Zambian delegation in Kenya for bench-marking on education sector

A delegation of Zambian government officials are currently in Kenya on a bench-marking tour of the country’s education sector.

Speaking in Murang’a County on Thursday, the delegation of 14 officials, led by their Education Permanent Secretary Dr. Felix Phiri, commended the role the community as well as parents in Kenya play in the education of children.

“What we have come here to do is to benchmark with the Kenyan government, specifically in the education sector. As you are aware, many of our governments in Africa are trying to improve quality of education,” said Dr. Phiri.

He also lauded the Kenyan education system for embracing digital learning in schools, adding that they will exchange ideas with the country’s education officials on how to achieve quality education in both countries.

“We have observed the good things that you’re doing; for example, we’ve realized that you have already attained one-to-one book-to-pupil ratio and we have also seen how you are embracing the use of technology for the learners,” stated Dr. Phiri.

The delegation was flanked by the Kenyan Director of Project Coordination and Delivery in the Ministry of Education, Elijah Mungai, who said more than 60 million books have been sent to schools to facilitate the new curriculum.

Mr. Mungai underscored pre-service training of teachers on the new curriculum saying the move will ensure there is no disruption in rolling out the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).

“They (Zambian government) were ahead of us in rolling out the CBC curriculum, so it is an opportunity we have  to learn also from them where they went right and they can also share with us the experiences and the challenges they went through,” he said.

The delegation, which arrived into the country on Monday, visited three schools in Murang’a County — Technology Primary School, Gaturi Girls High School and Kigumo Bendera Boys School.