By Deborah Torrington | Marketing Manager
This is an interim report as we are in the process of undertaking another distribution of Lifeplayers in Zambia’s Eastern Province during August. We’re particularly excited about this new distribution as we will be placing Lifeplayers into a pilot programme for pre-school classrooms and co-creating a training programme for teaching mentors, in collaboration with UNICEF. The Eastern Province was selected for the pilot because it's the province with the highest level of teen pregnancies and the lowest level of female literacy.
The Ministry of Education has recognised the importance of instituting a national early learning programme, particularly in poor homes where parents are often illiterate. Generally, mothers lay the foundation for their children’s literacy and educational success, but in homes where mothers cannot read and books are an unimaginable luxury, children need a basic grounding before reaching Grade 1. Research shows that children who’ve been exposed to early learning are more likely to complete their schooling, often with better results.
Also funded by UNICEF, excellent interactive pre-school content has been created by the Ministry, in local languages. This content will be pre-loaded onto our Lifeplayers, and distributed for the pilot programme, along with the teaching content. Most of the teachers at pre-school level are grandmothers or local women wanting to help out.
In our next report, we’ll be able to provide detailed feedback on the distribution and training happening during August.
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