Decentralization of schools by default: challenges and opportunities in community schools on the copper-belt province of Zambia

This article is an extract from the study: ‘Decentralization and Quality Education in Community Schools on the Coper-belt Province’ which sought to investigate the decentralized structural and administrative challenges, as well as opportunities faced by community schools. A descriptive survey design was used in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select 45 head teachers, two District Education Board Secretaries, two District Resource Centre Coordinators and the Chief of Party of Education Development Centre, Time To Learn Project USAID, Zambia. The findings in relation to the main research question include; lack of qualified teachers, limited infrastructure and sometimes of poor quality, irregular attendance of the learners, lack of interest in education by learners, sometimes parents’ ignorance on their boundaries of operations. Frequent dismissal of volunteer teachers, conflict between governments and parents’ appointed teachers. On the other hand, the research established that there were a number of opportunities that characterized community schools such as: active parental involvement in the education of the children, provision of pedagogical skills and continuing professional development to the teachers in collaboration with government schools, short courses in management skills to parent community school committees, and collaboration with non-governmental organizations, Ministry of General Education and other stakeholders.