On the 5th of February 2015, the Zambia office of the European Union organised a ceremony in Lusaka for the five organisations that recently were allocated a grant. During this activity, the official signing of the agreements was held. One of the beneficiaries is the QEECS project. The acronym 'QEECS' stands for ‘Quality Early Education in Community Schools'. This project will improve the quality of early education in community schools in two districts in Zambia. It will be jointly implemented by VVOB and ZOCS.
Quality Early Education in Community Schools
The QEECS project will run till June 2017 with a total budget of 842,910 euro, most of it (600,000 euro) through a new grant of the European Commission. The Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) and Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS) will implement the project in 18 peri-urban and rural schools in Kitwe and Ndola districts, Copperbelt Province, Zambia.
The objectives of QEECS are to provide Zambia’s marginalised and vulnerable children with a fair and equitable start through quality Early Education, in line with the ambitions and plans of the Ministry of Education, Sciences, Vocational Training and Early Education. Some of the main activities are:
- Infrastructure improvements and annexing of Early Childhood Centres to existing community schools.
- Teaching and learning tools on early childhood education for 20 Teacher Resource Centres.
- Continuing professional development programmes for early childhood teachers.
- Advocacy for increased attention to early childhood education for parents, communities and council representatives.
A total of five organisations received grants under this call for proposals of the European Union. Other organisations that were awarded grants were Oxfam, Foundation ACRA CCS, Leonard Cheshire Disability, and Development Aid from People to People.
