Education in Zambia at fifty years of independence and beyond: history, current status and contemporary issues.

Abstract

The World Bank and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 underlines that, education is critical in enhancing a country’s socio-economic development. Quality and equitable education builds people’s skills and the ability to receive and process information for livelihood choices. Education will play a crucial role in achieving Zambia’s short and long term developmental goals. This book analyses the Zambian education system in the past fifty years (since political independence) and some of the emerging issues linked to education. It also provides some introspection on progress in education from independence to-date and uses this perspective to look to the future. The book is the outcome of 30-months’ research effort by various authors to explore, analyse and comprehend the history and current status of different issues regarding education and other contemporary matters in Zambia. This publication is a useful resource for education institutions (faculty and students) and other key stakeholders with an interest in the state of education in Zambia. It also offers insight into what needs to be done in the coming years to achieve Zambia’s vision 2030 in which the country aspires to achieve middle-income status and fulfill the SDGs. It is anticipated that during the final launch, policy briefs will be disseminated to different stakeholders, especially the Ministry of Education. The book consists of Seventeen chapters written by different authors (mostly from the School of Education at the University of Zambia) that focus on a variety of themes related to education in Zambia and other contemporary issues. This publication knits together the existing literature while also making new inroads into key educational issues in the 21st century from a Zambian perspective. There is a paucity of studies on how education has evolved in Zambia. Among the notable publications is John Mwanakatwe’s work in 1968 that documented the growth of education in Zambia since independence barely five years after the end of colonial rule. In a study sponsored by the World Bank, Michael Kelly (1991) documented the state of education during the difficult period of economic decline. In 1999, Kelly edited another book titled The Origins and Development of Education in Zambia in which different authors examined a variety of topical issues in Zambia’s education journey. Brendan Carmody’s book on the Evolution of Education in Zambia in 2004 knitted these issues together and provided an update. The current work on Education in Zambia at Fifty Years of Independence and Beyond showcases and contributes to Zambia’s education literature as the country celebrated its Golden Jubilee.