Mooka Primary School is a rural school located nearly 105km away from the main Lusaka to Livingstone tarmac road.  It serves 13 villages with approximately 650 households.  In 2013 enrolment stood at 444 pupils (199 girls and 245 boys) and the community estimate at least 50 children of school age are not yet enrolled.

We are delighted that we’ve been able to construct a new double classroom block in just four months and in doing so, we’ve halved class sizes from 140 to 70 pupils.

Pupils inside the new classroom block

We’ve also been able to buy 250 books, along with learning and teaching materials to boost the normal curriculum.  Previously, teachers were relying on just a blackboard which does nothing for the learning process.

Teacher with new reading books

We’ve also started working with Happy Readers who provide books for NGOs and charities with the aim of tackling the problem of pupils learning English as a second language.  They also held a literacy workshop for the seven teachers from Mooka Community School along with 20 other teachers from schools in Kalomo District.  The event was also attended by the Kalomo District Education Officer who became very emotional during the literacy assessment as it became evident that very few pupils could even read the alphabet.  Results revealed 98% of children tested were non readers and 100% of children were not within acceptable reading ability for their grade.

The District Education Officer conducting a reading assessment

Though there is much work to do at Mooka Primary School, we are confident that small steps are already taking place to improve the reading standards.  On a recent site visit, we were informed by the Headteacher that the books are being used everyday as part of the literacy hour which is part of the national curriculum.  We will continue to monitor the school in the coming months.