Spotlight on basic education completion and foundational learning: Zambia

The Zambia Spotlight report is intended to provide timely, evidence-based diagnostics to support the country’s education leaders in their efforts to achieve out-of-school, completion, and foundational learning targets (benchmarks) through research, dialogue with country governments, and advocacy activities. 

This country report is part of a series spotlighting the national curriculum. Research conducted for the report systematically analyses the extent to which government vision is reflected in concrete, actionable objectives to improve basic skills (e.g., in mathematics) and how these intentions are translated into fit-for-purpose curricula and textbooks, teacher support mechanisms, and learning assessment. 

The Spotlight series uses data collected by mapping four pedagogical inputs together—the national curriculum, student textbooks, teacher guides, and learning assessments— with insights from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to discuss the extent to which pupils are provided with coherent opportunities to learn foundational skills. The series investigates foundational learning policy alignment using a systematic approach that combines mapping competences found across a country’s education system, and insights into all levels of curriculum implementation from the intended curriculum to the curriculum as it is enacted in the classroom.