education.'

Ms Mvula's class has a little over 60 pupils, thus maximum attention is not guaranteed. But that is not an issue here.

Her pupils show such eagerness to learn that most of the time, their number is no matter.

It becomes harder, almost annoying, when a colleague of hers decides to stay away from class and then she has to take over two classes and this happens a lot more often than once a month.

The number of pupils she has to attend to would then be over a hundred and at that moment, not even her passion for the job can abate any frustration she feels.

Ms Mvula went on to reveal that some of the pupils she had taught previously could not write a sentence of decipherable English because they had had a poor foundation.

Ms Lupapula says problems of teacher absenteeism have always been a hindrance to the achievement of high education standards.

"Dedication to duty in some schools is seriously lacking which causes inefficiency and this is at all levels including university level," Ms Lupapula said.

"A few months into the start of a school year, a teacher goes on maternity leave meaning she has to be replaced for a while and her pupils have to get used to having a different teacher," she continued.

Ms Mvula added that in many schools, there was a shortage of learning and teaching aids as well which made it difficult for pupils to learn at the same level in the event that one book had to be shared by four pupils or more.

A few weeks ago, the names of teachers posted to different parts of the country by the ministry of Education were published in the papers.

Ms Lupapula says those whose names were published were lucky as the process of selection and recruitment often takes longer than the one just ended did.

In days gone by, as soon as teachers graduated from college, they were assured of being posted to different schools almost immediately after their graduation.

The problem with the old system of selection, another primary school teacher explained, was that several of the teachers recruited lacked the quality required to promote high standards of learning.

Regarding this, Ms Lupapula mentioned that nowadays, people wanted to know the salary of a job before they went for training.

Similarly, she said, the teaching profession was a noble one and one which a person should not venture into merely because they had no other alternatives.

"A lot of teachers are frustrated today and their output is poor because they did not want to initially be teachers but found themselves in the profession thus they do not have a heart for it," Lupapula said.

Admittedly, Ms Lupapula says, for a long time the foundation level has been poor in many schools but neither the pupils nor their parents are to blame for this.

She was optimistic that this would change however, under the new strategically designed syllabi.

A portion of the Basic School Curriculum Framework of the year 2000 under the Essential Literacy and numeric skills states that: "It is important for schools to be aware of the foundation years - Grades 1 to 4 - for laying a solid basis of life long learning. Grades one and two are the most difficult and challenging to teach. Unless the child learns to read and write properly during the first two years, learning further up the educational scale becomes increasingly difficult."

Through years of experience, Ms Mvula has witnessed the difficulty pupils have as they move up the educational ladder due to their weak foundation and says it is a problem that needs to be addressed if the future of Zambia is to be secure.

She said in any given situation, fundamentals were important if a whole system was to endure and develop and the fundamentals in her view are what the Zambian Government needs to work on if MDG two is a goal Zambia intends to achieve within the given time frame as every Zambian teacher rose to the challenge of quality education.