When Jennifer and her younger brother Lewis passed grade exams at their primary school with flying colours, their parents faced a difficult choice. With six children in the family and both parents working in low paid jobs, expensive school fees were out of the question.
With six children in the family and both parents working in low paid jobs, expensive school fees were out of the question. Jennifer recalls:
“When we got our results, my mother said they couldn’t afford to pay for both me and my brother to go to secondary school, she asked, which of you will go to secondary school?"
For many Sub-Saharan African families the answer would have been to send the boy. In Zambia for every 100 boys who complete secondary education, only 64 girls do. Fortunately for
Jennifer’s family, there was a solution to the dilemma. News reached Jennifer’s father of a ground-breaking new partnership between PEAS and Zambia’s Ministry of General Education.
Working alongside the government to identify areas where there is an urgent unmet demand for secondary education, PEAS manages school operations and works with organisations such as COINS Foundation to provide the initial capital for construction, while the government provides a monthly subsidy per pupil that covers operating costs. This means zero fees for day students and will grow into a new network of sustainably delivered secondary education for marginalised youth in Zambia.
Jennifer and her brother were both able to enrol at the first partnership school – PEAS Kampinda – when it opened its gates in January 2018. Of the school’s current 324 students, 52 per cent are girls. Accessibility is key; 75 per cent of the pupils, like Jennifer and Lewis, come from families who live below the $1.90 a day per household poverty line.
Jennifer explains:
“Many children in our community cannot afford to go to the government or private secondary schools due to the high fees, now they have the chance to attend a PEAS school like me.