Zambia Community Education Initiative Inc.

Prospectus on the Establishment of a

Secondary School in Chisekesi Zambia

 
1.         INRODUCTION

One of the major problems facing rural communities in Zambia is the lack of educational facilities to enable children to advance in their education within their communities. Yet education is extremely important to the resolution of the dire poverty faced by rural households in Zambia. The rural condition is weak and fragile. Over the years, the government has built many primary and basic schools, however, the availability of secondary school education is still limited and inadequate. In cases where there are secondary schools, these are located in distant places from local communities. This situation makes many children vulnerable, especially the girl child, because they have to, every day, walk long distances to reach school. Rural Chisekesi is a case in point. There is no secondary school and children have to walk long distances to go to school, if indeed they manage to get a school place. It is on this basis that the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation has agreed to assist the initiative of the local community in rural Chisekesi to build a secondary school in the area. The school will be situated between chief Hamaundu and chief Ufwenuka chiefdoms and will serve many surrounding villages.

2.         JUSTICATION FOR THE PROJECT

Chisekesi is a small rural town found between Monze and Pemba, in the Southern Province of Zambia. The inhabitants of Choompa and Hanamaila in rural Chisekesi have no secondary school in the community. The only nearby secondary schools in the area are Chikuni girls and Canisius in Chikuni, Jembo, Chipepo and Pemba Secondary Schools. Chikuni Girls and Canisius are about 20 kilometres away from the site. Jembo is more than 28 kilometres away from the site. Chipepo and Pemba secondary schools are more than 30 kilometres away from the site where the school is to be constructed. This is despite the presence of a lot of basic schools in the same area. The basic schools that are found in the area include Choompa Basic School, Sichiyandi Zone Basic School, Hanamaila Zone Basic School, Chikuni Basic, Chazwanga Basic, Chisekese Basic, Munyona Basic and Nalucha Basic School. The long distance from the villages to the nearby secondary schools is one of the primary causes of the high drop-out rate of ninth graders in the area. In addition, already poor households have to look for huge sums of money needed for tuition and upkeep. This also contributes to a high school drop-out rate considering the low social economic status associated with the villagers of the area. For instance, day pupils at Chikuni secondary school pay K 380,000 per term. Pupils in boarding at Canisius pay K 1,000,000 per term and day scholars pay K 700,000 per term.

            Most disheartening is that school age children have to travel long distances in order to access education facilities from the nearby schools. This results some of the children especially female children being exposed to sexual harassment and rape. The long distances, low social economic status of the majority of the people coupled with the violence attacks have resulted in increased drop-out rates. This has led to high illiteracy rates.  

            There is consequently an urgent need to build a secondary school within the community. This will impact positively on the community. It was on this basis that after consultations with the community, that the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation agreed to work with the community to raise funds and help build a secondary school in rural Chisekese. The Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation has committed and agreed to make an annual grant from its endowment to the project until the school project is completed. The Zambia Community Education Initiative, Inc. (registered as a non-profit here in the USA) has been working hand in hand with the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation to raise funds as well. The ZCEI has also created a Trumansburg Sister School Project to tie in local engagement from the Ithaca, NY, USA area to primary schools in the Chisekesi area.

3.         LOCATION

The Secondary School will be located in rural Chisekesi in the Southern Province of Zambia. The School shall be set up in between the Choompa and Hanamaila areas. The Hanamaila area comprises many villages namely; Chisuwo, Mainza, Milandu, Katete, Kasukwe, Hachumpa, Nahilinga and Hanamaila villages. On the other hand, the Choompa area comprises Chigwala, Chindolo, Silungu , Sibukome and Sichinyonyoni villages. Children from all these villages are likely to benefit from this project. The land where the school is to be constructed is jointly owned by chief Ufwenuka and chief Hamaundu. Both chiefs have donated the land to the school project. The proposed school is more than 30 kilometres from Monze. The people of Choompa, Hanamaila and the surrounding villages are mainly small scale subsistence farmers whose day to day survival is fragile and dependent on the amount of agricultural products that they produce. Their quality of life is stagnant.  The building of a secondary school in the area would kick-start income generating activities and would contribute to the improvement of the general welfare of the community.

4.         PROJECT OBJECTIVES.

Once completed, the project will be of immense benefit to the community. Benefits include knowledge acquisition and improved standard of education in the area. Priority in terms of admission shall be given to children from the community. Furthermore, the presence of a secondary school will make it easier for the community to initiate income generating activities that can develop the community.

General Objectives

The overall objective is to put in place a modern secondary school that will support the communities and individuals concerned with education, health, social and economic development in the region.

 Specific Objectives

To build classroom blocks with a total of ten classrooms that will cater for grades ten to twelve.
To build an administration block that will comprise the Headmasters’ office, teachers’ offices/resource room.
To build a school library.
To build a school laboratory.
To build accommodation for the teachers starting with one house which will also be used as a store room for building materials and later on build four more, thus bringing the total number of houses to five.
To provide clean water, electricity, telephone and other accessories for communication, information, entertainment and education.
To install solar panels as one of the sources of electricity.
To build a computer room as well as buy computers for the school.
To build sporting facilities for the pupils
To build hostels for pupils.
To drill a borehole as a source of water for building as well as a source of drinking water.
To build ablution blocks with flushing toilets for members of staff, male and female pupils.
 
5.         PROJECT RISKS

The major risks to the implementation of the project have to do with the acceptance of the project by the community and the availability of funds to finance the building activities.

            The school will be built in a poor rural agricultural community. The majority of the population is engaged in subsistence farming. For the project to be successful, it must be accepted by the community so that they look after the school properly. Fortunately, the establishment of a secondary school in the area is the wish of the community. Furthermore, the project is supported by chief Hamaundu and chief Ufwenuka whose representatives sit on the School Project committee. However, when completed the school will need some support from the Ministry of Education in terms of some inputs such as school teachers. The school Building Committee will engage the Ministry of Education at an early stage.  The implementation of the project can be affected by the availability of funds to support the building activities. To supplement the funding available from the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation, there will be need to harness fundraising activities both in Zambia and abroad, including the Zambia Community Education Initiative, Inc. in NY, USA.

6.         ACCEPTANCE OF THE PROJECT BYB THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATIOJN

            The Ministry of Education of the Government of Zambia has accepted the project.  It has provided the architectural drawing for the school. This ensures that the school buildings and facilities will meet the standard established by the Government.

7.         IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

It is expected that when the school project is complete the secondary school will cater for grades 10, 11 and 12. The school will consist of 10 classrooms, teachers’ houses, laboratories, school library, ablution block, administration block, and hostels for students.

August 2011:   Kick off of the construction work for the school. (This will be done in phases for classrooms, administration block, teachers’ houses, school library, school laboratory and ablution block.).
December 2019:  Completion of the school construction works.
January 2020: Official Opening of the school.

7.         RESOURCES

Resources need to be mobilized in order to make this dream of building an ultra-modern secondary school in rural Chisekesi a reality. The resources include the following:

Land which has been provided by chief Ufwenuka and chief Hamaundu. This land is customary land and is part of their kingdoms.
Architectural Drawings which have been provided by the Ministry of Education, Government of the Republic of Zambia.
Building materials such as bricks, river and building sand. These will be made available by the community. Other building materials like cement, roofing sheets, etc will be purchased by the project.
Skilled labour (i.e. bricklayers) and unskilled construction labour will be provided by the community. More experienced skilled labour will be hired by the project.
Transport for mobility of building materials such as cement will be hired.
Solar panels will be purchased.
Hostel beds and lockers for the pupils will be purchased.
Computers and books for the library will be purchased.

8.         BUDGET AND FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES

The school project is estimated to cost about K2 billion.  One of the main funders of the project is the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation. The Foundation was established in 2004 and is a registered company under the laws of Zambia.  The Foundation will fund part of the project activities. The funding will be supported by an endowment of the Foundation. The contact person at the Foundation is Ms. Jane Ndulo, Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation, P.O. Box 36634, Lusaka. Zambia. It is expected that part of the funding of the project will come from fund raising activities in Zambia and abroad, including the Zambia Community Education Initiative, Inc. in NY, USA. The ZCEI was established as a registered non-profit in the USA in 2014. The contact person for the ZCEI is Ms. Julia Leonard, ZCEI, Inc., P.O. Box 6794, Ithaca, NY 14851, USA www.ZCEI.org 

 9.         INDICATORS FOR SUCCESS OF THE PROJECT.

There are a variety of indicators for the success of the school project. Some of these indicators include;

The project was mooted and initiated by the community.
The project has been approved by the Ministry of Education, Republic of Zambia
The availability of the land for the construction of the school. Here one is grateful to the community and the support of chief Ufwenuka and chief Hamaundu.
The willingness and ability of the community to provide both skilled and unskilled human labour.
Funding from the Temba and Julia Ndulo foundation will help to kick-start the project.
A borehole has been sited at the school project site and will soon be drilled. This will provide a source of water for construction.
The assurance by the community that once the school is completed, they will guard it jealously and will do their very best to protect it from vandalism.
A great deal of building materials such as bricks, river and building sand will be sourced locally without incurring any major costs at all.
A School Projects Committee has been formed to oversee and give direction to the project. The committee includes representatives of chief Ufwenuka and Chief Hamaundu. This will undoubtedly consolidate the building activities and enhance the success of the project.

10.       MANAGEMENT

The management of the building activities of the project will be the responsibility of the School Projects Committee. This committee has already been formed and is comprised of  six persons (one teacher from each of the nearest basic school) elected by the members of the community. The community agreed that representatives of chief Ufwenuka and Hamaundu should sit on the committee. The current members of the committee are as shown in table 1.

Table 1: School Project Committee Members 2011

Name
Position
Mr. Cosmas Hamweela
Chairperson
Mr. Pius Chimuka
Vice Chairperson
Mr. Mukwiza Miko
Secretary
Mrs  Gertrude Mainza
Treasurer
A representative of Chief Hamaundu
 
A representative of Chief Ufwenuka
 
             The community also agreed to have a Project Building Committee to provide expertise, and advice and supervise the construction of the school and other related facilities in the area.  The current elected members are: Mr. Sowedi Somanje, Ms. Angelina Mauya, Mr. Timothy Hachipuka, Mr. Patrick Himuchila and Mr. Joubert Matyola. A representative of the Temba and Julia Ndulo Foundation as well as a representative of the ZCEI shall be executive official members of the committee.

11.       CONCLUSION

This project of building a modern secondary school is expected to take several years starting from 2011 to 2020. It will be built in phases depending on the availability of funds and other external factors. The first phase will enable the completion of the classroom blocks, administration block and ablution block. After that, the available funds will cater for the block of teachers’ houses as well as the pupil’s hostels. The school project will impact positively on the lives of the people of rural Chisekesi, especially the Choompa and Hanamaila areas, as far as the provision and availability of higher education is concerned. It will also facilitate the initiation of alternative income generating activities by the community. However, it is important to note that the project schedule or work plan and budget is subject to change depending on the prevailing economic conditions.

 _____________________________

Temba & Julia Ndulo Foundation

Box 36634

Lusaka, Zambia

September 2011

 ______________________________________________

Zambia Community Education Initiative, Inc. (ZCEI)

PO Box 6794

Ithaca, NY 14851

USA

September 2014

www.ZCEI.org