Thank You, Ministry, for the Lunch

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend parts of a three day conference hosted by the Ministry of Education entitled "The First National Conference on eLearning and National Development." The Ministry shipped in its officials, teachers, and students from around the country and there were also reps from industry, NGOs, teaching colleges, and universities. For the most part, from my perspective (and from those in the eLearning industry that I talk with - don't laugh, there are a few), the conference was not particularly useful. There was very little practical thought and a lot of theory that has no bearing to the reality of the Zambian situation.

There were some positives that came out of the conference though. One was the sweet faux leather carrying case with the conference logo. There was also the large number of free bottles of water. The conference itself was held in the prestigious Mulungushi International Conference Center and the room that we used looked very much like the UN Security Council room, right down to the interpreters windows along the side, the horseshoe in the middle, and the table microphones. I presume that the room must be used for whatever international conferences are held in Zambia.

Another bonus was the lunch. Each lunch involved: rice, nshima, potatoes, beef, chicken, pork, two salads, vegetables, fruit, cake, and soft drinks. I can't imagine how much they must have paid for this lavish cuisine; it crossed my mind that for the fraction of the cost of one of the meals Aisha School where I work could have been entirely renovated.

Speaking of Aisha School, the Ministry decided (without consulting us) that a tour of the school's computer facility would be part of the conference. This meant busily preparing the facility and filling it with additional computers for the day to make it look full. The tour went quite well and everyone was very impressed. Some of them were doubly impressed when they discovered that the Ministry has done nothing for the school and hasn't provided so much as a cent in the last six years.

That's the thing about community schools - without them the education system would be a complete failure in the city but the government neither has the inclination or the resources to help them. Children who attend community schools (because the government failed to provide proper educational places for them) are treated like second class citizens in their own country. The government talks a lot of wonderful talk - "we provide grants and trained teachers to community schools" - but none of it is true. Grants rarely come and instead of providing teachers they take them away. The only time the government wants to see a community school is when it pays up the exam fees for its students to write at a government center.

All in all, I think that the highlight of the conference was the lunch. And what a lunch it was!