A Bike For The Teacher
If you're a regular reader of Bicycling Australia, you may have noticed previous stories about the work of World Bicycle Relief.
Above: It was school holidays when we visited, so this was about on tenth of the student population, who had come back to school specially for our visit. The shelter behind them is one of the classrooms.
If you’re a regular reader of Bicycling Australia, you may have noticed previous stories about the work of World Bicycle Relief.
During April/May 2008 I spent a week in Zambia, studying the operations of World Bicycle Relief.
My first field trip during that visit was to see a Community School in the Chongwe District, about an hour’s drive east of the capital, Lusaka.
Our hosts were Catherine and Peter from the Zambian Ministry of Education. This government department runs hundreds of schools across Zambia. Although the schools may look basic by developed nation standards, they generally have good sized classrooms and trained, paid teachers.
Unfortunately, this level of government funding does not extend into the poorer rural areas. This is where 482 Community Schools across the nation step into the breach.
As the name suggests, these schools are started and funded by the local community members—but when those communities consist of subsistence farmers earning less than one dollar per day, the meaning of ‘funding’ is different from our concept of the word.
Teachers are usually not paid cash. They might be paid with a bag of mealie maize, (similar to corn) which is the staple diet in Zambia, or perhaps a live chicken.
Likewise, the ‘classroom’ might be a shady tree, a traditional thatched roof shelter with no walls, or perhaps an old shipping container.
By community school standards, the school we visited was well equipped and run. Although it was school holidays, the teachers and a large number of students and parents had come to meet us. We saw them waiting for us as we drove into the clearing at the end of a rough dirt track.
After hand shakes all around, we went into one of their two new classrooms. The parents had built the walls themselves, but could not afford a roof or floor. They then received international aid through the ‘CHANGES’ program (Community Health And Nutrition, Gender and Education Support). This allowed them to build the roof and concrete floor, install glass windows and solid doors. They’d also equipped the classrooms with desks and benches plus blackboards.
There were two classrooms. I asked how many students attended the school, expecting to hear a number under one hundred.
“Three hundred and two,” the principal said.
“Where do they all fit?”
“We have outside classes too,” she said, pointing to a grass roof outside held up by a few rough poles.
I asked Peter how much funding had been provided to finish construction of the two classrooms. There was a pause as he carefully converted the amount into $US currency before saying, “Six thousand dollars.”
When I heard this amazingly small figure, I found myself looking down at my camera bag at my feet and trying to reconcile the fact that its contents cost more than the price of a school for three hundred children in Zambia.
We were at the school to discuss how bicycles would be able to help their situation. Parents and teachers spoke eloquently, either in English or in their local language, translated to us by Peter.
It emerged that there were two groups of recipients who would gain the most benefit for both themselves and their communities, if they had the mobility of a bicycle.
Firstly, the teachers. Because they are virtually unpaid, the also have to work part time on their farms in order to survive. If they had bicycles, not only could they spend less time travelling, but they could also more easily follow up students who were missing from class, perhaps through illness or economic necessity.
In Zambia, a million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. It is not uncommon for a primary school student to be the main breadwinner for their family.
Often the burden of household chores falls upon the eldest daughter. They are the most likely to drop out of school early.
When they do, their rates of early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS infection and early marriage all increase, compared to those girls who stay at school longer.
With all of these things in mind, the older female students are the second group who would receive most benefit from a bicycle.
The typical farming community that we were visiting was very spread out. Many of the students lived in two villages that were five and six kilometres away in different directions. Some come from as far as 10 kilometres away. That’s 20 kilometres of walking on dirt tracks every day to get to school.
None of these families are even close to being able to afford a car. Even if they could, only a four wheel drive could negotiate the rough dirt tracks, which become muddy in the wet season. A bicycle would often make the difference between continuing education or not.
The community school only covers primary school grades. In rural areas most children only get the opportunity to complete year seven, at best. Often this takes them more than seven years, because of ill health and economic hardships.
The only secondary schooling was at Chongwe, about ten kilometres away. Once again, with no school bus or public transport, the only hope these students have of a secondary education is to get there by bicycle.
As the discussions continued and everyone became more relaxed it was fascinating to see the dynamics of the group. The parents were no different from a typical ‘Parents & Friends’ committee in any Australian school. They had the same concerns and spoke clearly.
Some were more dominant, some were happy to let others speak for them. They were obviously very motivated to see their children have the best possible educational opportunity. The school building was proof of that.
The teachers also spoke well. They were young, but appeared to be dedicated to their work, and certainly were able to keep the children quiet and well behaved during our meeting.
Providing bicycles to students and teachers is outside the initial program of World Bicycle Relief in Zambia. That program will provide 23,000 bicycles to volunteer community health workers. But as that plan is now drawing to a successful completion, bicycles for education is a possible next step. Of course, it will cost money so it will rely on the goodwill of those in wealthy countries to make it happen.
What You Can Do
If you’d like to learn more about World Bicycle Relief, log onto
where you can choose to make a small purchase, such as a pack of 20 greeting cards with beautiful photos of bicycle recipients for $US20 plus postage.
Or you can buy a World Bicycle Relief bike, for $US109, which will be granted to a volunteer care worker in Zambia.
See things first hand for your self, by joining me on my next trip to Zambia in April 2009. Register your interest by emailing me at mail@bicyclingaustralia.com
Image: Phil Latz - Director Bicycling Australia