Concerted efforts between Development Organization for
People’s Empowerment (DOPE) and Mpika District
Education Board secretary (DEBS) have resulted in
challenges of providing quality education being addressed
in the district.
This came to light when a ZGF team conducted a learning visit to DOPE and met key stakeholders that DOPE has been working with in Mpika.
DOPE received a mini-initiative support grant from ZGF to empower communities to make demands on duty bearers to deliver adequate, timely, and quality education services that prepare children for practical future leadership roles.
Thus, they have been supporting infrastructure development of schools through mobilizing communities to be self-sustaining and to take a leading role in constructing community schools with local resources.
DOPE has also been linking these community schools to the DEBS that has provided the necessary human resources such as teaching staff.
In addition to focusing on infrastructure development, DOPE have also been exposing vices hindering the pupils from attending school in the district.
The district education planning officer, Chanda Katungula told ZGF that through DOPE’s community outreach, the DEBS became aware of how parents were supporting early marriages by marrying off their girl children then requesting for transfer letters as a way of covering up the practice.
“Parents were requesting transfer letters from schools so that no one would follow up on why pupils were not attending school. Authorities would assume pupils who were missing school were transferred when in fact they would have been married off. We only got to know this through DOPE,” Katungula said.
To mitigate such, DOPE in collaboration with the DEBS, featured on Mpika FM radio programmes where they spoke about early marriages and the re-entry education policy which allows female pupils that fall pregnant to return to school after giving birth. Katungula professed that they had seen a high turnout of pupils in the 13 schools DOPE was operating in Mpika.
“DOPE has been helping with the sharing of education policies in Mpika communities which has helped parents in understanding why they need to keep pupils in school,” he said.
Concurring, the DEBS, Annie Phiri Bwalya said they were willing to work with DOPE as it was playing a pivotal role in increasing community involvement in educational planning.
“We have a bus and there is a destination we want this bus to go to. We are willing to work with those who want to work with us. Parties should understand one another and the roles they can play to help one another,” she said. This is a great example of how Civil Society and duty bearers can work together. Keep it up DOPE! Credit: ZGF
This came to light when a ZGF team conducted a learning visit to DOPE and met key stakeholders that DOPE has been working with in Mpika.
DOPE received a mini-initiative support grant from ZGF to empower communities to make demands on duty bearers to deliver adequate, timely, and quality education services that prepare children for practical future leadership roles.
Thus, they have been supporting infrastructure development of schools through mobilizing communities to be self-sustaining and to take a leading role in constructing community schools with local resources.
DOPE has also been linking these community schools to the DEBS that has provided the necessary human resources such as teaching staff.
In addition to focusing on infrastructure development, DOPE have also been exposing vices hindering the pupils from attending school in the district.
The district education planning officer, Chanda Katungula told ZGF that through DOPE’s community outreach, the DEBS became aware of how parents were supporting early marriages by marrying off their girl children then requesting for transfer letters as a way of covering up the practice.
“Parents were requesting transfer letters from schools so that no one would follow up on why pupils were not attending school. Authorities would assume pupils who were missing school were transferred when in fact they would have been married off. We only got to know this through DOPE,” Katungula said.
To mitigate such, DOPE in collaboration with the DEBS, featured on Mpika FM radio programmes where they spoke about early marriages and the re-entry education policy which allows female pupils that fall pregnant to return to school after giving birth. Katungula professed that they had seen a high turnout of pupils in the 13 schools DOPE was operating in Mpika.
“DOPE has been helping with the sharing of education policies in Mpika communities which has helped parents in understanding why they need to keep pupils in school,” he said.
Concurring, the DEBS, Annie Phiri Bwalya said they were willing to work with DOPE as it was playing a pivotal role in increasing community involvement in educational planning.
“We have a bus and there is a destination we want this bus to go to. We are willing to work with those who want to work with us. Parties should understand one another and the roles they can play to help one another,” she said. This is a great example of how Civil Society and duty bearers can work together. Keep it up DOPE! Credit: ZGF
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