Agriculture Science teacher at Mutende Day Secondary School in Zambia

Bsc Agroforestry

At personal level I have achieved a number of things in my carrier as a teacher, am a basketball trainer and my team boys team came out first and my girls team came out second in the interschool competition last season and I wish to do better this season. I am currently studying for my masters in Biology with education, due to the passion I have for biological sciences.In addition to that I lead the production unit at our school produce a number of crops ranging from vegetables, corn and cassava. 

The education sector in Zambia has undergone a number of transformations in the recent past, these changes that have been put in place range from administration of officers to the curriculum changes, though all these changes are intended to benefit the pupil some have fallen short of their intended purpose, below are some of the challenges attributed to the changes in the education sector especially in the secondary education system where I belong.
Change of government bring a lot of changes in the education sector without necessarily reinforcing on the existing good practices. For example, new books are printed discrediting the old books completely even when the old books had some positive attributes in them.
Curriculum changes in the education sector are more to do with what the donors or funders propose and not what the implementers or teachers would want to see change in the sector to improve learner performance and acquisition of skill.
In many cases even when the changes that are introduced in the sector are positive, their effectiveness is reduced due to lack of inclusion of a class teacher at sensitization stage. Instead of inviting a subject teacher to a sensitization workshop an administrator will attend such an event which makes it hard for appropriate response to be obtained by the framers of policy.
The increase in population over the years has brought about pressure on the existing infrastructure in the sector as well as a bad teacher pupil ratio especially in rural area, this situation is even worse in science and mathematics departments thereby making it hard for teachers to deliver in these subjects. Although the government is addressing this issue there is still much to be done.
Although the situation is like this not all hope is lost at personal level I endure to adjust to government policy as soon as it is introduced and seek for clarity using my own resources when necessary. Other than that I endure to simply the information to be delivered in lessons so that a pupil can relate it to day to day life. Furthermore, I have a passion for crop production thus I am part of the production unit at my school Mutende Secondary School, of which I received a recognition award in 2016.

To learn how other teachers in the word deal with day to day educational challenges such as high pupil teacher ratio and lack of appropriate laboratory equipment especially in rural areas and possibly learn on how to improvise using locally available materials in lesson delivery.