Zambia - Education Project : Loan 0592 - Press Release - Conformed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [ wORLD BANK 1818 H STREET, N,W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 Bank Press Release No. 69/19 Subject: $17.4 million loan to Zambia April 9, 1969 f3r education A $17.4 million loan announced today by the World Bank for a five-year pro- gram to expand and improve Zambia's secondary educational system will help over- come the country's crucial shortages of trained manpower in nearly every sector of the economy. As a result of the program, by 1980 Zambia will be able to fill positions in industry, commerce and agriculture largely from its own secondary school graduates, and could have a fully qualified secondary school teaching force to replace expatriates who now fill about 90% of these posts. The Bank loan will be made to the Republic of Zambia for a period of 25 years, including a 10-year period of grace, with interest at 6-1/2%. The project provides for the construction and equipment of nine new sec- ondary schools, and for the improvement and extension of facilities at 56 exist- ing ones. This will add 35,700 new places of which 28,800 will be in exist- ing schools. This constitutes a major part of the projected expansion of sec- ondary school enrollment from the present 39,000 to 80,000 in 1974. An overhaul of the curricula will take place simultaneously. With the help of new equipment, the teaching of science will be strengthened. The senior cycle of secondary education will be divided into general arts and science and pre-vocational sections so that students may either proceed to higher education or enter the labor force directly. Practical subjects to be introduced at the senior level are industrial arts, agriculture, commerce aad home economics. The emphasis will be on industrial arts in urban schools and on agriculture in rural ones. BL'! P.R. No. 69/19 - Zambia-Education -2- To meet the demand for more secondary school teachers, classrooms, workshops and boarding facilities will be added to the Higher Teacher Training Colleges at 'bwe and Kitwe making possible an increase in enrollment from 125 to 750. The teachers so trained, together with graduates of the School of Education of the University of Zambia, will assure a qualified Zambian secondary teaching force before 1980. The expansion of two of Zambia's primary teacher training colleges will allow the Government to give urgently needed retraining to the 10,000 primary teachers now in service. Facilities at the Northern Technical College will be expanded to provide training, in -close cooperation with private industry, for 210 engineering tech- nicians a year by 1974 and a lesser number of skilled craftsmen. The total cost of the project is estimated at the equivalent of $36.2 mil- lion, The Bank loan of $17.4 million will cover the estimated foreign exchange rcquirements; the Government will finance the local currency costs. The Government will establish within the Ministry of Education a special ui.t to be responsible for carrying out the project and for coordination with other agencies. The unit will be headed by a Project Director, an architect and supporting staff. Qualified architectural firms will also be retained to provide the necessary architectural and engineering services. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ,ncsco) assisted in the identification and preparation of the project under the Bank/Unesco Cooperative Program. 0