Teacher Training Program @ ZIGS

ZIGS is committed to providing high quality education across Livingstone and not just to the children with our school community. Our outreach programmes are an integral part of our vision. As part of this mission we have begun a teacher training program for aspiring pre-school teachers within Livingstone. Our aim is to train teachers to the highest standard in order that they can subsequently make a real difference in the lives of the children in our wider community. We currently have four teachers on our teacher training program. Three of these have come from a local community school in one of the poorer compounds in the town. They have been teaching without qualifications up until now but thanks to ZIGS and the sponsorship of a Swedish NGO they will return to their schools as fully qualified pre-school teachers. One of the joys of the program is that our trainee teachers often come from impoverished backgrounds themselves and by qualifying as a pre-school teacher they and their families are hugely empowered. The teacher training programme is making a real difference in people’s lives. 

ZIGS is one of very few schools in Zambia offering teacher training courses. We do so because we believe that in house training is the best way to learn how to be a teacher. Our trainees spend the day working in the classroom alongside our teachers and have twilight lectures twice a week with our Deputy Head, Miss Josephine Bwalya. Miss Bwalya has a background in teacher training having worked at Mufulira College of Education and is also the chair of the curriculum committee at the Early Childhood Council of Zambia.

We wish to roll out our teacher training courses in order to make an even greater difference in our community and thus seek sponsors to make this program affordable. Our fees are modest by northern hemisphere standards but are not easily affordable to the average Zambian. For £100 ($150) per term we can fund the training of one teacher who will then go into the community fully qualified with a certificate or diploma in education. 

With your support we can continue to support the children of Livingstone by ensuring that they are taught by well qualified teachers. Please commit to sponsor a teacher trainee for a term or a year. By doing so you will be empowering someone to be in a position to support their own family as well as ensuring that the children in the poorest communities are taught by the best available teachers!

Learning through Play at the Zambezi International Green School

Our mission at ZIGS is to educate the next generation of African leaders to be inspired with a zest for lifelong learning, a desire to do what is ethically right, to care for our their environment and to love one another.

We aim to inspire our students by ensuring that our curriculum is vibrant and exciting so that children develop a passion for learning. Learning at ZIGS is not confined to the classroom. Our children spend much of their time outside and in our Early Years Learning Centre there is very much of a focus on Learning through Play. While playing together our children are encouraged to share, solve problems, develop thinking skills,  be creative, develop coordination, resolve conflict and use their imaginations. All of these skills are conducive to the development of a child and compliment the traditional aspects of the curriculum. Of course a lot of learning is classroom based and focused upon numeracy and literacy but learning through play paves the way for the development of these skills.