IT'S PLAY: Promoting Early Childhood Development through Playful Learning in Zambia
Executive Summary
The Zambian Government is committed to promote ECD programmes that support health, nutrition, care and protection, early learning and stimulation through a Multisectoral arrangement. Their Multisectoral programme focuses on strengthening positive parenting skills and nurturing care. Learning through play methodologies stimulate the holistic development of learners, while also creating an environment in which learners develop the literacy and numeracy skills necessary to be “ready” for school and later life. The IT’S PLAY programme (Improving Teaching Skills on Playful Learning for Africa’s Youngest), funded by the LEGO Foundation and implemented by the Zambia Ministry of Education (MoE) with technical support from VVOB – education for development provides ECE teachers with the skills to facilitate learning through play. As a collaborative endeavour between the Zambia MoE, VVOB and the LEGO Foundation, the IT’S PLAY programme is a great example of how partnerships between ministries, CSO’s and funders can drive innovations in education forward; while strengthening the policy environments and building stronger support for ECE.
Implementation
Through the IT’S PLAY programme, the Zambia MoE and VVOB together work to implement an innovative teacher professional development (TPD) model to build play facilitation skills for ECE. The model combines high-quality descriptions of playful learning activities with practical hands-on support to teachers on child observation and self-reflection.
The project is based on strengthening the integration of learning through play (LtP) into the Zambia Ministry of Education ECE policy and instruments; Enhancing the capacity of in-service government TPD providers on LtP; Supporting government TPD providers to train and coach 1,600 teachers; and building awareness of key stakeholders like school leaders and parents
Over the course of the 4-year implementation period, the Zambia Ministry of Education and VVOB will collaboratively go through 3 one-year iterative implementation and learning cycles in which the innovative model for teacher professional development on learning through play is constantly being tested and improved and where experiences and lessons learned from implementation inform the strengthening of existing policy for ECE and ECE workforce development.
Stakeholders and partners involved
The IT‘S PLAY programme is a collaborative endeavour between VVOB – education for development and the Zambian Ministry of Education, including the Directorate for Early Childhood Education, the Directorate for Teacher Education and Specialised Services, the Directorate for Standards and The Directorate for Curriculum.
Impact
In Zambia the IT’S PLAY programme is implemented in Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces, targeting all government and community ECE schools and benefitting 44,000 children aged 3 to 6 years, and 85,000 parents of ECE pupils. In order to do so the programme in Zambia targets 1585 ECE teachers, 2060 school leaders, 1030 School In-Service Coordinators (SIC), 145 teacher trainers and 145 government officials.
30 Government Officials have been trained as Trainer of Trainers and Master Trainers. Additionally, various additional TPD modalities have been developed and prototyped for scaling further on in the implementation of the programme.
397 ECE teachers have been trained on LtP and have received coaching from government Master Trainers.
375 school leaders from the schools targeted by the intervention have also been closely involved in the implementation of the programme through a School Leader Orientation Trajectory which allows them to support teacher professional development and to focus on the specific needs of ECE teachers in their schools.
Innovations
Strengthening ECE Systems and Raising Community Awareness in Zambia
A crucial success factor of the intervention has been the high-level of engagement of a wide range of government and non-government stakeholders (including ministry officials, ECE teachers, school leaders, in-service teacher trainers, CSO, development agencies, etc), both within Zambia as well as their government counterparts from Rwanda and Uganda. Not only has this contributed to the quality of the different programme activities carried out, it has also increased the ownership of the intervention among the various stakeholders and contributed to the creation of a growing movement for increased and improved provision of ECE in the country. The fact that implementation of an innovative TPD model takes place simultaneously has also allowed for an abundance of learning to take place and has contributed to the strengthening of existing policies and systems. Prototyping of parental outreach initiatives through mass media shows successful potential to build support for ECE provision among parents and the wider community, further contributing to the growing movement in Zambia.
Constraints
Though implementation has been relatively smooth, one of the major constraints has been the recent relatively large increase in the number of ECE pupils and the recruitment of new ECE teachers that has occurred as a result of the implementation of the free education policy in Zambia. This progressive policy has put a strain on the service providers as well as the IT’S PLAY programme implementation team in terms of human and financial resources.
Collaborative Efforts between the Ministry of Education and Partners Drive Education Innovations, Fostering Ownership and Enhancing ECE Policies and Systems, Including Framework Revisions and Syllabus Updates
Collaboration between the Ministry of Education and partners (CSOs, development partners, etc.) is crucial for driving education innovations and creating ownership and momentum for ECE. Implementation of education innovations can strengthen existing policies and systems in the subsector, such as revising the Zambia National Literacy Framework and future revisions of the national ECE syllabus.