The Ministry of General Education has renewable a Memorandum of understanding – MoU of the peace corps project with the United states of America to assist in the developed of education in rural parts of the country.
In 2004 the Ministry of General Education through the Directorate of Open and Distance Education-DODE signed an MoU with the United States Peace Corps in Zambia to support ” Learning at Taonga Market ” interactive Radio Instruction initiative.
In 2006 the project was extended to include all rural education at the zonal level and was renamed the Rural Education Development – RED.
Speaking during the signing ceremony of the MoU at Peace corps offices in Lusaka on April 17th, 2019 attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, U.S Ambassador Daniel Foote disclosed that peace corps currently has over 300 volunteers in Zambia of which 66 are education volunteers who are placed in 7 provinces and reaching more than 3,600 students to improve skills is English.
He says the American government through the Peace Corps Zambia’s education volunteers are committed to working with their teacher counterparts to realize the goal of having every child attain the right to education in rural Zambia.
And Ministry of General Education permanent secretary Dr. Jobbicks Kalumba said the MoU is an indication of a continued cordial relationship between the American government and the Zambian government for it is directly feeding into the ministry’s priority of improving education quality.
Dr. Kalumba said the ministry is committed to making this partnership work better to increase the quality and access to education for all Zambians adding that the project has grown to impact many more young lives in different schools and communities.
“It is the ministry’s hope that the signing of the MoU will help enhance the groups covered under the peace corps Zambia Rural Education Development – RED project which places peace corps volunteer English teachers where they can best support pupils and teachers in the difficult transition from local language to English as the medium of instruction,” he said
The Peace Corps is one of the smallest instruments in the foreign policy toolkit of the United States. It is a “boutique” agency with a superb reputation. The Peace Corps was born during the cold war, it was created to win hearts and minds in the non-aligned developing countries
