The effects of continuing proffessional development of rural basic school teachers on the quality of education: The case of selected schools of Mongu District

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Zambia plays a very important role in human development. It has been observed that most teachers in rural basic schools do not participate in teacher upgrading. It has been observed that in most cases the teachers do not go for refresher courses from the time they leave the Colleges of Education. There is a great concern as to whether there is quality of education existing in rural basic schools, whether the delivery of knowledge and skills is of high quality. The research was carried out in order to establish the effects of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of rural basic school teachers on the quality of education.Data were sought using questionnaires and interviews done by the researcher. The sample selected for the study included rural basic school teachers and head teachers,a Standards Officer, the District Resource Coordinator and a union leader.The findings from the study showed that teachers were not upgrading themselves and that there was greater reliance on teacher group meetings which in most cases were not effective. The results also indicated that the quality of education was a compromise in that pupil performance was seen not to improve but rather proved to be static.In view of the findings recommendation were made. It is suggested that the Ministry of Education should encourage teacher upgrading in rural basic schools in order to have an equitable quality education. Decision making should be taken to the grassroots since they are the ones who can easily identify the needs. A good example is Kenya where a Primary Education Project (PRP) was set up to disburse funds directly to schools to build capacities of teachers in various ways which included financial management and use of instructional materials. However, head of schools have been urged to fully participate in management programmes as this will help them to sharpen their management skills