Ministry of Education and ZAMESIE interest in College of Direct Support and Teacher Training Program

There remains strong interest in the development of improved special education teacher training throughout the country of Zambia. The resources and instructional curriculum used in the special education programs is far from current. Teachers receives little if any continuing education and their focus within special education remains on reading, writing and math. The concept of functional skill and life skill development is not prevalent.

We have offered the College of Direct Support curriculum and offered to seek grant funding to improve educational opportunities for teachers and assistant teachers. The Ministry of Education in Lusaka which is the only registry for teachers in Zambia continues to express interest in a partnership and moving teacher training forward in Zambia. There is a new person in leadership at the Ministry in Lusaka and I do feel hopeful that he can leverage the needed political will to get this moving forward.

Each trip the connectivity to the internet is improved and there are certainly places for availability. Developing labs and seeking resources to pay for access remains a barrier but one worth tackling.

There were no electricity outages the entire two weeks that we were int he country. This too is a vast improvement over previous visits.