Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS)

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY to all the teachers in community schools especially those working as volunteers. We would like to thank you most sincerely for your passion and dedication towards your work. ZOCS appreciates your every effort to deliver education to children.

ZOCS was part of the CSOs that participated in the information sharing meeting held by Counterpart at Hotel Intercontinental in Lusaka yesterday. This facilitated interactions focused at sharing lessons learnt from the FACT project implemented by Counterpart and partner CSOs.

ZOCS has impacted 1000 children through a project that targeted children at Meheba Refugee Camp in Kalumbila district of North-Western Province. Children of refugees who sought citizenship within Zambia were the direct beneficiaries. Those staying near the camp also benefited.

"We will make sure that volunteer teachers with qualifications and serving in community schools are recruited and put on payroll", General Education Permanent Secretary Dr. Jobbicks Kalumba has said during his visit to Malcom Moffat College of Education.

Executive Director, Harriet Sianjibu-Miyato, on Tuesday met with the Southern Province Education Standards Officer and District Education Board Secretary in Choma & Education Standards Officer for Open & Distance Learning to discuss various issues concerning community schools.

Good infrastructure makes it possible for learners to have an enabling environment. Limited capacity has prevented communities from coming up with ideal learning facilities. Community schools have moribund infrastructure with buildings constructed using poles and mud.

ZOCS directly provide quality basic education to 172, 680 learners of which 87,388 are girls and 85,292 are boys. These are in 935 demonstration community schools across 76 districts in all the 10 provinces, but there are still over 800,000 children out of school.

Examinations Centres for community schools is an advocacy issue for ZOCS. General Education Minister David Mabumba has since directed that schools with strong rooms be allowed to hold examinations to help prevent children from walking as far as 10kms to the examination centre.

@OpenZocs What an important meeting between ZOCS, Government, community leaders to ensure the children of Zambia have opportunity to flourish

Thank you Kondanani Zambia, we value your support and partnership towards education of vulnerable children in Zambia.

ZOCS’ development is linked to the education needs of out of school children (OOSC). This is to eliminate as far as possible various factors that hinder children’s access to education. Local communities are at the centre of efforts to reach and serve vulnerable children.

Stakeholders from Government, NGOs, businesses, media and communities held a Public Dialogue Forum (PDF) to find a solution to the challenges affecting community schools in Solwezi. Inadequate classrooms, desks and teachers are among barriers affecting quality education delivery.

Solwezi District Commissioner Rosemary Kamalonga has urged support towards community schools. Speaking at a Public Dialogue Forum (PDF) organised by ZOCS in Solwezi, Ms Kamalonga urged businesses in the district to help provide quality education for vulnerable children.

ZOCS is committed towards mobilizing resources and implementing various interventions to uplift community schools and enable children have access to quality education. This is in line with our belief that every child deserves an opportunity to be in school.

Air Conditioned Offices available for rent at ZOCS premises situated at number 20, corner of Lubwa and Tito Roads, opposite International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rhodes Park, Lusaka. If interested call ZOCS on +260-211-253841/253843. Email: zocs2008@gmail.com

The Ministry of General Education recognizes that "education is a tool to economic emancipation". Therefore, they have provided operational guidelines for community schools to streamline their operations indicating the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.

Advocacy work is the principal mechanism for enabling educational support to vulnerable children and community schools. Since its founding in 1992, ZOCS' advocacy work has served as the primary voice for articulating issues of vulnerable children and community schools.

The education Act of 2011 affirms in the strongest terms that education is key for every Zambian child. To demonstrate the resolve to the provision of education, the Act admonishes that guardians who deny education to their children should be prosecuted.