Support Teachers Receive from Schools and Stakeholders on Phonics Instructions at Lower Primary Schools of Vubwi District, Zambia

Literacy levels in Zambia have not been improving over the years and many stakeholders have come on board to help normalize the situation. One of the causes that have been identified are the instructional strategies used in schools, that seem not to have been well understood by the teachers who sometimes find it difficult to identify actual phonics instructional strategies and end up mixing with those that are auxiliary instructional strategies. Lack of understanding of the instructional strategies has been attributed to inadequate support that teachers received to improve their pedagogical content knowledge. This situation needed help from stakeholders and school administrators. Therefore, the study was carried out in 10 selected primary schools to establish support teachers received from the school and stakeholders on phonics instructional strategies used at lower Primary schools in Vubwi district. Using qualitative approach, data was collected from 33 teachers, 10 head teachers, 2 from cooperating partners from Non-Governmental Organisations and 1 district official through interviews, document analysis and lesson observation. Findings of the study showed that teachers received a lot of support from stakeholders who are the cooperating partners (the Non-Governmental Organisations) who operated in the district, the head teachers and district officials. The support received ranged from teaching and learning materials to professional development programmes. Despite receiving a lot of support from cooperating partners and school administration as stakeholders, one important section of stakeholders which is the community did not render enough support to the teachers. Therefore, the study recommended that the community should take a lead in supporting the schools before the outside cooperating partners came on board.