Gillian Mukula
9 July 2009
Mwaba — THE week-long 2009 Zambia International Trade Fair (ZITF) which ended in Ndola on Tuesday offered an opportunity for a team of teachers and pupils from two rural basic schools in Luapula Province to learn about an innovation on science laboratory units at the Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP) stand.
Upon getting information on the science laboratory units, an innovation being implemented by the National Science Centre (NSC) and supported by the Service Delivery Improvement Fund (SDIF) which falls under the Public Service Management at Cabinet Office, the teachers immediately expressed interest to replicate the project for the benefit of their pupils taking science subjects. The schools do not have science laboratory infrastructure.
The teachers who asked not to be named said they would make an effort to approach the NSC through the Ministry of Education to replicate the innovation after consultation with authorities at their rural basic schools.
The NSC, an establishment under the Ministry of Education is implementing a project known as 'Promotion of Science and Technology through the use of Mobile Science Exhibition Units,' which is aimed at upgrading the standards of teaching science subjects in rural basic schools to provide quality science and technology education for socio-economic development.
A mobile science laboratory unit is a cabinet on wheels which is fully equipped with basic science apparatus to enable teachers and their learners to undertake experiments in science subjects. As the name suggests, the mobile unit can be easily moved from one classroom to another or transported to other schools for use by pupils.
While it is a fact that Zambia has placed emphasis on the importance of education for all since Zambia attained political independence in 1964, a number of reforms in the education sector have taken place with the view to increase the number of learners accessing education. However, the proliferation of basic schools which followed the implementation of the basic education programme of 1978, caused some difficulties in the provision of instructional materials as well as availability of adequately qualified science, mathematics and technological teachers.
It is against this background that the NSC designed the project in conjunction with Management Development Division at Cabinet Office to address the situation in rural basic schools where laboratory infrastructure does not exist. The NSC is committed to the upgrading of the teaching of mathematics, science and technology subjects. NSC is one of the units in the directorate of teacher education and specialised services.
The centre whose project started in June 2007 and ends in December this year, had by 30th May 2009 produced 272 mobile science laboratory units for some basic schools in Northern and Eastern provinces and has also provided in-service training to science teachers in fourteen selected schools so that rural basic schools can start carrying out experiments and upgrade the standards of teaching of science and technology.
The centre has targeted six districts in Northern Province with a total number of 136 basic schools and eight districts in Eastern Province with the same number of basic schools. The total cost of the project is K1,707,921,520 of which K1,329,581,520 is financed by the SDIF and the remainder by the Ministry of Education as a way of sharing the costs.
The team from Luapula was even more keen on replicating the project when they were informed by exhibitors at the stand that the initial feedback is that the pass rate on average of 35 per cent in science subjects going by the baseline collected from some of the schools at the beginning of the project has increased in 115 schools in Northern Province to 54 per cent.
The project which among other outputs set out to increase the number of rural basic schools with access to mobile science laboratories and raise the number of schools offering practicals in science as well as enlarge the figure of learners taking science and technology subjects has made significant achievements in that all the planned 272 laboratory units have ben manufactured and equipped with a variety of laboratory apparatus and reagents.
Distribution of the mobile laboratory units for the 272 targeted basic schools has been completed while instructional materials for the units were prepared and 249 of the 272 teachers of science in the piloting schools have been seconded from primary schools.
Fourteen district focal point persons were identified at the start of the project and trained on how to use the mobile science laboratory units. Further, fourteen district education standards officers and 153 zone head teachers from the catchment areas have been oriented on the project.
These are key in the implementation and monitoring of the usage of the mobile laboratory units. Monitoring exercises on the impact and usage of the units are conducted on regular basis in the targeted districts which include Kasama, Mungwi, Chinsali, Mpika, Mbala and Mporokoso in Northern Province and Nyimba, Petauke, Katete and Chipata in Eastern Province.
Rural basic schools that do not have laboratory infrastructure should be encouraged to replicate the project so that learners are afforded a chance to undertake practical science lessons before infrastructure is built considering that Government continues to operate within limited resources to cater for all schools and institutions under the Ministry of Education.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
