Silangwa Siakalima¹, Vincent Kanyamuna^2,

Community Schools play an integral part in the provision of formal education in Zambia. In the rural parts of Zambia, these schools were mainly set where there was long distance to the nearest government school, while in urban areas; they were mostly in places with large population of school age children who were unable to find access to a government school for various reasons. This work explores issues related to Community Schools (CS) in Zambia, their origin, existence, operations and how they were perceived by people. A compilation, diagnostic assessment and analysis were employed to conduct this study from existing literature. The results reveal that the concept of community schools originated in the pre-colonial days when they (CS) were known as village schools. While the demand for formal education was low during the colonial days, it skyrocketed after Zambia gained her independence in 1964. The desires of Zambians to find well-paying jobs seem to have accelerated the demand for formal education to the levels that the Zambian government was unable to cope. This motivated Zambian communities to establish community schools. From the time of origin, these schools have undergone various transformations in terms of curriculum, registration processes, management, government aid and collaboration, among others. Further revelations indicate that Community Schools were beset with numerous hardships like lack or dilapidated infrastructure, shortage of qualified teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and shortage of many other school requirements. The Zambian government, churches, donors and other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) should expand the existing schools and build new ones throughout the country. They (GRZ and other stakeholders) should also consider increasing funding and other support measures to community schools like capacity building teachers in these schools using Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes and short funded teaching courses.

community Schools, SPARK, ZBEC, curriculum, village schools, formal education, Zambia