Malambo Mwachilenga dropped out of school three years ago when his father could no longer afford the cost of sending him.
He spent three years at home, feeling isolated from his friends.
“I was just seeing my friends are going to school, but me, I was not going to school, so I was feeling bad. Like, why me?” Mwachilenga, now 14, told Newsweek during a visit to his school in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, in July.
But Mwachilenga has now been given a second chance at education thanks to a pilot project aiming to help improve access to education for adolescent dropouts in the country’s Lusaka, Kafue and Chibombo districts.
There are an estimated 200,000 adolescents in Zambia who are not in school for reasons including poverty, child labor and early pregnancy or marriage.
The Digital School Project, a pilot initiative launched in December 2023 as a partnership between Zambia’s Ministry of Education and the nonprofits VVOB and Education Above All Foundation, aims to increase access to education for those who have left school and provide them with a path back to formal education or onto vocational training.
A Hybrid Model
The adolescents are recruited from the communities around the schools taking part in the project and undergo two-week-long “boot camps” where their literacy and numeracy skills are assessed.
Then, they move on to learning through a hybrid model that combines self-paced study using tablets with in-person classes with trained coordinators and facilitators. The tablets come loaded with work for five core subjects and two special papers in line with Zambia’s national curriculum.
Three students share a tablet between them, each taking the device home for a couple of days each week to complete assignments before passing it along to another on the days they attend in-person classes.
The technology-based model eliminates some of the barriers that had kept the students from education—there is no need for them to travel daily to school or to pay for costly study materials.
It also gives them the flexibility to learn at their own pace and in their own time, said Cynthia Mizinga, a facilitator at Vera Chiluba Primary School in Lusaka.
“When the children have got their own tablets, they’ll be able to search even at home… the information, they have it on their fingertips,” she told Newsweek. “They can do anything because wherever they are, they can use it as a classroom.”
Assignments are tailored to each student’s learning level.
“So even when they are in the same class, they are doing different work,” Kantu KomaKoma, a coordinator at Mtendere Primary School in Lusaka, told Newsweek.
She said that an online platform for teachers tracks each student’s progress and identifies areas where they may be struggling, even suggesting supplementary work that can be assigned.
Mwachilenga said has enjoyed learning on a tablet at home, attributing it to his improvement in math since he enrolled in the project.
Like Mwachilenga, most of Zambia’s out-of-school adolescents dropped out due to financial challenges. The country launched its Education For All policy in 2021, aiming to increase access to education by eliminating all fees for general education.
But there are not enough state-run schools in some areas, meaning many children had been attending private schools before they dropped out, according to Diana Habeenzu, a coordinator at New Kanyama School, where Mwachilenga is enrolled.
“When they go to private school, they have to pay a fee, and when they have that challenge of not having enough money to pay for their children, the kids end up stopping school,” she said. She said students had “rushed” to enroll in the Digital School Project when they heard about it.
Teddyson Chewe, 18, enrolled after spending years out of school because his grandmother, who he lives with, couldn’t afford to send him. He worked selling charcoal and doing odd jobs, but longed to return to education.
“I was thinking, I’m doing the right thing by helping out my grandma,” he told Newsweek. “But every time I used to see my friends go to school… I used to pressure my grandmother. ‘So grandma, when am I going back to school?’ So when she heard about this program, she’s the one who brought me.”
Rebecca Musenge, a 17-year-old taking part in the project at Mtendere Primary School, said she had stopped going to school when she moved to live with her grandmother after her mother’s death.
She had been desperate to go back to school and was delighted to enroll in the project six months ago, she told Newsweek.
Since then, she said she has enjoyed learning maths, science and other subjects through a tablet and in class. “A lot of things we learn here and I’m so proud of it,” she said.
Annie Sungula, the head teacher at Vera Chiluba Primary School, said the current students in the project have come a long way in a short time.
“When we interviewed them, we could see some of them, they couldn’t even write their names but now they’re able to read, they’re able to write, they’re able to even speak a bit of English,” she said. “So there’s progress.”
Kelvin Mambwe, the Ministry of Education’s Permanent Secretary, told Newsweek that the project has already seen success with its first cohort. He said 80% of those students had passed Zambia’s national Grade 7 examination, which certifies completion of primary education.
At least 1,600 students are taking part in the project’s second and third cohort.
“That number continues to grow,” Mambwe said. “This expansion reflects not only the demand for flexible and inclusive education pathways, but also the efficiency of the digital model we are piloting.”
A Path to Further Education or Training
When it concludes in June 2026, the Digital School Project aims to have prepared more than 3,500 adolescents for the Grade 7 examination.
“It’s this certification that provides the students with an accredited pathway to further formal education, access to technical vocational education and training or onto employment,” said Sarah Wragg, head of innovation at Education Above All.
“This initiative seamlessly aligns with Education Above All Foundation’s goal of championing the needs of children and youth, empowering them to become active contributors to their communities.”
What makes the project unique “is how it meets young people where they are where they are,” said Morgan Mwila, project coordinator with VVOB in Zambia. “We are seeing learners who had once given up on education now participating actively in preparing for examinations… . It has the potential to scale and inspire similar efforts in other low resource settings across the globe.”
For Musenge, six months in the project has given her the confidence to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.
“I have that confidence that I will achieve and that I will fulfill my dreams because of this program,” she said. “It has helped me a lot and I’m so thankful.”
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