Improving Equitable Access to Quality Learning Conditions.

The Government of the Republic of Zambia with support from the World Bank has been implementing the Zambia Education Enhancement Project (ZEEP) since 2018. The project started with an initial United States $60 million over a five-year period from 2017 – 2022. The ZEEP operations became effective on April 9, 2018, and was being implemented by the Ministry of Education (MoEdu). Under the first phase, the ZEEP was to construct 82 secondary schools in all but three provinces; Copperbelt, North Western, and the Western Provinces which were not part of the initial agreement. However, ZEEP was also to implement teacher quality and career development programmes (CDP) in 382 Schools across all provinces targeting 764 Teachers. This programme would also be extended to 12 Colleges of Education in the country targeting a further 60 Lecturers.

At the end of the Project Lifespan in 2022, milestones had been made in both construction of the 82 schools and teacher programs although more work still needed to be done.

The Government therefore sought further funding, an Additional Financing Agreement (loan) in May 2020 was approved by the World Bank Board for ZEEP to receive additional financing US$120 million, making ZEEP a US$180 million operation. With the additional financing, the project’s scope was expanded and the implementation period extended to 2025. Under the additional funding, a total of 120 Secondary Schools in all the ten provinces are now being constructed, while the teacher quality component has expanded exponentially to 2700 targeted Schools across the country.

The ZEEP AF project development objective (PDO) is to improve the quality of teaching and learning conditions in targeted primary and secondary schools. Further, the PDO aims to increase access to secondary education focusing on girls. As such, ZEEP AF primarily supports four areas including: –