The United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Transforming Teacher Education project and in partnership with the University of Zambia and Florida State University, completed delivery of a Graduate Literacy Course designed to help strengthen the capacity of Zambia’s Colleges of Education (COE) and universities.

More than 70 Literacy and Language Education lecturers in COEs and universities successfully completed the course on December 2, in addition to representatives from the Ministry of Education. The course aims to strengthen early grade reading expertise across Zambia through all colleges and universities that train primary school teachers.

The Graduate Literacy Course equipped participants to better understand the research behind Zambia’s reading curriculum–the Primary Literacy Program–which supports tenets of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in early childhood education and Grades 1 to 4. Participants applied their understanding of language and literacy research into practical strategies to teach reading more effectively in the early grades, use assessment data to guide instruction, train teachers in evidence-based literacy practices, and better conduct their own research on literacy topics.

Composed of more than 130 hours of training, the course included 105 hours of face-to-face instruction and additional one-on-one research support individualized for every participant. All conducted in adherence with national COVID-19 guidance, each participant chose a topic for research and was assigned a research mentor who will continue to support them to apply their research findings in their professional roles.  The research projects will be presented at a capstone conference in Lusaka in March 2022.

USAID Transforming Teacher Education is the U.S. government’s signature higher education partnership in Zambia. To learn more about the project visit: USAID.gov/Zambia.