Educore Academy
Educore Academy started life in 2014 as Zambia's first fully practice-based initial teacher training programme, based in Solwezi in the North Western Province, underwritten by North Rise University in Ndola, and working in Educore Services group schools.
A number of our graduates are employed in other schools, and our good reputation has led to opportunities for expansion with the support of other schools and funders. Our fundamental objective is to support the government in its goal to ‘enhance the quality of teaching and learning by building a competent and motivated teaching workforce’, as laid out in its Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) and the Vision 2030.
The Diploma is a fast-track qualification, made possible by our tight recruitment focus on exceptional graduates and significant teacher:trainee ratio. Educore Services invests heavily in our trainees; we know from experience that good teacher training does not come cheap.
Our Objectives
Academy objectives are twofold:
- To support Educore schools with a stream of reliably outstanding Zambian teachers.
- To contribute to government efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Zambia more broadly.
Recruitment
The Academy mainly recruits excellent Zambian graduates of Education, Maths and Science-related disciplines, although we welcome applicants from all degree disciplines. The focus on STEM subjects for graduate trainees is in line with MOGE objectives to improve the standard of teaching in these subjects in Zambia at secondary level. Primary teachers need to demonstrate a broader scope of subject knowledge, and so we tend to recruit B.Ed participants at this level. We have sometimes also trained school leavers with excellent School Certificates or other qalifications such as teaching Diplomas.
Recruitment generally begins at the beginning of the third term of the academic year. Please keep an eye on our website for the next admissions round.
Curriculum
Our curriculum focuses on C21st pedagogies and learning through best practice and mentorship. Participants are continuously assessed against our Educore Standards of best practice, and graduates must demonstrate that they can reliably teach in an outstanding independent school as well as in a local government school. These standards have been mapped against the Zambian National Standards of Practice for teachers to ensure they meet or exceed national requirements. Our mentors, lecturers and other teacher educators abide closely by the Standards for Teacher Educators. We aim to practice at the ‘Distinguished’ level at all times.
To attain their Diploma, participants must make steadily, observable improvements in performance throughout the programme. We generally see a high success rate among our trainees, attributable partly to high quality mentorship and partly to the trainees’ own self-motivation. By the end of the programme, and to meet graduation requirements, we expect that all trainees can confidently plan and teach consistently Good to Outstanding lessons, as graded against our internationally and nationally benchmarked standards. They must also pass a number of written and research assignments, submit a comprehensive portfolio of evidence, showing their performance both in and out of the classroom is consistently graded Good or Outstanding against all our Standards, and their knowledge of education theory is relevant and detailed.
