Solar MP3 players to educate Zambian children

More of our Lifeplayers have been distributed in the eastern and southern provinces of Zambia to community schools to listen to the Learning at Taonga Market Grade 1 and Grade 2 lessons.  The feedback is positive from the teaching mentors and pupils alike.

For the first time, teaching mentors are able to schedule classes at times that are convenient and suitable to the children they teach. This is important, particularly in the rainy season when children may not be able to walk to school. With Zambia’s high rate of deforestation, areas now flood more easily, making it very difficult for children to reach their schools.  In addition, small streams may become impassable.  Even young rural children often have household responsibilities like collecting water or firewood, caterpillars for food or tending livestock.  All these will cause a child to miss a class. The Lifeplayer allows the child to listen to a missed lesson.  One teacher, Mr Phiri, remarked how he appreciated being able to listen to the lesson himself first, enabling him to be prepared. 

We are planning another field visit to Zambia in the second half of the year, where we will again visit schools and mentors using the Lifeplayer as a teaching aid.  As always, we have the cooperation of the Zambian Ministry of Education. 

Because our Lifeplayers have been so successful in the Learning at Taonga Market programme, they are also being integrated into a radio-based early childhood development initiative undertaken by the Ministry of Education. This means that young children just starting out at pre-school are able to enjoy listening to voices on the radio, to learn in their own language and to record their own voices. Like Taonga Market, the early childhood programmes are highly interactive and include songs, dance and play. Even young children love hearing themselves on the radio, which the Lifeplayer can capture. Early childhood learning is critical to long-term brain development, and children who have access to these fundamental building blocks are more likely to do well at school. 

We are receiving reports of the value of the Lifeplayer as a wonderful tool for lessons that need to be repeated, particularly for slower learners. That’s the beauty of the Lifeplayer: lessons and songs can be repeated over and over again, something that not even the most patient teacher is willing to do! This is true whether for a pre-school or a primary school learner.

John, a mentor supervisor for Taonga Market, told us that the Lifeplayer is a very helpful tool for teaching mentors who are not formally trained teachers. He tells us that it gives mentors the opportunity to listen to the lessons first and to be prepared, which they really appreciate. 

In addition, Zambia’s Ministry of Education recently presented the long partnership between the Learning at Taonga Market programme and Lifeline Energy this month at an African education conference in Addis Ababa.