[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1135, 231], "category": "Text", "text": "the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), after the country has defaulted on its debt in 2020. The programme sets as a conditionality a fair balance between fiscal reforms, public debt restructuring and the necessity of increasing social sector investments."}, {"bbox": [96, 258, 1135, 496], "category": "Text", "text": "Through an integrated approach, this proposed action would contribute to the EU's priority decreasing inequalities and on education, to the principles of the EU Global Health Strategy and to the implementation of the Gender Action Plan III in Zambia, in particular its thematic areas of engagement \"Ensuring freedom from all forms of gender-based violence\", \"Promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights\", and \"Promoting economic and social rights and empowering girls and women\". It is also aligned with the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, with the People - Human Development theme under the EU New Consensus for Development as well as with the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy. The Action will be in line with the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030, and the EU Guidance Note on Disability Inclusion in EU external action.¹¹"}, {"bbox": [85, 512, 342, 544], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 570, 906, 599], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Priority Area 1 – Education/Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE)"}, {"bbox": [96, 623, 1135, 758], "category": "Text", "text": "In the area of education, the Government has launched an Education For All (EFA) reform, making education fee-free at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. Although a critical step towards a sustainable universal education system, the reform has substantially impacted enrolment, availability of teachers, teaching space, quality of education, etc. The commitment of the Government to build 200 more schools and to hire 30 000 more teachers remains nevertheless a marginal contribution to the overall needs of the education system."}, {"bbox": [96, 782, 1135, 1317], "category": "Text", "text": "The specific sub-sector of Early Childhood Education, targeted primarily by this proposed Action, has been long neglected in Zambia. In 1997, the Government introduced the Re-entry Policy that requires all schools to grant girls maternity leave and readmit them to facilitate girls' education. Despite this efforts, only about a third go back to school and very few finish their secondary school. Up until 2014, it was mainly the private sector and faith-based organisations that provided a range of ECE centre-based services. These were mainly taken up by a small minority group of fee-paying parents, usually in urban areas. It was only in 2015, after the establishment of a Directorate of Early Childhood Education, that the ministry fully integrated ECE into the National Education and Skills Strategic Plan (2017-2021)¹². In doing so, the Ministry aligned itself with various global and regional agreements and a growing scientific evidence-base, which acknowledged that foundational learning begins in early childhood and that high-quality ECE interventions can have the most positive effects on young children in the most vulnerable sections of society, including children who are multi-dimensionally poor, those who have been orphaned and children with disabilities. The Ministry is currently in engaged with other social sector ministries mandated to support integrated ECD (MoH and MCDSS) in a process of developing a multi-sectorial strategic framework for ECD, aligned with the Global Nurturing Care Framework. This framework comprises elements of good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving and opportunity for learning and applies a more sustainable and integrated approach to the care and development of young children and their families. Since the establishment of the Directorate of ECE in 2015 the enrolment rate has been rising, going in a few years from 14.7% to 29.8%, but still not reaching the 50% targeted for 2022. The Education for All reform has also put pressure on the sub-sector, with a higher rate of enrolment that goes well beyond of the system's capacity - with an allocation to ECE of 0.1% of the annual education budget."}, {"bbox": [96, 1342, 1135, 1503], "category": "Text", "text": "In addition, number of structural challenges have led to a learning crisis with very low proficiency in literacy and numeracy among secondary level students. This has been due to, among others, low ECE exposure among Grade 1 entrants (29.4%), lack of adequate equipment and facilities, and insufficient and sometimes untrained ECE teachers. Also, persistent underfunding of the education sector (11.5% of total public budget in 2021), and in particular of the ECE subsector (0.1% of education share) has been a bottleneck blocking the education reforms and improvements. Poor accessibility (distance, transport, road conditions, etc.) and infrastructure quality (limited"}, {"bbox": [85, 1553, 568, 1578], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ EU Guidance Note Disability inclusion in EU external action."}, {"bbox": [85, 1578, 1143, 1624], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² Republic of Zambia, Ministry of General education, Ministry of Higher education. Education and Skills Sector Plan 2017-2021: https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ressources/zambia_-_education-and-skills-sector-plan-2017-2021.pdf"}, {"bbox": [1037, 1681, 1145, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 34"}]