Factors Affecting Low Literacy Levels in Rural Schools of Mansa District of Luapula Province: A Case of Four Selected Schools

Abstract

Government and the general public have had grave concern about illiteracy levels in Zambia, and have a vision of making a 100% literate Zambia. National policies, documents, seminars and circulars have been designed in order to realize this dream. Teachers have been trained and pedagogical approaches have been revised and upgraded to improve literacy levels. All these concerted efforts seem not to be yielding the desired results in the three sampled rural schools of Mansa District in Luapula Province of Zambia, where teachers celebrate a six (6) out 120 learners‟ literacy rate, which represents only 4% of the whole class. Despite all the intervention put in place by the Ministry of Education, still, most of the learners in the Zambian Government schools can hardly read. This ugly scenario is the ultimate commissioner of this study.