At the time of independence from Britain in 1964, the educational system in Zambia was, as

elsewhere in Africa, racially segregated and heavily biased against Africans. Consequently,
this essay will explain the measures Zambia initiated at independence in order to bring about
quality of educational opportunities for all and to foster a sense of national-hood and
promoting national unity. In addition, this essay also state the challenges encountered in the
process of implementing these measures.

At independence, in October 1964, Zambia inherited a racially segregated educational

system, meager educational facilities and enrollments for Africans, and a heavily liberal arts
biased educational curriculum. As such, the new political leadership, under the United
National Independence Party (UNIP) saw as among its most important educational priorities,
the elimination of racial segregation in schools: increased enrollments for Zambians at
secondary and higher education levels with a view to creating a large pool of indigenous
Zambians to run the institutions of their new political and social order; and the introduction
of science-oriented curricula and professional subjects to train Zambians for technical and
professional careers.

At the same time, the new political leadership had to deal with great disparities in primary
school enrollments and facilities between the urban and rural areas. in the rural areas, most
primary schools had, during colonial days, provided up to only four years of education, as
compared to six years in urban areas. There were also fewer primary schools per school-age
population in the rural areas at the time. What was needed, with the onset of independence,
was a policy which would increase grades standards at the primary school level beyond the
four years, and would create more primary schools in rural areas; this would go a long way
towards reducing rural-urban migration of youth in search of more educational opportunities
in the urban areas.

As United National Independence Party (UNIP)came into power it inherited a weak and
undeveloped education system. According to Carmody (2004) states that, the key policies of
the UNIP was the accelerated expansion of education facilities. However, the new
government had a lot of problems to overcome in all sectors in general and education in
particular. They faced some challenges when initiating education equality and these include;

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However, there were four major human resource problems that Zambia encoutered in 1964
and these included shortage of skilled and educated manpower, a excess of unskilled labour,
extreme dependence on expatriates , and prejudices against technical education.

To add on, a dual system of education existed that the European education and the education
of natives. European children went to well-furnished schools with most of the necessary
educational materials readily available. Conversely, the schools of children of Africans were
in a terrible and pathetic state. Previously to 1964, the children of blacks were taught under
trees or in grass thatched classrooms.

Furthermore, schools lacked accurate furniture such as desks. The education delivered was
exceedingly biased and inappropriate to the local needs of Africans. Therefore, the new
government had a difficult of how to integrate the two systems without compromising
standards and without replacing racial discrimination with discrimination based on class.
Hence the educational system at independence had the critical objective to respond to needs
of national development.

When executing education in primary sector, the primary education system also encoutered
some challenges such as, the structures were very poor, unsafe and so some were devastated
when UNIP formed government. There was also serious scarcity of accommodation for
teachers such that they got discouraged and disheartened. Teachers went on strikes due to
poor accommodation.

The other challenge was that there was over enrolment and high pupil-teacher ratio. Triple
sessions started in some places and the repetition rates were also high especially at Grade 7.
There was high drop-out rates especially at grades 4, 5 and 6.

Nevertheless, at independence there was limited access to education at primary, secondary

and tertiary levels. This was as a result of lack of learning institutions. Kelly (1999) states
that in the late 1963, there were 623,000 children of the school age range of 7 – 14 out of
which only 350,000 were in primary schools (1,769 primary schools). There were about 26
secondary mission schools and 16 government secondary schools with the total enrolment of
about 7,050 pupils.

Additionally, there was also uneven geographic distribution of education. Most of the large or
urban area had very few or no schools especially the cities and large towns. There was a
critical shortage of qualified teachers. Very few Zambians were qualified and it was difficult

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to retain them. Thus, there was over-reliance on expatriates who were mostly young,
inexperienced and often on short contracts (Kelly, 1986). Five years after political
independence, 90% of secondary school teachers were expatriates.

Technical and vocational was one of the least developed areas of education. Technical
subjects were held in low esteem and there was severe social and racial discrimination in this
area. The only available training for Africans was through the small fifteen (15) trade schools
and some technical training at Hodgson Training centre which is now known as David
Kaunda Technical Secondary school. There was also some training in crafts and technical
subjects at NORTEC and Evelyn Hone.

In 1964 Zambia’s government made some reforms and one of the reforms needed at that time
was aimed at giving education the first priority in the country development agenda. As a
newly-independent African country emerging from decades of colonialism and racial
discrimination against Africans by Europeans, Zambia had aspirations for self-governance
and equality of educational opportunities for all without any form of racial, tribal or religious
affiliation.

At independence, the educational system comprised eight years of primary education with
two years being pre-grade. The UNIP government wished to have a universal primary
education of seven years and that every seven year old would enter grade one. The desire was
to offer free compulsory education regardless of individual religious affiliation, colour or sex.

There was also diversification of secondary school curriculum in order to make education
suitable to the needs of the society. In this respect, subjects sure as technology, geometrical
and technical drawing, business studies, farm practice, agriculture science and machinery,
elements of accounts and typewriting were introduced. Maximization of space utilization in
secondary schools. The government introduced double bunking in boarding schools in order
to maxim.

However, following the declining economy in the country, the government had witnessed a
negative effect on the provision of social services including education. As a result
government institution of learning experienced serious inadequate resources of all kinds
including materials to support the curriculum. Curriculum is list of subjects or nothing to be
taught in and out of school (Sternberg, 1978).

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Lack of man power in the ministry of education few trained teachers in schools was also a
challenge faced at independence period, schools were built but few teachers while the number
of learners kept on increasing rapidly. This is because at that time very few teachers were
trained in the country.

The other challenge was that of poor infrastructure, schools were not well painted
unelectrified, lack of laboratories and poor sanitation was exhibited during that period.
Teaching and learning become difficult to the teachers especially teachers of sciences were
unable to conduct practicals with the learners.

Not only that, some schools were built at a long distance from the community especially in
rural areas which resulted into a serious problem in schools. Pupils leaving from distant
places far from the schools were not managing to every day to go to school and most of them
stopped schooling at that time.

Furthermore, almost all the schools which developed during that period were provided on a
self help basis but many of them were more temporary shelters that had to be replaced. Some
schools in rural areas learners were learning under the tree. Also lack desks as seats for the
learners. Stiggins (1999) defined learning as a process of inculcating good morals and
acceptable behavior in the society.

Teachers were allocated in unsuitable living accommodations. This means that teachers had
no special environment for their stay especially in rural areas. The government did not build
proper houses for the teachers.

Lack of teaching and learning materials in schools was also a challenge encountered by the
government. Materials for teaching and learning are a source of knowledge for both teachers
and learners at large. Lack of materials such as teachers guide books, pupil’s text books led
teachers not to deliver lessons to the learners effectively (Carmody, 1992).

In conclusion, the United National Independence Party (UNIP) government embarked on a

number of reforms in 1964 to address the social, political and economic inequalities among
Africans that had resulted from European colorism. And, Zambia had aspirations for self
governance and equality of educational opportunities for all without any form of racial, tribal
or religious affiliations.

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 REFERENCES

Carmody, B.P. (2004). The Evolution of Education in Zambia. Ndola: Mission Press

Carmody, B.P. (1992). Conversion and Jesuit Schooling in Zambia. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Kelly, M.J. (1999). The Origin and Development of Education in Zambia from Pre-
colonial Times to 1996. Lusaka: Image Publisher Limited.

Kelly, M.J. et al. (1986). The Provision of Education for All. Lusaka: University of
Zambia.

Ngaroga, J.M. (2015). Education for Primary Teacher Education. Nairobi: East African
Education Publishers.

Stiggins, R. J. (1999). Evaluating classroom assessment training in teacher education

programs. KBL publishers.

Sternberg, R. J. (1974). Allowing for thinking styles. Educational Leadership, 52 (3), 36–40.

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