Welcome

Welcome to PhonicsZambia, a three-way partnership between the Zambia DEBS, Zayohub and Educators International.

PhonicsZambia is piloting an innovative approach that aims to improve the teaching of English literacy – reading, writing and speaking – in Zambian primary schools, initially in Mwandi.

The programme integrates two main elements.  First, teacher training using systematic phonics.  This is a tried and tested pedagogical method, brought right up to date by using audio materials downloaded from the internet straight to each teacher’s own mobile phone.  By the end of the training, teachers feel very confident to adopt these simple but thorough methods. Second, after teaching new sounds, the teacher carries out a highly accurate one-to-one assessment of the progress each child has made, and records the results to a secure database, enabling every child’s progress to be tracked over time.

The PhonicsZambia teacher training programme is a library of teaching units in audio-visual format, spoken (and sung) in a clear English accent, to provide a model of how each sound, word and sentence needs to be pronounced.  It’s presented together with a complete set of lesson plans; the unique PhonicsZambia alphabetic code chart; and new words, sentences and songs accompanying each lesson, all tailored to the specific needs of Zambia.  The whole thing forms a complete training course for Zambian teachers in the use of systematic phonics – which is proven to be the best way to teach every child in every class to speak, read and write English accurately.  Teachers gain in confidence and competence, and this translates into more effective teaching. The results are swift – children make amazing progress.

This website includes fast feedback mechanisms, enabling teachers to ask questions and seek advice from the training/support team. The aim is to build a community of primary school teachers in Zambia who:

  • all teach phonics systematically;
  • all assess children’s progress regularly; and
  • all share the same aim: that EVERY child in Zambia will learn to read and write fluently and confidently.