Teacher Training Programme, Kitwe

Why it's needed
HIV and AIDS have hit the teaching profession particularly hard. According to UNAIDS, “In Zambia HIV and AIDS are expected to reduce the number of teachers by (the year) 2010 from an expected 59,500 to 50,000”. Tens of thousands more are missing work due to illness, caring for sick relatives or attending funerals.

Once they have successfully completed their primary and secondary education with our support, Cecily's Fund offers our graduates the opportunity to train as teachers. This not only helps to replace some of those lost teachers, but makes the young people themselves eligible for a secure job and a respected position in society.

Having a good job helps to protect people from HIV infection as they can then afford good nutrition, healthcare and are less likely to be drawn into lifestyles which increase the danger of infection. Without education, poverty can drive young people into sex work or drugs to survive, which greatly increases their chances of contracting HIV.

How it works

Our partner organisation, Hodi, delivers this programme, placing students who we have supported through school in two local colleges; Kitwe College of Education, and the Copperbelt Secondary Teaching College.

In 2007 the Ministry of Education took action to address the backlog of trained teachers. 6,300 new teachers were recruited to fill vacancies nationwide. Furthermore, 4,000 additional new posts were created and filled as part of the Ministry’s efforts to increase the number of teachers in each school (and hence reduce the pupil teacher ratio). With this encouraging news from the Zambian government, and having reviewed the programme in 2007, we decided, to increase the number of young people that we help to become teachers. In 2008 we supported 20 trainee teachers, increasing to 34 in 2009, including five on a dregree programme.

It costs around £350 cover all the costs of a year's full-time teacher training - including tuition fees, books, stationery and a small living allowance.

To complement their work in primary and secondary education and teacher training, Hodi also works at local, regional and national level to advocate for better employment opportunities for orphans and other vulnerable children in teaching and other professions.