Kabaka Community School 2014
Kabaka Community School is in a rural community 25km west of Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia. The school previously used an unfinished health clinic and makeshift classrooms of sticks and grass. The quality of education was poor with many parents preferring their children to work in the fields instead of going to school.
What we did with your support:
With generous funding from the BGL Group, in 2014 we completed a three classroom block with solar lights, a teacher’s house, school latrines and provided access to clean water. We also established a school orchard and playing fields. A party of 20 BGL fundraisers visited Kabaka to see the new school in 2014.
Ministry officials have reported how impressed they are by the design and the quality of the school buildings, and we agree!
Twenty local trainees learnt to build on the project and 18 passed their TEVETA bricklaying exams in December 2013. They all received certificates and tool kits and some have formed a co-operative. One of the graduates, Emmanuel is now a contractor for Build It.
Since we left…
The school had 254 pupils when we began to work with Kabaka school in 2013. By 2018 pupils numbers had risen to 455! The school is in its second year of offering grade 7 classes and also has a new pre-school.
In 2013, the school had only one trained teacher, now it has four Government trained and three community teachers. This has promoted a higher standard of education for all of the pupils attending the school.
Parents actively support the school with over 100 paying between K45 – K60 per year for their children attend school (£3 – £4). Further, the community helps in maintenance and small construction works like clearing fields and building fences.
In 2017, the school orchard enjoyed their first harvest of peaches with an excellent yield which was shared amongst the children.
The school now offers literacy and study programmes for adults who want take their Grade 12 exams. This is done in the evenings as the school now has solar lighting.
In 2018, the community focused on securing new classrooms to improve the pupil to class ratios. They also moulded thousands of bricks to build a new teacher’s house.
Kabaka School is planning to increase the support it provides to three local community schools by allowing them to use their ICT equipment.
Kabaka is a transformed community.
